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David Miles Lusk talks about prehistoric cave art during a presentation on the history of naturalism and scientific illustration at the Montana Natural History Center last week. The Missoula artist has been creating prints at the center through an Open AIR residency.

Lusk gives a demonstration of his printmaking techniques at the Montana Natural History Center last week.

For an artist who renders animals with inspiration from early scientific illustrations, the Montana Natural History Center has proven to be a welcome temporary habitat.

For the past month, David Miles Lusk has been studying the pronghorn antelope, wood duck, beaver, grizzly bear and sagebrush, carefully translating their forms and specifics into relief prints.

Lusk makes art of animals, and sometimes oddities, under the name Anomal Press, a portmanteau of “animal” and “anomaly.” He applied for an Open AIR artistic residency with places like the center in mind.

“It's so helpful to have the specimens right in front of me,” he said. To render a wood duck, he can sit down in front of it with an iPad rather and study how its feet look instead of spending time hunting for images online.

His work, while realistic, isn’t intended to be strictly representation, although he’s inspired by the field of scientific illustration and its long history. His work weaves a level of abstraction into his renderings and imagery.

“Those original scientific illustrators were mostly just inspired by nature itself,” he said. “I’m inspired by that art and nature as well.” 

The Open AIR program places artists in residence at sites around western Montana. Started four years ago, the nonprofit has grown to include spring, summer and fall sessions. They pair artists with organizations for place-based creation, whether the site is the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station or the Moon-Randolph Homestead. Open AIR has worked with the center for three years now. “It’s always a pleasure to connect with them and these amazing creatures around us,” said Stoney Samsoe, the Open AIR co-founder.

Lusk has spent the past month at the center. Situated at a work table in the exhibition area or out in the garden, he can draw the taxidermied specimens or the native plants. Classes of school children might swirl around the room for tours. Visitors might ask him what he’s working on.

As part of the residencies, the artists will give a presentation for the public on site. Lusk talked about the history of naturalism, printing and scientific illustration in the West. He discussed the concept of the “cabinet of curiosities,” which is, in a way, a “precursor” to the center, he said. People of means would entertain their guests by guiding them into a room filled with artifacts.

One person asked what kind of animals he prefers, or doesn’t prefer, to draw. He likes quirkier creatures, but “charismatic megafauna” like polar bears and bald eagles are called that for a reason, he said. As a full-time artist with a family to support, he can’t focus exclusively on niche critters. (He has made a print of a tardigrade, though.) Also, the larger creatures like grizzly bears and eagles are “ambassador” species that gain the public’s attention for issues related to the environment and the climate crisis.

While printmaking goes back hundreds of years, Lusk has added some modern technology to his process. He began using an iPad for his drawings several years ago. The ability to sketch in separate layers allowed him to increase the level of detail in his compositions. For instance, if he’s drawing a leafy tree, he can create discrete layers for branches and sets of leaves. He then transfers the drawing on a linoleum block with a laser printer, and goes to work carving with a gouge. If he were to draw directly on the block with graphite, things like dense sagebrush thickets would be more difficult to achieve due to potential smudging and blurring.

The technology lends itself to more vignette-like compositions, too. In his rendering, the pronghorn antelope, the speediest land animal in North America, springs along sagebrush plains beneath a mountain silhouette skyline.

In his presentation, Lusk described how his art took steps on the naturalist path. When he was studying for his bachelor of art degree at the University of Montana, he signed up for a trip to the Grand Canyon. He just needed money to pay for it. He asked his friends what their favorite animals were and printed a series.

The show caught the eye of the late Eduardo Chirinos, a professor of Spanish and literature at the University of Montana, who reached out to Lusk for a project. The Peruvian transplant had written a collection of poems, “35 Zoological Lessons (And Other Didactic Poems),” in which each entry took the perspective of an animal. He asked Lusk to make illustrations of his subjects, which includes tanukis, dods, tapirs, solenodons, etc. for a 2013 publication.

Rendering animals accurately was “a challenge” he put to himself that also satiates his curiosity. For him, making art is “an exploration” and “a way for me to learn about new things and make a living off of it,” he said.

Lusk is working on a print of a wood duck, standing in profile. Absent the Natural History Center, he’d have to study images online. Here, he can sit down in front of one and draw it in 5 minutes. He grew interested in sculpture earlier in school, and thinks of printmaking in terms of 3D modeling. Rendering the fur of a bison, “sculpting” the flow in one direction to indicate depth, is easier if you’re looking at a real-life animal than a photograph. “The pattern of the hair isn't always super obvious in images,” he said.

He and his partner have a toddler, so the residency routine has been good, with more time to focus. The fact that the center is open to the public doesn’t hurt at all, it “helps me focus if somebody could be watching me,” not unlike working in a coffee shop.

Visitors might mistake him for an employee, and ask questions.

“I know so much about Montana critters from making art that I can answer,” he said.

Working from home can feel like a “bubble,” so “it’s been really nice to just talk to people and get reactions from the public and the community. I think that’s been really healthy for me.”

To see Open AIR's 2022 schedule or watch artist interviews, go to openairmt.org.

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David Miles Lusk talks about prehistoric cave art during a presentation on the history of naturalism and scientific illustration at the Montana Natural History Center last week. The Missoula artist has been creating prints at the center through an Open AIR residency.

Lusk gives a demonstration of his printmaking techniques at the Montana Natural History Center last week.

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