The Naturalist makes reference to Seamus Heaney’s poem, Death of a Naturalist (1966). It focuses on the first stanza in which the child encounters the natural world with openness and curiosity, before an unfiltered connection to nature is lost. The suggestion of physical intimacy in the left panel has a counterpart in the right panel, a list of adjectives adapted from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ rhapsodic poem, Pied Beauty (1877), balancing idea with experience, mind with body.
Video of this work in process at Dieu Donné studios: https://vimeo.com/944945073