IMPRESSIONS OT THE GEORGIA COAST

FROM THT GEORGIA STA GRANT COTI,TGECOTTECTION OT CONTEMPORARY COASTAI, ART

The Sea Grant Program

The National Sea Grant Program was established by Congress in 1966 to encourage thedevelopment, use and conservation of marine and Great Lakes resources by tapping the expertiseresiding in university centers of coastal states. Twenty-nine states now participate in this federal-state-industry partnership.

Georgia entered the program in 1971. In 1980, The University of Ceorgia was awarded Sea CrantCollege status, an honor granted for almost a decade of sustained excellence in all three areas ofprogram activity - marine research, advisory service, and education. The 15th program in thenation to receive this designation, the Georgia Sea Grant College Program was recertified in 1990after rigorous review by a distinguished panel of experts.

Today, scientists from several private and University System institutions, along with researchers,educators, and marine specialists on Sapelo Island, Skidaway lsland, and in Brunswick, utilize Sea

Grant support as they work to achieve practical solutions to problems of marine resourcesutilization and management. The Georgia Sea Grant College Program now functions as a unit ofThe University of Georgia's new School of Marine Programs, which comprises also the MarineExtension Service, the Marine Institute, and the campus-based Department of Marine Sciences.This multifaceted program works at many levels toward a better understanding of coastal andmarine processes and a wiser use of the area's natural resources.

The challenge is great. From the inshore marshes to the continental shelf, conflicting demands onlimited natural resources create social, economic, political, and legal confrontations. Advisoryspecialists work on the scene to help define problems and issues, then help to locate the skills andknowledge to address them. Marine education is especially important in Ceorgia where theagricultural tradition is more pervasive than the marine influence. Over 90% of the state'spopulation lives more than 100 miles from the coast, and it is important that all citizens understandthe pressures from inland areas that impinge upon coastal and marine ecosystems. At TheUniversity of Georgia's Marine Extension Service facilities on Skidaway Island, marine educatorsand interns work with Sea Grant support to help students at all levels and interested persons of allages learn about marine resources, coastal and barrier island ecology, and the region's maritimeheritage.

The Art Project

In 1980, the Georgia Sea Crant College program began a project designed to incorporate the use

of visual art into a unique educational venture. The idea was to invite selected artists to participate' in a visual and aesthetic query that would result in a collection of artworks on coastal subjectmatter. Using art as a powerful and emotionally compelling medium to focus the attention ofGeorgia's large inland population on coastal and marine resources, the collection could serve thepurposes of documentation, interpretation, and education, as well as aesthetic enjoyment.

The collection now contains works by eleven artists. Most have been inlanders who were providedciirect exposure to the coastal environment and an opportunity to work with marine scientists togather background material for their work. Through this collection, you are invited to share withthese gifted people their encounters with various asPects of the Georgia coast.

JUNE BALL A landscape artist who works mostly in oil, June Ball's painting is traditional, butnot always realistic. "l tried uerg hard when I was painting on the coast to capture a particularisland at a particular season, and I hope someone will get the feel of being on Sapelo, for instance,in Februarg when the wind's blowing...so therefore mg colors would be oerg cold."

ALAN CAMPBELL Two week-long exploratory trips sixty miles out on a fisheries researchvessel, the CEORGIA BULLDOG, provided this artist with material for a series of representationalwatercolors and oils. "l'd like somebodg to feel some of the things I felt out there. Not the romanticuiew of things, but some of the underlging tenstons and enuironmental threats gou feel out there."

JACKSON A. CHEATHAM ffre crisp lithographs, drawings, and etchings by Cheatham oftenfocus on sensual textural details. "lt's the textural feeling that I get from palm trees that makesthem compelling objects for me...the shape...the way the light hits."

CLAIRE CLEMENTS ttre layered works created by Claire Clements from foamboard, coloredpaper, sprayed and powdered pigments, resemble aerial views of estuarine systems. "l wanted asense of the uastness of the area, the sense of light, the aerial perspectirse that gets dimmer anddimmer as it goes back into deep space."

BARBARA DANIEL The work of the illustrator deals with a more precise kind ofcommunication. "The need of the uiewer to identifg the species of turtle in mg drawing was theimportant thing for me."

PAULA EUBANKS The hand-colored silver prints which are often manipulated in creativeways by photographer/artist Paula Eubanks evoke both an inner, very personal landscape as wellas an exterior geographical portrayal of Georgia's coast. "Mg response to the beautg of thelandscape on the barrier islands probablg is colored bg the pain I feel about the lost paradise of mggouth."

TOM HAMMOND Hammond's etchings, mezzotints, and colored ink drawings have a lyrical,sometimes brooding romanticism. His more recent watercolors also have this quality. "Iheweather, storm, stress, lightning striking, the atmospheric changes in the coastal landscape - Ithink mg work is as much about that as it is about the obseroed landscape."

JUNE FRAZIER JOHNSTON, N.W.S. The highly abstract watercolors by June Johnstonevoke both the murky mystery and the clean, sunlit feeling of the coastal area. "The feeling onCumberland was open and beauti.ful, but Sapelo had an eerie, comi.ng-in-on-gou feeling. You couldfeel the historg and the people who had been there hundreds of gears ago. You could feel theirpresence."

JUDITH M. McWILLIE tfre raw, vibrant colors of McWillie's abstractions in acrylic carry awealth of feeling and information about the ocean. "The ocean tsn't a cold, grag thing. It's full oflife! It's teeming under there. And oiolence and struggle are there, a whole uniuerse as complex asangthing we know of."

CAROLINE MONTAGUE Montague's pastel and graphic drawings play a soft, sophisticated,but harmonious counterpoint to her primary art form which is sculpture. "l looed that marsh mud.It was beautiful. Magbe it goes back to mg experiences with clay. But I reallg liked the uarietg oftextures that I saw at the coast...and the subtle winter colors."

ARTHUR S. ROSENBAUM A musician also, Art Rosenbaum likes to paint people in the actof making music. "When people are singing or mouing, that translates into uisual terms. I willneuer forget the energg of the rtng shout."

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Sea Grant College ProgramEcology Building

Athens, GA306O6-2206Phone (706) 542-6009FAX(706) 542-3652