In the lively classroom space of Building C, artist Deirdre Murphy is in her element. Surrounded by her flock of students and their works-in-progress, Murphy’s prints, mixed media, and paintings inspire a fun and hopeful approach to conservation. Beautiful, bright colors draw in the viewer, while her enthusiasm for art, climate activism, and teaching do the rest.

Found feathers fall to the floor as Murphy pulls out her latest collaborative mixed-media project. Her work often features birds and explores themes of environmental awareness and justice. Much of her art has been inspired by the work of John James Audubon among other early naturalists. Lehigh’s special collections even has a double elephant folio book of over 400 prints from his The Birds of North America, Murphy notes excitedly. “[Birds] have this ability to see from multiple vantage points. And as an artist, we try to see the world differently. And so I always envied birds—still do—that ability.”

Murphy, assistant teaching professor of art in the Department of Art, Architecture, and Design, will be the first contemporary artist featured in a new series at the John James Audubon Center (JJAC) Museum at Mill Grove. Curator Heather Moqtaderi, museum and collections senior coordinator for the National Audubon Society, reached out to Murphy to launch the program, which aims to shine a light on artists who are continuing Audubon’s legacy of art and education. 

Audubon is regarded as one of the greatest 19th-century American artists and naturalists, known for painting realistic birds in their natural habitat. His book, The Birds of America, published between 1827–1838, depicts 435 life-sized watercolor paintings of North American birds, reproduced from copper plates.

Other parts of Audubon’s legacy are harder to reckon with including his owning of slaves and racist writings. By showcasing the work of contemporary artists, the JJAC hopes to highlight environmental justice and focus on conserving ecosystems, protecting natural habitats and reconnecting people with nature.

The JJAC is a nonprofit nature center and bird sanctuary outside Philadelphia where Audubon lived when he first emigrated to America from France. Today, his estate is home to a museum which includes a new interpretive center, miles of nature trails and the original three-story farmhouse along the Perkiomen Creek, known as the Historic House.

From April to August, Murphy’s exhibition at the Audubon Center will focus on “Home Making,” that explores how birds, insects, plants and humans create—often co-create—homes and habitats. It will include her paintings and prints while collaborative works with sculptor Yvonne Love will be on exhibit in the Historic House. The immersive installation invites visitors to imaginatively inhabit Murphy’s “paper garden.”

Birds of a Feather

Inspired by nest cavities discovered during her residency at the Lower Merion Conservancy, her paintings offer a “bird’s eye view of climate change.” These oil and acrylic works are “looking through the woodpecker hole,” she explains. They are at once familiar and a portal to a new way of seeing things. 

Murphy asks herself and the viewer, “If I was a bird, what would I see?” From predators to changing seasons, and from local plants to urban scenes, her “Gradients of Growth” series delves into the impact of climate on tree cavity-nesting birds.

Science truly meets art with Murphy’s contemporary herbarium prints. Her print series was influenced by Lehigh’s Trembley Herbarium collection. She worked with Lehigh scientist Robert Booth, professor of Earth and environmental sciences, to highlight native pollinators. “These native plants host insects that increase the biodiversity that the songbirds will eat. It’s about the whole ecosystem that sustains them,” she explains.

She takes flora sprigs like bee balm, larkspur, calycanthus and amsonia, lays them on a layer of ink, and uses a press to print a relief onto cotton paper. She uses little rectangular strips of paper on the stems and branches to echo the botanical tape on traditional prints that kept the specimens in place. This series, she says, really focuses on the importance of planting native gardens to help the environment and mitigate climate change.