Luke Myers


  • Projects
    • Learning to be a Scarab
    • Hear/Here
    • Reading With Ants
    • Reading With Panthers
    • Places of Worship
    • 45 Seconds of a Dead Coyote
    • You Were Very Good. You Were a Good Boy.
    • My Maine Backyard VR
  • Drawing, Painting, Sculpture
    • Essential Nature
    • Paper Dragons
    • Relationship Status: Complicated
    • Shell Stories
    • Ritual Nature
    • Watercolors
  • Bio/CV

This work addresses Maine ecology from a defensive and edifying position. It highlights species and stories in the conversation on how to best manage Maine’s precious and rich natural resources. Exploring the contrast between our Western romantic viewpoint and the Eastern approach of oneness with nature, it questions inherent ideologies and the propriety of our assumed role and responsibility. We have a detachment from nature that manifests as a desire for control. This obsessive categorization and domestication are points from which to work backwards, toward a more nuanced understanding of interdependence.


These expressive portraits elevate the menagerie to mythological status. The heroic white pine is shown as stalwart for Maine’s past and future. The iconic Maine lobster is reimagined as an ocean spirit, prospering through protection. Reinforcing the connections that create an ecosystem, the materials of making have significance to their subjects. A brush made from allergenic ragweed is used to illustrate the equally annoying mosquito. A culled lobster claw redraws the animal. Using intuitive gestures, and materials that can’t be fully controlled creates spontaneous results — accidents and coincidences that reveal an essential nature.



Essential Nature



Installation View



Homarus americanus



37" x 25". Acrylic Ink On Toned Paper. 2018.



Crassostrea virginica



37" x 25". Acrylic Ink On Toned Paper. 2018.



Gadus morhua



37" x 25". Acrylic Ink On Toned Paper. 2018.



Euproctis chrysorrhoea



37" x 25". Acrylic Ink On Toned Paper. 2018.



Terrapene carolina



37" x 25". Acrylic Ink On Toned Paper. 2018.



Aedes sollicitans



37" x 25". Acrylic Ink On Toned Paper. 2018.



Pinus strobus



59" x 190" Sumi and acrylic ink on Fabriano eco-paper. 2018.



Saccharina latissima



59" x 190". Gyotaku style print on Fabriano eco-paper. 2018.