March 2023 Vol. 4, No.2
Michael Rothman’s Indefatigable Mastery of Naturalism
In his recent book, music producer Rick Rubin said, “…the attraction of art is the humanity held in it. If we were machinelike, the art wouldn’t resonate. It would be soulless…”[1]
In these times of revolutionary media and technological changes, there are still real people making real art with feeling, heart and soul. Take the habile scientific illustrator and fine-artist Michael Rothman, residing in Ridgefield, Connecticut, a masterful practitioner of the old traditions of naturalism, drawing and painting – with exquisitely hard skills. He is a renowned illustrator for popular magazines, scientific journals and newspapers, as well as an ecology-oriented fine arts painter. His work is distinguished by colorful, vibrant depictions of nature and ecosystems, with uncompromising truth and accuracy – with vivid colors and devoted detail perfection.
Prior to the ascent of photography in the mid-19th Century, flora and fauna was solely depicted by skilled etching artists, illustrators and painters. Today, his astounding renderings are a rare specialty, a visual evocation at the intersection of art and biology, a blend of science and creativity.
He knows how to work with modern digital tools, but his true craft is traditional hand drawing and painting in the interest of nature, environmentalism, conservancy and sustainability, a form of bio-creativity.
Michael Rothman earned a Master’s degree in Fine Art from Brooklyn College and a Bachelors in Fine Arts from the State University of New York in Stony Brook. He has had a most adventurous natural science career. Sometimes he transports viewers through space and time, to long lost or threatened ecosystems. He lets us barnstorm back to the prehistoric eras as he joins paleontologists to visualize the history of life on earth only known through the fossil record. The viewer is transported to fantastical nature scenes, teeming with life. Some depict nearly extinct or threatened flora and fauna, others take us into ecosystems that have long ago vanished. Other times we venture with him into Western Samoa’s rainforest, a study he made during a field trip with the famed ethnobotanist Paul Cox, to showcase the plight of endangered flora and fauna. He has explored the jungle forests and climbed the trees of French Guiana for the New York Botanical Garden. For more than a decade he was a regular freelance illustrator of the New York Times science section, where this writer first saw his remarkable work.
Rothman’s scientific illustrations are also a powerful portrayal of context, to help the viewers understand the dimensions, utility, or interplay of the organisms and biomes being illustrated. Each is artistically perfect and scientifically as accurate as possible. Each picture actually has meaning and purpose in the realm where facts meet imagination. He has been devoted to carrying on these noble traditions since the 1980s. “It all comes from my love of nature. My work as a naturalist artist intends to explain nature through illustrations in the service of science. It’s a collaboration between science and my own creative freedom. I try to show the core of science to viewers and readers so that they enjoy and reach a point of understanding in the science. Whatever I depict has a component of scientific realism and my creative expression within the realism of the subject.”
The artist has to stay true to the science and be incredibly accurate and highly detailed. This takes a great deal of study, talking to researchers about the subject matter, and honing of observational skills. Yet, one look at Rothman’s fine art paintings reveals an equal dimension of freedom as he unveils entire biomes complete with a spectrum of animals and plants to give us a glimpse into how it may have been, or how it actually is – even though it is the artists’ vision in lively composition and layout.
“…if I can inspire a love of nature, I will have been a useful advocate.”
Part of his artistic concept is driven by a venerable commitment to ecology, environmental conservation and preservation of flora and fauna species. “I tried to be useful. I thought that if my art can convey something, if that can have a positive effect on making life on earth sustainable, and if I can inspire a love of nature, I will have been a useful advocate.”
Maintaining the balance between science and art is not a limiting, parochial adherence to form. People sometimes confuse tradition with calcification. If anything, it’s exuberantly liberating to recreate what once was, but remained unseen. Rothman dwells in a creative artistic space that allows him to share discoveries, ideas and observations. There is a Zen-like, simple beauty in illuminating scientific knowledge with visuals. Drawing or rendering in an accurate manner is an emancipatory discipline.
Besides being a refined artist, Rothman is also an art-paint expert who uniquely produces his own paints, having spent a full decade as artist and technical consultant to the M. Grumbacher company, a major manufacturer of artist colors. In his prolific career, Rothman has illustrated both scientific and children’s books and his work is displayed in prestigious galleries and institutions worldwide.
Michael Rothman’s wide subject matter includes paleontological plants and animals,most of which are long extinct and stem from as far back in time as the Mesozoic era. He paints depictions of complex habitat groups in the Neotropical realm (New World). Much of the subject matter relates to specific botanical specialties and floral family group interests of the Curators from the Institute of Systematic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden. He painted digital fossil plant reconstructions from specimens at Cornell University. He also produced a series of traditional, non-digital fossil plant reconstructions, represented by examples of paleo-botanical and paleo-zoological depictions done with traditional media, like pen & ink, graphite, and acrylic emulsion paint. Another series depicts recently extinct and threatened fauna. Iconic fauna like the Great Auk, the Falkland Islands Wolf, the Passenger Pigeon, the Carolina Parakeet, and the Thylacine Wolf (aka “The Tasmanian Tiger”) are shown in their native habitats.
Rothman brings it all to life and helps us imagine the otherwise unimaginable.
[1] Rubin, Rick. The Creative Act: A Way of Being. 1st Edition. Penguin Press, 2023. Pg.73
Frank Matheis, Writer
Frank Matheis is a music, arts and culture writer and a contributing writer to the Inspiration Art Group International. His latest project was the book ‘Sweet Bitter Blues’ co-written with National Heritage Fellow Phil Wiggins (University Press of Mississippi, 2020). His column ‘In Other Words’ features member artists in all disciplines and general arts essays. He is also a contributing writer to Living Blues magazine (Center for Southern Culture Studies) and the publisher/editor of thecountryblues.com. Frank was formerly an award-winning radio and music producer whose radio documentaries were heard on three continents in two languages. He is also a published photographer, curator and video producer.