Portraits of the Plots: Biodiversity at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, by Don Luce

Don Luce presents a series of paintings that capture the character of the individual test plots that make up Cedar Creek’s Big Biodiversity (Big Bio) experiment. Begun in the 1990s, Big Bio depends upon a grid of test plots that are monitored to determine the relationship between species diversity and productivity. The project has demonstrated that biodiversity is important for the productivity and stability of living systems.

The paintings were made in a process that mimicked the growth of the plots, starting from a sand colored base, with details of the plants layered on top. The paintings were conceived as portraits offering an intimate perspective into the character, diversity, and abundance of the experiment’s test plots while also giving viewers a window into the significance of the Big Bio experiment, one of the first studies to quantitatively demonstrate the importance of protecting our Earth’s amazing biological diversity.

About Don Luce

Don Luce holds a degree in Zoology and a master’s degree in Medical and Biological Illustration from the University of Michigan. For over 40 years, he drew on his interest in science, art and nature to develop exhibitions at the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum, before retiring in 2021. 

Don is also an illustrator and artist. His paintings have been featured in one-person exhibitions at the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth, MN and the Peter White Library in Marquette, Michigan. A retrospective exhibition of his art and illustrations, A View from a Canoe, showed at the Bell Museum in fall 2016. He has been an artist-in-residence at Joshua Tree National Park and, most recently, Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve.

Learn more about Don’s art at http://donluce.art

This is a project from Cedar Creek Reflections, Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve’s artist in residence program.