Contact: Maridith Geuder
Works by an artist internationally known for his natural history collages go on display later this month at Mississippi State University's Wise Center.
John Digby's images of birds, butterflies, large animals, and fish will be on exhibition March 20-April 18 in the Pegasus Gallery. A 7:30-9 p.m. public reception on the 20th officially opens the showing.
Sponsored by the University Honors Program, the reception will include comments by Joan Digby on the sources of her husband's work, which has been viewed by audiences from Europe to the Orient. Following her presentation, John Digby will read from his essays and poems. The program will conclude with the Digbys' invitation for audience participation in a discussion of the works.
In an Honors Forum lecture the following day [the 21st] Joan Digby will speak on the topic "Preserving the Frail Balance of Life in Art." The 12:30 p.m. event in 13 Allen Hall also is open to the public.
John Digby's interest in natural history began in his youth, when he worked for six years as a keeper at the London Zoological Gardens. As a poet, his work recalls animals from that time. "In my head," he has written, "I carry my own zoo."
His visual representations began as illustrations for his books of poetry, including "The Structure of Bifocal Distance," "Sailing Away from Night," "To Amuse a Shrinking Sun," and "Incantations." All are works in which collage and poems act as collaborative images.
Digby's inspirations are black and white wood engravings that he preserves and modernizes. Using a method of electro-carbon transfer, he transforms the originals into works that are uniquely his.
His artworks reflect a concern with the destruction of nature and the deterioration of books and paper. To address the underlying themes of his work, he and his wife wrote "The Collage Handbook," the first text to discuss archival methods and materials in his collages.
Joan Digby is president of the National Collegiate Honors Council and director of the honors program and Merit Fellowship at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University.
She holds a doctorate in 18th century British literature and has published widely on poetry and culture of the period, as well as honors pedagogy. She also has published a collection of prose poems and a nonfiction account of two private Long Island presses.