I am thrilled to announce that “A Habit of Deciding Influence: Pigeons from Charles Darwin’s Breeding Experiments”, a limited edition portfolio, has just been completed by the Williams Center for the Arts at Lafayette College. These are my first limited edition prints in over a decade. The portfolio is made in an edition of ten, with ten prints in each portfolio, each signed and numbered, 15.5 by 22 inches (39 by 56 cm.). The medium is water-based inks on cold press watercolor paper.

This portfolio took three years to complete and depicts a selection of ten of Charles Darwin’s pigeon specimens. These important specimens were bred by Darwin as part of his research into evolution and were discussed extensively in his “Origin of Species” (1859) and his later book “The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication” (1868).

Through carefully controlled breeding experiments Darwin attempted to “breed-back” a wild form of pigeon from the Fancy domesticated varieties common in his day. These experiments were critical to his hypothesis about the way selection occurs in nature as well as under human influence. In many important ways, they were like the Rosetta Stone of evolutionary theory.

My work on this series began in 2003 while an artist in residence at the Natural History Museum in London. I was amazed to learn that the specimens had never been photographed, and I immediately jumped at the chance when offered the opportunity. I later combined the photographic images of these priceless specimens with backgrounds meant to recall the painted clouds depicted in works by Joseph Mallord William Turner, whose work I have grown to love as much as Darwins. In reality, the “clouds” in my works are single micron high-resolution scans of laboratory grade cotton used during my own scientific experiments.

For more information or to view these works please contact Marco Nocella at marco@feldmangallery.com or call (212) 226-3232 at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York.