Growing as an Artist

by Greg Kniseley

mkniseley@me.com

In this article, I’ll share childhood experiences that influenced my passion for nature and art and how I’ve grown as a photographic artist during the past two decades. (see a sample of his portfolio at the end of the text)

After high school, I graduated from Earlham College (1974, Biology) and moved to Nevada to work as an environmental educator. Next, I taught for 10 years in public schools and earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Nevada Reno in 1989.

I moved to Providence,  RI, married Susie Dorr, and served as a Rhode Island College professor in science education for 29 years. In addition to teaching college students, I led a multi-million-dollar NFS-funded "systemic change" initiative. The project transformed the way Rhode Island K-8  teachers taught science - from teaching science as a textbook reading activity to hands-on, inquiry-based approaches. Remarkably, the results were sustained for nearly 25 years.

Susie and  I have been married for 35 years. We have two daughters and five grandchildren, love to travel, and photograph together. Retiring in 2019 was an opportunity to redefine myself as an older athlete, artist, volunteer, and lifelong learner.

I play different sports (tennis, golf, and pickleball – the fastest growing American sport with a sense of humor), photograph and exhibit artwork, and read books in a guy’s book club. I co-lead my church’s Art in the Atrium program that produces nine exhibitions each year. I’m a member of an artist collective called Hotpoint Emporium and a camera club, Photographic Society of RI .

Growing Up in the Secret City

Growing up in Oak Ridge influenced my passion for nature and art. I developed an early love for nature in Mrs. Shipe’s classroom at Cedar Hill. I remember collecting and identifying 30 (dead) insect species and the classroom praying mantis’ offspring on the loose. I joined Orchard Circle’s “firefly bounty hunters” during summer twilight hours and was paid on Saturdays by research scientists - 35 cents per 100 frozen flies.

When I wasn’t playing tennis at the Jackson Square courts, I collected merit badges leading to an Eagle Scout badge and spent time outdoors with Troop 229. I hiked 50 miles of the Appalachian Trail in the Smokies.  In college, I majored in biology. I got up at 5 a.m. when most classmates were sound asleep and learned 150 birds by call and sight and where to find them. I also collected and pressed 150 plants for an herbarium. During the college summers I served as a counselor at a residential Audubon nature camp and learned much about natural history and ecology.

My father (an ORINS cancer research pathologist-turned-family physician and artist for 70+ years) taught me about composition, light and color. During high school, he handed down a Pentax film camera after he purchased the latest camera gadget – a Hasselblad used by Apollo astronauts. I was amazed with the magic of capturing star trails using long exposures and developing film and printing in a darkroom. I purchased my first digital camera in 2005 for an Earthwatch Expedition to Kenya. I volunteered to assist conservation biologists who monitored the endangered Grevy’s Zebra.

Growing as an Artist

I’ve grown as an artist during the past two decades. I use a mirrorless DSLR camera, different lenses and filters and a range of post-processing applications. I’ve learned about artistic composition and technical skills from professional photographers during photo tours and workshops and from my wife who photographs with me. We help each other with computer and camera issues and different photographic techniques and provide each other with honest feedback while post-processing photographs.

Photographing slows me down and helps me observe nature more carefully. I have a deeper appreciation for the beauty, complexity, diversity and fragility of the world - always striving to create artistic photographs of nature that also tell stories. My subjects are mostly majestic landscapes, waterfalls, sunsets, close-ups of flowers, wildlife in action, and natural abstracts. I’ve traveled around the coast of southeastern New England, across the country to national parks/wildlife refuges and abroad. 2024 was a banner travel year: Oregon, Norway, Death Valley,  Florida, and East Tennessee. In April, Dick Ketelle (ORHS Class of 1968) guided us around Big South Fork’s Twin Arches and up the Middle Prong Trail in the Smokies. Morocco and Aspen are on the calendar for 2025.

An Artist-in-Residence Experience

Connecticut Audubon Society awarded Susie and me a week-long Edwin Way Teale Artists/Writers in Residence at Trail Wood. In July 2024, we spent a week in “creative solitude” on the 168-acre wildlife sanctuary.  Go slow and see more was the mantra of Nellie Teale, wife of Pulitzer Prize-winning nature writer Edwin Way Teale.

I loved traveling the sanctuary at the speed of my feet - photographing the light, flora, and fauna at all times of the day. I also explored Edwin's study in the farmhouse - browsing the shelves and learning about what literature he read during his lifetime, a line of Peterson nature guides he used for references, and the collection of 30 books he published.  

I found Teale’s Junior Book of Insects written in 1953. Teale describes different insects, how to capture them with homemade nets and other equipment, ways to organize a collection, and insect experiments. With a Teale-inspired sense of wonder, I followed-up on one insect experiment and researched the question: “What color are bees attracted to most?” 

I drove to Walmart, purchased some honey, and picked up seven color paint chips in the paint section. Back at Trail Wood, I dragged a long heavy bench and a chair to the middle of the meadow above the farmhouse, distributed color chips evenly on the bench and dropped some honey in the center of each chip. I sat …and waited . . . and waited. After about an hour, I recorded the arrival of the first bee and the color of paint chip. To tell you the truth, I believe the bees preferred the lavender wild bergamot in the meadows over the honey on the paint chips.

So, What Do I Do with All My Images?

Each year I share my fascination and delight in nature with others in a small desktop calendar with inserts that stand in a wood display.  The inserts include 14 favorite images from the previous year and monthly quotes related to the theme (Harmony 2025, Light 2024, Gratitude 2023, Resilience 2022, etc.). I exhibit 16x20 framed/matted photographs in juried shows (most recently Bristol Art Museum) and participate in PSRI camera club digital/print competitions. I also post images on Facebook with brief anecdotes – personally relating what I noticed or learned.

If you’d like to see more photographs, visit the CollaborativeLens portfolio web page: www.collaborativelens.com

Thanks for the invitation to write for Classmates in Depth.