The Weise Gallery presents artworks by four Baltimore-based artists: Bridget Cimino, James Eichelberger, Matt Muirhead, and Beth-Ann Wilson. With their distinct viewpoints, each artist invites viewers to engage with nature, fostering a deeper connection to our surroundings. Come and experience an exhibition that celebrates the natural world, as envisioned by these gifted local talents.

Bridget Cimino
https://www.bridgetciminoart.com/

[See image gallery at www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu]

James Eichelberger
https://www.instagram.com/jameichelberger/

Matt Muirhead
http://mattmuirhead.co/

[See image gallery at www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu]

Beth-Ann Wilson
https://www.bethannwilson.com/

[See image gallery at www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu]

The HSHSL’s current Collab Lab Exhibit showcases student artwork from Mother Mary Lange Catholic School in the library’s Weise Gallery. This is our second partnership with the School, located in West Baltimore and serving grades PreK through 8th. In this latest exhibit of lively and vibrant collaborative paintings, students worked in groups, focusing on cooperation rather than competition.

Using the circle as a central design element, the students aimed for radial symmetry in the finished works, producing a delightful mix of colors, shapes, and splashes. The project required them to work together as equals and pool ideas. The children learned to appreciate their similarities and differences in a supportive environment.

The HSHSL is holding a silent auction for this engaging student art throughout its residence at the Library (February 21 – March 22, 2024). If you see a piece you enjoy, write your email and bid on the bid sheet next to the artwork. Winning bidders will be notified at the close of the exhibit. All proceeds will benefit the Mother Mary Lange school.

The HSHSL Weise Gallery is hosting a fascinating exhibit by artist Dahven White. “Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts” showcases White’s amazing felt artwork. Felting is widely considered the world’s oldest textile art. White primarily uses sheep’s wool and recycled sweaters to create unpredictable three-dimensional organic shapes. Her art and wearables have been featured in many juried exhibitions and art shows.

“Greater Than the Sum of its Parts” runs from October 2 – January 28, 2024.

A new “Color Me Happy” exhibit is back in the Weise Gallery! This interactive coloring wall features drawings that recall cherished symbols and icons of Maryland & Baltimore. We invite everyone to pause and indulge in carefree coloring, whether it’s Black-Eyed Susans, Mr. Trash Wheel, a Baltimore Oriole, or many others.

The Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HSHSL), in collaboration with the Medical Alumni Association of the University of Maryland and the UMB Council for the Arts & Culture, will host the exhibit “Transcending Reality” at HSHSL’s Weise Gallery, featuring works by award-winning artist Carol Carpenter.

The exhibit will be on display from April 17 to June 30, with selected works for sale.

About the Artist

Creating works of art encompasses passion, spontaneity, intellect, and self-discovery. Carol Carpenter’s art is meant to “appeal to the senses and heighten the human experience.”

Carpenter is an award-winning artist who has exhibited her abstract paintings in galleries and museums worldwide. She is an intuitive painter who uses “experimental processes and a saturated palette to create vivid works of organic art.”

Learn more about the artist at carpenterfineart.com.

A delightful new exhibit brings joy and bursts of color to the Weise Gallery March 10 – April 10.   Mother Mary Lange Catholic School, a pre-K through eighth-grade school in West Baltimore, has covered the Gallery in their student’s captivating artwork, including: pastels & paints, paper crafts, pen & ink, ceramics, and more. 

Art teacher, Joanne Terrell, explained the lesson behind the show. “Color theory is a guide to mixing colors. Using the color wheel, designers can create color schemes that produce emotions and behaviors in audiences. Sir Isaac Newton created the color wheel theory to explain the nature of primary colors. The objective of this unit was for students to reinforce prior knowledge of color theory and apply that knowledge while creating and responding to artwork. I wanted the students to enhance their knowledge of color theory and master the skill of using it to intentionally express ideas.”

February is American Heart Month. To honor this most central organ, the HSHSL has installed an exhibit in the Weise Gallery highlighting four centuries of anatomical drawings of the heart from the Historical Collections.

The understanding of the heart can be traced back to 3500 B.C. with the ancient Egyptians. For millennia the beliefs around the heart circled around religion and spirituality rather than science. This changed around 460 B.C. with Hippocrates and the first heart anatomy text, “On the Heart.” In 300 B.C. human dissection began to be acceptable and anatomists could thus learn more about the anatomy of the body.

Leonardo Da Vinci in the 16^th Century is often credited with the first anatomical drawing of the heart. Many of his sketches and writings about the organ remain true today – over 500 years later. Da Vinci, while not the first to claim the heart as a muscle, cemented the concept. He was the first to describe the four chambers of the heart with two ventricles and two atria. In the seventeenth century, William Harvey was the first to describe the circulation system.

Major advances were made in the understanding of the heart’s function and anatomy during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Anatomists began to better understand the function of the heart and the circulatory system as a whole. These scientists laid the foundation of today’s understanding of the heart.

The exhibit in the Weise Gallery provides a visual backdrop for changes in the understanding of the functions and anatomy of the heart outlined in this brief history. The exhibit highlights anatomists from six countries and volumes dating from 1641 to 1954. The prints are both artistically stunning and influential in medicine and science.

In the United States, the holiday and winter seasons traditionally elicit a variety of spices and flavors, as well as traditional floral decorations. Join the HSHSL in celebrating the season with Season’s Greenery, a new exhibit featuring seasonal botanicals from the Historical Collections. The botanicals featured come from Julius Leo’s Taschenbuch der Arzeneipflanzen (1826-27), Robert Bentley and Henry Trimen’s Medicinal Plants (1880), and Botanical Magazine (1806).

While the botanicals featured in the exhibit are found in food and decorations today, some were once used for medicinal and health reasons.  The exhibit highlights these pharmaceutical uses alongside displays of beautiful pieces found in the historic pharmacy collection.

The exhibit will run from December through January in the Weise Gallery, on the first floor of the HSHSL.

The Color Me Happy exhibit is a 45-foot interactive coloring wall. The exhibit was timed to coincide with National Medical Librarian’s Month and student exams. Students especially are encouraged to grab markers from the hanging pails and color their cares away. An accompanying student coffee and snack break on Tuesday, October 18, 1-3 p.m. will take place in the Gallery as well.

The HSHSL’s Historical Collections is home to the Pharmacy Historical Book Collection, which includes influential pharmacy and medical texts, dispensatories, pharmacopoeias, botanicals, and herbals from around the world dating from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. Fatal Beauty, an exhibit in the HSHSL’s Weise Gallery, highlights stunning but deadly botanicals from the Pharmacy Collection.

Botanicals have been used since the first century B.C.E. to treat a variety of ailments; yet sometimes the most beautiful and helpful botanicals can also be the most dangerous when used improperly.

For example, Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) contains digitalin, which has been used since William Withering described its benefits in 1785 to treat heart conditions. However, the entire foxglove plant is considered toxic; consumption or absorption can cause gastrointestinal problems, headache, cardiac arrythmias, visual problems, and hallucinations.

The Fatal Beauty exhibit highlights botanicals that have traditional or modern medical benefits but when used improperly can have dangerous consequences. Admire with caution!