Venue art demonstration promotes preservation

Kriste Lindberg has been interested in caves since her first adventure to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky when she was 5 years old.

Now, Lindberg is the chair of environmental education for the National Speleological Society, as well as a member of the Bloomington Watercolor Society. It is through these interests that she encourages cave preservation via artistic expression.

On Tuesday at The Venue Fine Art and Gifts, Lindberg taught an art demonstration, titled “Green Halloween,” featuring images of bats and salamanders — regular cave-dwelling species — to promote cave conservation education.

“Cave critters are actually really friendly things,” Lindberg said.

Using acrylic paint on clear glassware, Lindberg created about 20 pieces of art for sale at Tuesday’s event. Prices of Lindberg’s pieces started at $10. All the proceeds will be split evenly between the NSS and the Indiana Karst Conservancy to fund conservation efforts.

Lindberg’s NSS colleague and IKC director Bob Vandeventer said each year, cave art is a huge part of IKC conventions.

“Each year we have a theme,” Vandeventer said. “Last year’s theme was bats. It’s good to see so much cave art being popular.”

Slimy salamanders and cave salamanders were painted on wine glasses in yin-yang designs, and bats were painted in flurrying patterns on barware and drinking glasses.

Attendees of “Green Halloween” created their own glasses and watercolor images on site. In order to complete the process of painting glassware, however, the participant needed to bake their glassware for 45 minutes in a 325-degree oven to seal the acrylic paint.

Gabe Colman, owner of The Venue, said he came across Lindberg’s work through the Bloomington Watercolor Society.

“I like Kriste’s work because she uses all of the space available,” Colman said. “The pattern of bats on the glasses have an interesting whirlwind effect.”

Lindberg said she began going caving regularly in 1992, during her work at the Chicago Academy of Sciences.

“One day somebody asked me if I wanted to see this fake mini cave and learn about it, and I said, ‘Of course,’” Lindberg said.

Indiana is home to more than 3,000 caves and when asked which cave is her favorite, Lindberg said she couldn’t really choose.

“Each cave has its own personality, really,” she said. “But my heart is with the Lost River System in Orange County, Indiana. I was the eighth person to be in it after it was discovered in 1998. It’s really neat.”