Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Community Gallery, First Floor

Endangered Species consists of two combined bodies of work by artist Holly Murray. The first are paintings that Murray completed while working as an artist-in-residence in Hawaii. The paintings were influenced by ancient print designs, the patterns of sea swells and currents, and the flora and fauna of the Hawaiian Islands. The second series, A Culture of Bees, was inspired by the work of conservation biologist Claire Kremen, who discovered that the success of the bee depends on the diversity of breeds and the bees' ability to survive in a toxic world. Murray paints bee imagery in combination with medical imagery, which has been a subtext of much of her work. She draws inspiration from old medical journals, vintage agricultural imagery, and photographs. Works in this series are created in layers, using the processes of stenciling, stamping and printing, and materials such as gold leaf, beeswax and found paper. Murray is a faculty member at Springfield College in the Visual and Performing Arts Department and has exhibited extensively throughout New England and beyond.