CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Red Riding Hood kills Wolf? SCEE's Facts and Fables Outdoor Art Exhibit

Diminutive and softspoken artist Jeanne Jaffe spins the "Little Red Riding Hood" tale at the "Stories of the Natural World: Facts and Fables" outdoor art exhibition that just opened at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. Little Red is represented by monstrous white knee-high legs and the wolf lies on his back with mouth agape atop a swirling blood-evoking satin-red band. They've reversed roles; Little Red represents human civilization that has committed crimes the natural world of the wolf. Watch video here.

Facts and Fables asks, "How do stories affect our understanding of nature?" Seven artists tackle this question. In the video below, new SCEE Executive Director  Mike Weilbacher welcomes the opening day visitors and Jenny Laden, associate director of the environmental art program guides us along the exhibit path. Laden  discusses the work of artist David Dempewolf ("Carelessness and Inattention Can Afford Us Any Remedy") Jeremy Beaudry talks about his book/writings in "NatureStudy: An Ambivalent Guide" and Susan Hagen talks about her carved wood, post-mounted "Oil Spill Animals"

Spider bit her on the cheek and...

As she slept, a young woman was bitten on the cheek by a spider. But it wasn't a spider and if it was, it wasn't any ordinary bite. It became inflamed and, alarmed, she went to the emergency room. The doctor, too, was alarmed. An x-ray revealed that whatever bit her had laid eggs and they were beginning to hatch and work their way out through her skin. Or so it was according to a story retold with convincing feigned veracity by Linda Lee, a folkore PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania who was giving a talk on urban legends at the Chestnut Hill library. Watch video here.