Experience Science and Art in a New Light

Discover a groundbreaking anthology that bridges the worlds of fiber art, poetry, and scientific understanding.

Born from the captivating exhibits at the Annual Geophysical Union meetings, this unique collection, co-edited by Dr. Kathleen P. Decker, Dr. Laura Guertin, and Betsy Wilkening, invites you to explore the unseen forces shaping our planet.

Since 2021, Dr. Guertin and Betsy Wilkening have been masterfully blending fiber art with critical scientific topics like global warming, climate change, and environmental threats, all while offering potential solutions. In 2024, Dr. Decker proposed an innovative expansion: a multimodal ekphrastic project that pairs powerful poetry with evocative art.

This book is the stunning result. You'll find a diverse array of artwork—from exquisite fiber art quilts to compelling drawings, paintings, and even museum pieces—each carefully selected to illuminate the theme of "making the unseen, seen" and to forge a powerful connection between science and art through the medium of poetry.

We strongly encourage you to delve into the Artist/Scientist Statements at the back of the book. These illuminating insights provide brief, accessible explanations that enhance the thoughtful poems, making complex scientific topics relatable and engaging for everyone.

It has been a true joy to bring this project to life. We hope you'll return to these pages again and again, discovering new layers of meaning with each reading.

Contributors to this book include: Donald Beagle, Emily Bilman, Joyce Brinkman, Sarah-Beth Bradley, Megan Brown, Emma M. Burkett, Samantha Carr, Joan Ellen Casey, Loralee Clark, Tricia Coulson, Marcela Bianchessi da Cunha-Santino, Dr. Kathleen P. Decker, Zoey Dudding, Jae Dyche, Christie King Eckardt , Kerry Faraone, Catalina Florina Florescu, Anna Isabella Fratarcangelo, Chapman Hood Frazier, Dennis Owen Frohlich, Gail Giewont, Dr. Michale Glennon, Marjorie Gowdy, Jody Gruendel, Dr. Laura Guertin, Cathy Hailey, Lauren Haygood, Kate Hedstrom, Wayne David Hubbard, Mark Hudson, Piper Jameson, Robert J. Keeler, Dr. Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, Barbara Martina Linde, Sally Harcum Maxwell, Greg McNamara, Susan Copley Novack, Holly Panzera, Sarah Parker, Tessa Peixoto, Suzanne Underwood Rhodes, Lynne Schreiber, Mattie Quesenberry Smith, Ron Smith, Alica Swain, Johannes Vermeer, Betsy Wilkening, Diana Woodcock, Nicole Zwolinski.

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In Search of Sandino's Gold

$12.00

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution ignited revolutionary fervor throughout Latin America. The Order of Jesuit Priests and their Liberation Theology inflamed Central America.

The people you will meet in the story are real people, including Santiago. Names have been changed for their protection.

Santiago was born in Nicaragua in the 1950s. He was a hateful and bitter man. Raised dirt poor, the youngest in a family of ten children, he watched his siblings struggle to put food on the table.

His father, a constant drunk, caroused until the early morning in bars and brothels, spending his children’s earnings.

His sisters turned to prostitution to support the family. They came home early in the morning, bloodied and bruised by aggressive clients who used them for their twisted, deviant sexual fantasies.

Santiago’s devout Catholic mother offered him to the Church as an altar server. He was sexually abused by one of the priests.

Anger burned deep in Santiago’s soul. While an altar server, a visiting Jesuit priest took him aside, befriended him, and became the father figure he’d never known. The priest taught him liberation theology and told him of Castro and the struggle in Cuba. The priest found a place for him at the University of Leon and worked a way for him to go to Cuba and join Castro.

While he fought with Castro to appease his hatred and anger, he took on the grizzliest tasks — assassinated industrial leaders, organized firing squads, and joined the front lines of any military operation. He killed to feed the fire of hate that burned in his gut. He felt honored Castro appointed him to return to Nicaragua to reignite Augusto Sandino’s revolution in his own country.

Santiago had the experience to accomplish this assignment. His first task was to find a hidden cache of gold lost for years. The location of Sandino’s gold was fuel for the revival of the Sandinista dream in Nicaragua.

In this story, our protagonists, Tony Taylor and his best friend Lefty Jackson, are assessed as they travel to Nicaragua with an Australian boxer to find easy riches. They are oblivious to the political realities and the web of intrigue that captures them. Once they arrive, confronting Santiago, a seasoned revolutionary, takes more than a little effort.

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