All of the Other Reindeer
Most alumni know about Dartmouth's connection with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (created by Bob May '26, an advertsing company writer with Montgomery Ward). On a more scholarly note, Dartmouth's Institute; of Arctic Studies and the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland recently co-hosted a conference in Rovaniemi, Finland, on managing and protecting reindeer and caribou-the most important land-based animals for Arctic peoples. The conference brought together 80 indigenous reindeer herders and caribou hunters, native leaders, scientists, and policy makers from 12 countries.
"Almost 2.5 million domesticated reindeer exist world? wide, and over three million migratory caribou range freely in North America. These animals are central to the clotures of indigenous peoples throughout the fa says'Gail Osherenko, a senior fellow of the Institute 'of
Arctic Studies at Dartmouth .and co-chair of the conference. "The goal of Our meeting was for scientists and native people together to develop a plan for the next decade that responds: to the real needs and concerns of local people and that helps them to address conflicts with oil, gas, and mineral development."
Reductions in grazing land as a result of development, habitat alteration due to giobal warming and pollution, and shifts from subsistence hunting and herding to commercial herding are profoundly altering the lives of animail arid peopl in the Arctic. Conferees called for Arctic residents to be invoblved in identifying and researching problems and developing solutions.
To learn more about how Dartmouth is helping to preserve the Arctic, see the Institute of Arctic Studies' web site at studio art professor Colleen Kandall.
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"Grown men acting out childish fantasies are engaged in the 'games' of war. They are unaware of the real consequences of their actions." Navarro, who turns electric when discussing his work, says, "I want my paintings to be serious but funny."
Navarro learned to draw from his
brother Eduardo TU '85, a famed artist in their native Panama. (Their brother, environmentalist Juan Carlos '83, became mayor of Panama City in September.)
Navarro painted himself out of Eduardo's somber artistic shadow by developing the bright, pop style he uses in Jet Hero.
Counting Baker Library's Orozco Murals as an influence, Navarro regularly inserts politics into his works. His painting The Invasionof Panama, for example, recounts the 1989 deposing of dictator Manuel Noriega. Having lived through the invasion, Navarro says, "I felt a need to tell a story."
Navarro is taking a break from painting to study guitar and composition at Boston's Berklee School of Music. He has already composed some 70 songs with a Latin American and rock sound that he and bass guitarist Pier Bove 'OO play in their band, Bodega Sonica. Navarro doesn't worry about straying too far from painting. Several of his paintings started off as songs—and he plans to use some as CD covers. Besides, he says, "After a break, I paint better."
As for Jet Hero, students will still have a chance to be wowed by it. The 1960 Fund has bought the painting for display in the Latin American Studies house, La Casa.
Reindeer and Herders face an uncertain future.
Navarro's Jet Hero landed in La Casa.
