Costa Rica: "Pura Vida" in Costa Rica: Exploring the Natural World Through Drawing, Science and Symbol

About this Travel Course

This was a six-week Wintersession course that involved sketchbook and development of visual work, reading (literary “Magic Realism” in South American tradition: Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and scientific study of flora and fauna in the Nature Lab and on-site in Costa Rica’s tropical eco-environment. Students spent two weeks in the Nature Lab and studio of Waterman Building in preparation for living/working abroad. The following three weeks students resided at a pension with meal plan, and worked in a neighboring enclosed artist’s colony on a tropical hillside farm. Field trips included visits to Manuel Antonio National Park on the Coast, to Arenal Volcano National Park, and to neighboring Butterfly Farms, museums, rain forests and waterfalls in the San Jose area. The group returned to RISD for the final week of WS with a culminating critique and exhibition of student work in Waterman Gallery