Making art comes naturally to Noah Buehner '07

Art and nature intertwine in the sculpture of Noah Mithoefer Buehner, whose work graces the Wheaton campus indoors and out.

Buehner uses natural materials such as ivy, bittersweet vines and Japanese knotweed to create works of art that harmonize with the environment yet stand apart by virtue of being constructed objects. He often recycles materials that have been pruned out and discarded by the campus grounds crew.

Having entered Wheaton in the fall of 2002 (he took the 2004-2005 year off to travel), Buehner graduated this spring under the ''old'' curriculum requirements. ''But I still feel that I've embraced the Connections,'' he said. In fact, he has made strong connections between his history major and his studio art minor.

Buehner's piece called ''Colonial Interpretations of a 'Tangled Mass''' is a dense ball of ivy vines (trimmed from Knapton Hall) and a contrasting red-hued vine. The work, on display in the Mars Arts and Humanities building, is an abstract representation of ''the first colonists' views of the North American landscape and how they interpreted it as a virgin land, untouched, when in reality it was well tended by the Native Americans.''

Similarly, his senior thesis topic in history focused on Native American agriculture and its influences on European colonists, as well as the influences of the colonists on the Native American way of life and on early New England ecology.

''The introduction of domestic animals was a large part of that influence,'' he said. ''The Native Americans didn't utilize them, so the Native Americans had a light impact on the land. Domestic farm animals require a lot of land, and they compact the soil. The Native Americans also had to compete with the pigs for food such as groundnuts and clams.''

Buehner is from Lubec, Maine (pop. 1,652), the easternmost town in the United States, situated near the Canadian border. Growing up in this small coastal community, he developed a strong affinity for the natural world.

''I've always worked with natural materials and loved playing in the intertidal zone [the area between the low and high tide lines] in the mud and the seaweed,'' said Buehner, whose brother Brannin Buehner graduated from Wheaton in 2006.

During the spring 2007 semester, Buehner did an independent study in sculpture with Professor of Art Tim Cunard. His piece entitled ''The Squeeze'' is a long bundle of Japanese knotweed (which resembles bamboo) cinched in the middle with a band of sheet metal. The work was displayed on the lawn outside of the Mars Arts and Humanities building throughout the spring.

About the piece, Buehner says, ''It is a commentary on our environmental issues today, where we have knotweed, representing the natural world, forced through this metal ring, which represents humankind putting the squeeze on the environment.''

Bittersweet vine as thick as a man's wrist is one of his favorite materials. ''It's pretty malleable. I really love playing with this material and sort of rearranging nature, so to speak.''

<img src="/news/newsatwheaton/w2007june/images/tree19.jpg" class="left" Another of his pieces, untitled, is a cocoon-like structure made of bittersweet vines. The piece hangs from a cherry tree in the woods behind the Wheaton softball field, and the natural backdrop for the artwork changes with the seasons.

Buehner created the piece in February 2007. ''My hands were pretty cold, and I had to work with what daylight I had.'' Still, he loves being outdoors.

''This semester I was hardly in the studio at all,'' Buehner said. ''I was in the woods almost all the time.'' Each time he started a new piece, he says, ''I'd have an idea, but I'd let the natural material 'speak to me,' because there's a limit as to what you can put on it.''