How fish innards inspire art

Looking down a microscope at dead fish for eight months can change an artist’s perspective on nature—and even influence her art. Textile artist Annet Couwenberg discovered such anatomical insights first hand when, in the summer of 2014, she embarked on a stint in the laboratory as part of the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, a program that lets artists access the museum’s vast collections. Her intense exploration of specimens in the museum’s fish division allowed her to see the complexity of bony structural forms in high resolution and incorporate those forms in her work. The delicate nature of fish bones and skin inspired this 2014 origami piece, called Backstitch. Image courtesy of Dan Meyers (© Dan Meyers Photography). The Dutch-born Couwenberg uses fabrics, polymers, and buckram—a rough cotton common in bookbinding—to mold large hanging or free-standing 3D structures. In her cluttered studio, located in the basement of her Baltimore home, bolts of cloth creased at regular intervals lie spread out on the floor or hang on the walls. Except for the large work table in the center, the space doesn’t …