Good evening, My name is Chelsea Roberts and I am a senior art major at Westmont College, located in Santa Barbara. For our Senior Art Show in the spring of 2018, I am creating several paintings of aquatic animal hearts. The final format will be 12 to 16 anatomical and photo-realistic oil paintings of various marine animal hearts, each one scaled to its accurate size. The largest of these will be a 5ft x 5ft blue whale heart. After completion, the paintings will be displayed on one of the walls of Westmont College’s Ridley-Tree Museum of Art during the Senior Art Show (April 5th, 2018 to May 5th, 2018). In order to make these hearts as realistic as possible, I am contacting you with the hope of gaining access to any resources the Marine Mammals Research and Conservation Discussion Group message board may have and would graciously allow me to use. In order to accurately depict the hearts, the most ideal resource would be detailed photographs of preserved hearts so I could have the ability to replicate the blood, veins, valves, and lighting of the hearts accurately. 3-D models are also very useful for this purpose, and would allow me to understand the dimensions of the heart thoroughly. Videos and diagrams would help me to familiarize myself with the specific heart in relation to its animal. To accompany my paintings, I will be writing an artist statement that focuses on oceanic creature awareness and conservation. Viewers will be free to read this statement to learn more about my piece and my intentions. My hope is that by exemplifying that a diverse group of aquatic creatures have hearts just as humans do, and by showing the actual size of these hearts, people will be able to feel more aware and connected to underwater life. As a natural extension, I want to use this opportunity to call attention to the importance of protecting these hearts and the animals attached to them. I want people to be alerted to the crucial part the ocean has in our world, and to remember that the life inside it is delicate, complex, and needs to be considered. At the very least, I hope to spark conversations on these topics and ignite a curiosity to discover what is going on beneath the ocean’s surface. While I am aware the board specializes in mammals, some potential animals I hope to obtain references of are: Balaenoptera musculus (Blue Whale) Orcinus orca (Orca) Delphinapterus leucas (Beluga Whale) Phoca vitulina (Harbor Seal) Sirenia (Manatee) Carcharodon carcharias (Great White Shark) Rhincodon typus (Whale Shark) Manta birostris (Manta Ray) Dermochelys coriacea (Leatherback Sea Turtle) Orcinus orca (Orca) Enteroctopus dofleini (Giant pacific octopus) Thunnus thymus (Bluefin Tuna) Mola mola (Ocean Sunfish) Sardina pilchardus (Sardine) Sepioteuthis lessoniana (Bigfin Reef Squid) Hippocampus (Seahorse) Muraenidae (Moray Eel) If you consider and approve my request to be part of the MRCD message board, I will use the resources within it to help spread aquatic animal conservation and awareness. It is extremely difficult to find resources elsewhere on the internet for a variety of marine animals (so far, I have only been able to find a blue whale, various sharks, and two different types of tuna), and I wish to make my paintings as accurate as possible to allow the public to gain a closer look at aquatic life. My goal will be most successfully achieved with the help of the message board, and any other resources I may find. I have also attached a small study of a blue whale heart (not the 5ft x 5ft) to this email, so you may see one of these paintings in an early form. Thank you for considering my request and I look forward to your reply. My email is chroberts@westmont.edu Have a good day, Chelsea Roberts [image: Inline image 1]