A Brandon University student is hanging a unique portrait of Newfoundland puffins after her caption was selected in an interactive art show at BU’s Curve Gallery.
The show featured portraits of Atlantic Puffins — colourfully beaked birds with engaging personalities — and invited viewers to suggest their proposed tag lines for the varied and often silly poses that the puffins were captured in. Some may think of the project as similar to making memes; older attendees may have been reminded of a New Yorker cartoon caption contest.
Second-year pre-Nursing student Mercy Emoghene doesn’t recall exactly what she submitted, but her name was drawn as the winner, and she was able to take home a puffin portrait of her choice.
“A proud moment to win this beautiful puffin photo at school and seeing it displayed feels like a dream. Nature really knows how to pose,” Emoghene said. “The photo is beautiful. It reminds me that nature always has a way of showing off its beauty — you just have to pause and appreciate it.”
The photo she selected features a single puffin filling the frame, eyeing the camera with wings slightly out and a puffed-up chest. The puffin looks somehow on alert and at the same time off balance. It drew submitted captions ranging from “Power posing” and “When I’m on top of the class” to those that alluded to the perils of over-indulging at buffets.
Other puffin pics were just as quirky, displaying characters as vibrant as the colours in their beaks. The photos were taken by Dean of Education Dr. Alysha Farrell on a 50th-birthday trip to Newfoundland, including the town of Elliston, where the puffins were photographed.
“As an avid birder and nature photographer, I was more than happy to share some puffin joy throughout the fall term,” Dr. Farrell said. “I shared some of my photographs with colleagues and the idea for the interactive exhibition, ‘A Circus of Puffins’ was born.”
Throughout the fall term, BU community members were invited to create their own captions for the photographs. Dr. Farrell also thanked BU’s Chief Information Officer Melanie Sucha, who oversees the library, where the Curve Gallery is located, library staff, and her Deans’ Council colleagues for their encouragement and support.
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