Featured Articles: Moving Towards Green
Henry Domke
Title: Foxtail (top), 40" x 240", in five pieces,
and Cedar Bluff (bottom), 35" x 21.5", archival inkjet prints on canvas
Commissioned For: Dublin Methodist Hospital, Dublin, OH
Trade Prodessional: Rosalyn Cama, Cama, Inc., New Haven, CT
Photograph (upper): Courtesy of Karlsberger
Photograph (lower): Feinknopf Photography/Jason Meyer
Photographer and former physician Henry Domke's nature-inspired body of work dovetailed perfectly with plans and goals for the new Dublin Methodist Hospital just outside Columbus, OH. Designated as a Pebble Project by the Center for Health Design, the hospital is committed to improving patient outcomes through evidence-based design. Rosalyn Cama, leader of the hospital's design team, says the vision for the project was to make a strong connection to nature. "The building was designed with many ways to bring natural light into the core of the building... When we got to interior spaces, which were inevitable because of the size and girth of this hospital, we thought it only natural to have artistic images of nature." Over eighteen months, Domke customized 150 images from his library of more than 1,400 images—tailoring the selection to reflect plants and animals indigenous to Ohio—and oversaw the process of printing them on canvas and installing them throughout the hospital, including one landscape in each of 94 patient rooms. Domke credits Cama and the interior design team for the bold decision to crop and repeat Foxtail for the walls of the hospital's cafe.
Domke dates his interest in all things green to 1970. That year, he entered college, where he majored in ecology and natural history, and his family moved to land in central Missouri that is now part of a nature restoration project called the Prairie Garden Trust, where he still lives and finds daily inspiration for his art. Eight years ago, Domke aligned his working practices with his environmental concerns - he switched to digital photography to stop using the toxic chemicals used to process roll film. Now, he makes all of his prints with durable archival pigment inks. Where will Domke's work appear next? Many places. He just signed a five-year contract with Skyline Design in Chicago, a member of the Green Building Council and premier maker of architectural glass in North America.
