This exhibit is within the Adaptation Gallery: Geologic Time at the ND Heritage Center & State Museum. A neck of a plesiosaur had been found in SW North Dakota, and we wanted to include the 8′ long chunk of fossil neck, along with a full sized-animal. The challenge behind this installation was we needed to fit an extremely long animal into a very small space. The solution was to purchase an unpainted cast of the head and neck (Triebold Paleontology Inc.), and then paint the rest of the animal “fading” into the wall. The wall section was moderatly high up, and within the public space, so painting directly on the wall would have caused disruptions in the day-to-day goings-on of the museum. We chose instead to paint on a smaller canvas, scan the image, and reproduce / enlarge the image onto a sticky-backed print.

The position of the painted neck had to blend in with the cast, and the color of the cast was painted to mimic that of the painting. There is a “sweet-spot” on the gallery floor where a visitor can stand to get the perfect perspective of the finished installation.