Elasmosaurus to feature in new exhibit (PART 2)

A special exhibition entitled “Collecting Oklahoma” opened in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, on the 16th of June 2007. The exhibition features an original painting of an Elasmosaurus by artist Debby Cotter Kaspari. The exhibit was curated by Rick Lupia, the project coordinator was Deborah Kay, and Tom Luczycki was the exhibits director. I discussed in a previous news article (see Part 1) the initial stages of the design process for this project. Kaspari worked closely with palaeontologist Kyle Davies on the elasmosaur, to make it as accurate as possible. I am now pleased to reveal the final work of art.

Debby ponders over the finished painting – the original piece was produced at half size…

… but was later blown up in a mural to represent a full-size adult Elasmosaurus in the exhibit. Notice the string of elasmosaurid vertebrae in the foreground.

Kaspari attended the grand opening of the event: “It went great!” explains Kaspari pictured here next to the finished Elasmosaurus exhibit, “A wonderful turnout, lots of excitement, and the mural looked really good up there. It’s big, really big. And toothy”

The complete painting by Debby Cotter Kaspari…

…and detail of the head of the Elasmosaurus.

To coincide with the opening of the new exhibit, a specially designed postal cancellation stamp featuring the head of the Elasmosaurus was released by the post office in Norman, Oklahoma. The stamp was also designed by Debby Kaspari, who was on hand at the opening event to autograph her artwork.

I would again like to thank Debby Kaspari for providing information and allowing me to use her photographs and images.