BELLINGHAM, WA.- When you think about a saber-toothed cat, do you think of a fossil? Or do you imagine a powerful, sinewy Ice Age carnivore stalking its prey in the open plains millions of years ago?

If you’re picturing that extinct mammal now, complete with musculature, fur, and focused eyes, you can give credit to acclaimed scientific illustrators like David W. Miller, whose work is on exhibition in UNEARTHED: Art & Science Survey the Fossil Record at the Whatcom Museum's Old City Hall building, April 27 – September 29, 2024.

UNEARTHED celebrates Miller’s contributions to paleoart with his largest-ever collection of original works on display. The exhibition centers the artistry of this niche field with more than 60 richly detailed paintings of the wildest creatures of the past along with their fossil counterparts, on loan from the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, Washington, and the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals near Portland, Oregon. On view for the first time is a fossil of a woolly mammoth molar from the Whatcom Museum’s permanent collection illuminated by Miller’s newest painting depicting the mammoth in its Pleistocene habitat.

“David’s work is exact and exquisite,” said Whatcom Museum Curator of Art Amy Chaloupka. “He carefully studies fossil samples to determine an animal’s morphology and works closely with scientists to understand an animal’s relationship to its ancient environment. Bringing these species back to life through scenes on paper or screen is as much a research endeavor as an artistic one.”

It was after Miller’s time in art school that he found scientific illustration. He discovered a book about vertebrate paleontology and was hooked. He began studying and painting prehistoric fish, which led him to provide much of the artwork for a book that John G. Maisey, then-curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, was writing.

Since then, Miller’s work continues to capture the essence of life, whether it originated millions of years ago or within our lifetimes. In addition to scientific illustrations that have appeared in numerous books, publications, and museums such as the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the American Museum of Natural History, the Burke Museum, and the National Museum of Science and Industry in London, Miller is also the Whatcom Museum’s long-time preparator and in-house illustrator. He has drawn the identification guides for the nearly 500 taxidermied bird specimen in the museum’s John M. Edson Hall of Birds, and he provides the artistry behind many of the museum’s displays – from 80-foot murals to miniature dioramas.

“Any museum would be lucky to host David’s work,” added Chaloupka. “But that he is our colleague and friend makes this exhibition particularly special to us.”