Margaret Ross Tolbert
April 12, 2023
Smathers Library 100
5:30 PM
In Southern Türkiye, there is a woman who lives in the springs. Her name is Leto. We are looking for her.
Leto is old, but she is still powerful. She was living in the springs before the arrival of Paleolithic settlers. She watched the rise and fall of the Lycian, Greek, and Roman empires. She is still worshipped by those in remote villages. She is the hidden one.
Our world is out of balance. This is not a secret. We are looking for Leto because the restoration of our balance requires a reconnection with our myths.
We are American and Turkish hydrologists, cave divers, artists, activists, journalists, photographers, and archeologists. We are a team who seeks to better understand the science of water just as much as we seek to honor the ancient rituals that celebrate it. We believe that, just as much as we need clear water to function, we need a clearer relationship with its myths.
Proje SU – a book, a film, an exhibit – is the record of our journey in the rivers, ruins, and deep cave systems of Kirkgoz to reestablish a commitment to the preservation of our springs and the celebration of Leto, the soul of these waters.
This event is free and open to the public.
About the Speaker
Margaret Ross Tolbert has long investigated the lenses and points of view that create different realities. She earned her BFA and MFA in painting at the University of Florida, and soon after began her underwater explorations in the springs heartland of the Floridan aquifer. There, she discovered that the lens of water is not only a metaphorical construct but also a physical space; when we enter it we are transformed. Her work since has been about communicating the experience of immersion through painting and installation, writing and film.
Since the 1980s, Tolbert’s springs paintings have featured in exhibits and collections in the US, Europe, and Türkiye. In 2010 her book AQUIFERious received a gold and silver medal in the Florida Book Awards, and the accompanying AQUIFERious exhibit and film was shown in New Orleans, at the University of Virginia, and in numerous museums and art centers in Florida through 2019. Tolbert was a producer of Lost Springs (2017), a plea for restoration of a historic river and springs, with a premiere exhibition at the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art. Her public art installations include Orlando Springs (2011), at the Orlando International Airport, and Connected Worlds of Forest and Springs, at the Austin Cary Memorial Forest (2015). Tolbert has had several exhibits in the Art and Embassies program in Türkiye, and her commissioned 18 ft diptych Ulupinar/Great Spring was recently installed in the new United States embassy in Ankara. She is based in Gainesville, FL.
“Proje SU: The Soul of Water” is sponsored by Imagining Climate Change and the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida.