In This Issue
Academic Overtones
Prof. Doug Larson, Integrative Biology, has built about 40 guitars as an amateur luthier but never one quite like this. Homegrown in many ways, his new instrument evokes stories connected to U of G research and scholarship.
Larson started with chunks of wood salvaged from windfall trees. Then he added a tiny fish fossil, pieces of stone, shells of turtles and mussels, bits of ivory and ancient cedar — even mink penis bones. The result is a made-in-Guelph guitar that he hopes will play music and tell tales.“Music is a vehicle to talk about things,” he says. “This is an instrument to talk about history. It's not just a guitar but a great storytelling device.”
An ecologist by day, Larson says most of the bits and pieces collected for this guitar relate somehow to U of G. Even for the pieces he's gathered off campus, Larson traces their roots to Guelph scholarship in biology, physical science, social sciences and the arts. Call it an “integrative biology” guitar. See story.
Photo by Martin Schwalbe