acrylic on illustration board 18" x 24" $12,000. After many years spent observing the natural world, I’m starting to develop a sense of history. I’ve witnessed great change to the ecosystems around me in the service of providing homes and other resources for a growing population of Humans, and watched many different species either adapt to or fail to adapt to those changes. In recent years, a lot of this history seems to be leaking into my paintings. Before I was born, Peregrine Falcons nested on tall, sheer cliffs, preferably near water. By the time I came along, widespread application of DDT had all but wiped these birds out. The banning of the agricultural use of DDT in 1972 and a concerted captive propagation and reintroduction program by the Peregrine Fund restored North American Peregrines to healthy numbers, and today, many of them have taken to living in cities, which in many ways mimic their natural habitat, with skyscrapers standing in for cliffs and feral Rock Pigeons for shorebirds. |
