There are a total of 27,000 rhinos left in the world. The Black rhino is critically endangered with 6500 left in Africa, the Sumatra and Javan rhinos are critically endangered with 70 Sumatra and Javan at 34-47. These rhinos are only found in Indonesia. The White rhino is at 16,800, near threatened and the Greater One Horned is vulnerable with a population of just over 4000. Habitat loss contributes, of course, to their decline but despite international laws that protect the rhino, black market poaching can fetch over $200,000 for a horn. This can not be ignored in politically unstable and destitute areas. Facing high powered guns and fast vehicles, the rhinos and those working to protect them continue to be vulnerable.
In the 19th c. the Pig-Tailed Baboon or Macaque began its decline in population due the loss of its habitats in Sundaland, southern Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Its equatorial tropical rainforests began to be replaced with the discovery of palm oil which only grows in this narrow climate. This image of the Pig-Tailed Baboon was originally an illustration by the 19th c. artist George Shaw and the background is taken from an illustration of a 19th c. palm oil plantation, artist unknown.
This Eskimo Curlew was originally painted by 19th c. illustrator, John James Audubon.
The Eskimo curlew was once very abundant with historical population estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions. Unrestricted hunting for the market decimated Eskimo curlew populations leading to a dramatic decline between 1870 and 1890. The Eskimo curlew was widely hunted for market. Eskimo curlew meat was all dark and prized for its flavor. Demand was not high before 1880, but as the passenger pigeon population declined, hunters began to look for a replacement and turned to the easily harvested and flavorful Eskimo curlew. (Alaska Dept of Fish and Game https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=eskimocurlew.main)
I refer to Dante’s Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto 2 where Dante mourns the loss of his beloved Beatrice and Beatrice intervenes on his behalf as he wanders the entrance to Hell before he does something stupid.
The Passenger Pigeon is reimagined from JJ Audubon’s original using the translucence of watercolor and colored pencil to represent the unpredictability and volatility of climate change. It's extinction is an example of the exploitative and avaricious system of capitalism and the effect on Nature. In the epic poem, The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto XI Dante describes art as "grandchild to God", comparing art following Nature as "a pupil follows a master". Here he is discussing an ethical life and considers art as industry and usury as an offense to the Divine. This description is written in the background of the painting, adding history as texture as well as context.
This 18th c image of the Malbrouck is reimagined in charcoal and chalk. Originally illustrated by Jacques de Seve to be included in Georges-Louis Leclerc’s, Comte de Buffon, Histoire Naturelle, 2 centuries later she returns holding the world in her hands.
This image of the white bellied spider monkey was originally a lithograph by Karl Joseph Brodtmann from Heinrich Rudolf Schinzs Illustrated Natural History of Animals, Zurich, 1827 Heinrich Rudolf Schinz (30 March 1777 – 8 March 1861) was a Swiss physician and naturalist. The spider monkey is an endangered species due to destruction of the rainforests and hunting in South America. The collaged background of religious text reiterates the hypocrisy of religious dogma and complicity and justification of violence and oppression and reminds us of our responsibility to evolve beyond this futile ideology. The image is reimagined in charcoal and chalk, reiterating the fragility of his and our own existence.
In 1699 Maria Sibylla Merian traveled to Suriname as an artist, entomologist and single mother. She was novel in her approach to documenting the life cycle of insects, birds and animals as she couched them within their natural world, documenting the life cycle of the plants as well. Although she was revered by the European scientific community of her time, her work sought after by the most ardent collectors, her documentation of the bird eating tarantula was not to be believed until it was confirmed over 100 years later by a male naturalist.
The scarlet ibis was inspired by the painting by Maria Sibylla Merian, a 17th c. artist, entomologist, single mother and world traveler. The scarlet ibis represents how something fragile and beautiful can so easily be lost in the story by the same name, written by James Hurst, 1960. The words first written by Gerda Lerner, “no thinking man has ever been threatened in his self definition and his love life as the price for his thinking”
This painting recalls John James Audubon's image in his series of Quadrupeds. Here, the fox is chased by the trappings of the blue flowers, reminiscent of Quingua pottery, treasured and collected by mid 19th c. railroad tycoons.
The white American wolf has been extinct in the US since the mid 19th c.. Ironically, it was over hunted due to its uncommon coloring. JJ Audubon painted White American Wolf. I have reimagined his image using chalk, primarily, giving the image a sense of impermanence. The wallpaper is a 19th c. design.
The jaguar was originally painted by Audubon in 1849. I reinterpret the jaguar using charcoal that is both organic and fragile, messy and ephemeral. She emerges from a collage background of bible pages and 19th c wallpaper design.
During the later half of the 19th c. the medical profession united with legislators and eventually clergy, all white males of course, to criminalize women’s healthcare. The Comstock Act (1873) criminalized women learning about their bodies including menstruation and birth control. Legislation was also created refusing admittance of women to medical schools such as Harvard and criminalizing homeopathic and herbal remedies practiced by poor women to induce menstruation when pregnancies were unwelcome or dangerous. In 1849 specifically, Wisconsin criminalized abortion as a felony offense.
The jaguar expresses her displeasure, railing against the confines of subjugation.
The jaguar was originally painted by Audubon in 1849. I reinterpret the jaguar using charcoal that is both organic and fragile, messy and ephemeral. She emerges from a collage background of bible pages.
During the later half of the 19th c. the medical profession united with legislators and eventually clergy, all white males of course, to criminalize women’s healthcare. The Comstock Act (1873) criminalized women learning about their bodies including menstruation and birth control. Legislation was also created refusing admittance of women to medical schools such as Harvard and criminalizing homeopathic and herbal remedies practiced by poor women to induce menstruation when pregnancies were unwelcome or dangerous. In 1849 specifically, Wisconsin criminalized abortion as a felony offense.
The jaguar expresses her displeasure, railing against the confines of subjugation.
The American flamingo is reimagined from JJ Audubon’s original using the translucence of watercolor and colored pencil to represent the unpredictability and volatility of climate change. It was inspired by a story of thousands of flamingos that have died due to drought, water shortages and subsequent depleted lakes.
Created in the last half of the 18th c. The Histoire Naturelle de Buffon, is an encyclopedia of natural history, geology and anthropology in one publication. The Zebra, inspired by this tome, reflects the black and white thinking of the current political climate and the strips of US map interlocked with religious text that create the background. Handwritten, The 19th Amendment and The Gettysburg Address, continue the idea of stripes and space.