Artist’s Statement, RTPI Series, 2019 – Present
In June of 2019, I was an artist in residence at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, NY. Peterson was a well-known naturalist and illustrator best known for his Field Guide to the Birds. The Institute that bears his name houses many of his illustrations as well as archives of his photographs, films, correspondence and, most interestingly, a trove of preserved bird skins acquired from several collections that Peterson used as references for his work. Fascinated by the skins, I was inspired to do digital drawings of several of them on my iPad and am now incorporating them into more complex compositions that also feature native flora found on-site at RTPI.