Territorial Dispute, Detail

What inspired the painting,‘Territorial Dispute’  , was several extensive articles I read about the reintroduction of the California Condor into the wild foothills in South Central California.  I wondered ‘what wilderness?’.  I had seen the substantial growth of that region and knew that most was houses and subdivisions and that wilderness had all but disappeared.  I wondered what a magnificent bird, pulled back from the edge of extinction would encounter while trying to ‘move back in’.  I constructed a narrative painting that showed the first contact this condor might have with the current local resident crow. 

Faced with the challenge of integrating back into the same place they came from, the condor is challenged by the interloper who filled this gap while they were gone.

Nature always finds a way to fill a void.  I placed the condor entangled by fence wire to symbolized the non-threatening possibilities which surround this issue.  Though the wire will not harm on hurt the large bird, it demonstrates the tangled situations both birds and humans face when attempting to second guess nature.

I choose to work in watercolor because this fluid medium can be layered in light and dark values to developed the rich depth of intense color which fits the subject matter.  Working this way slowly, gives me time to contemplate and enhance the subtitles of the narrative qualities contained in my work.