Day 19

Last night I had a dream about birds. I was standing in my grandmother's driveway. It was evening and the sky was filled with stars. I saw what I thought to be a large number of falling stars but as I focused closer I realized that it was a large flock of geese. It was beautiful. My grandmother came out of the front door and I told her of the project I would like to begin. "That is a wonderful idea", she said. It made me feel great. I thought that this Spur-winged Goose would be appropriate. Here is my project proposal:

I would like to produce a body of work using the imagery of extinct and endangered birds as well as birds that have been removed from the endangered species list as my subject matter. This collection of paintings will be priced to sell in a solo art exhibition and a portion of the proceeds will go to an avian conservation organization.

This project serves two purposes: it fulfills my love of painting birds and secondly, it brings forth the importance of avian conservation efforts to the public.

Books and photos are my main resource for depicting my subject accurately but I do believe that witnessing the character of the bird first hand is extremely important as well. In order to capture a bird’s true unique traits, I plan to visit organizations that house some of these truly amazing creatures.

Through this project I hope to become a better artist, more knowledgeable of avian behavior, and become part of a community that supports the survival of an animal that I have become very passionate about.