Year of the Golden Rabbit

Hand sewn and painted , using vintage fabrics, rabbit hand puppet created on the eve of the new rabbit year by a rabbit ( me ).

2011
Year of the Golden Rabbit
began 3 Febrero 2011, ends 22 Janvier 2012
fourth sign of Chinese zodiac
rabbit is symbol of the moon, yin
(whilst peacock is symbol of sun) yang
according to Chinese tradition
a rabbit year should be spent in a restorative manner
bring calmness to your life
breathe deeply
center and focus.

A lucky red envelope
a magic wand of sorts
filled with blessings
red, an auspicious color
to carry red with you
wards off evil
gathers in blessings
red, a lucky color
the color to begin a new year.

I hand each of you in this new rabbit year a red envelope filled with moon dust to sprinkle upon your head. This magical moon dust will have healing and restorative qualities. Carry red with you this year and sprinkle a bit of lucky rabbit moon dust on others in need. Help others breathe deeply.

Mekong Giant Catfish, CR ( critically endangered )

Mekong Giant Catfish
Pangasianodon gigas
CR ( critically endangered)

mixed media, hand sewn and beaded painted leather figure seated on hand made wooden chair
photograph by Bruce Mathews
in a private collection

Mekong Giant Catfish
Pangasianodon gigas
CR ( critically endangered)

In May of 2005, a 646 pound nine feet long giant catfish was caught in the Mekong River by a fisherman. This fish is the current record holder for the largest freshwater fish ever caught. Historically the Mekong Giant Catfish flourished in the Mekong River Basin. This catfish could be found in the freshwaters of the Tonle Sap Lake, Tonle Sap River in Cambodia, and the Mekong River which flows through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Local fisheries began reporting the disappearance of the species in the 1970s. Current population size is unknown for the Mekong Giant Catfish. The IUCN has qualified the species for Critically Endangered from estimations of past and current catch records over the last thirteen years which show a decline of more than 80% of the population.

Continuation of this species will not come easily. Fisheries in the Mekong Basin are on the rise. Loss and degradation of the catfish's habitat are serious threats also. Deforestation along the northern parts of the Mekong River area has caused increasing siltation of the Mekong mainstream. The rapids and whirlpool ecosystem within the "Golden Triangle" is the only part of the Mekong that the giant catfish use as a spawning ground. This portion of the river is slated to be reconfigured by a Mekong rapids blasting project sponsored by the governments of China, Burma, Thailand, and Lao People's Democratic Republic. With the removal of the rapids, navigation of the river channel will be easier for boats. Also the construction of dams along the river, like the Pak Mun Dam in Thailand, the catfish can not migrate back and forth to their historic spawning grounds.

Zeb Hogan, an American aquatic ecologist, leads the Mekong Fish Conservation Project in Cambodia. Their goal is to protect vulnerable populations of migratory fish in the Mekong River Basin. One of the supporters of this project is the National Geographic Society's Conservation Trust. As a part of this project, Hogan purchases live fish from Cambodian fishermen. The fish are weighed, measured, DNA samples gathered for genetic studies, tagged, and released back into the water. The record holding catfish caught in May of 2005 that was purchased from a fisherman was a part of this project. Unfortunately, the giant catfish died before it could be released. Optimistically though, this project should keep more endangered fish alive and allow scientists to gather valuable data about migration patterns, habitat use, and mortality rates. Hogan hopes this knowledge will lead to the creation of no-fishing zones and better management of Cambodian fisheries.

Pink-headed Duck , critically endangered

Pink-headed Duck
Rhodonessa caryophyllacea
CR ( critically endangered)
12"x7"x7"
mixed media , hand sewn and beaded leather figure seated in hand made wooden chair
photograph by Bruce Mathews

Pink-headed Duck
Rhodonessa caryophyllacea
CR (critically endangered)

Unconfirmed sightings in the 1960s and again in 2004 in remote wetlands of the state of Kachin, Burma ( some call the country Myanmar) and the fact that large areas of Burma haven't been explored by ornithologists are the reasons why this duck is considered critically endangered instead of extinct. The last specimen in the wild was shot and killed in 1935 in Darbhanga Bihar, India. The last known captive duck kept in an aviary at Foxwarren Park, England died in 1945.

Historically the Pink-headed Duck's known habitat included northern Burma, north-east India, and central Nepal. Freshwater ponds, marshes, swamps, and wetlands surrounded by bushes, tall grasses, and subtropical forests provided aquatic plants and mollusks to eat and nesting areas. Swamps of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers in northern India have been drained, cultivated, and heavily populated, leading to the decline of the species in that area. Many forests in Burma are being heavily logged causing further stress on any of the ducks that might still be in this country.

The male Pink-headed Duck has a pink head and neck which has made it a sought after trophy by hunters through the years. The female has paler pink plumage on its head and neck. Not only does this pink coloration make this duck unlike any other duck, its pure white or pale yellow egg differs from all other duck's eggs by being almost perfectly spherical.

The Pink-headed Duck has always been considered as rare.

Ghost Dance

Black-footed Ferret
Mustela nigripes
Endangered
only ferret species endemic to North America
mixed media painted leather , hand sewn and beaded
2007

Since April is National Poetry Month, I decided to share with you my words that are a part of an artist statement written in 2007. This statement accompanied the Endangered and Extinct Intercessors created in 2006 and 2007.

( statement written in 2007)

Riding the Sixth Great Wave One Stitch at a Time

What an armchair journey this has been over the past two years. Extensive and intensive researching of endangered and extinct beings that have called Mother Earth home. It all began for me with the Pink-headed Duck. Well over two years ago I became distressed by the wholesale slaughtering of chickens and then ducks. Listening to a story about duck herders of Thailand on a National Public Radio news program, I was fascinated by this image. I googled duck herders of Thailand and was able to read other stories with images of ducks. I could not pinpoint the species though. Concurrently, I was pondering the direction that this particular body of work would head. I knew that I wanted to continue creating jointed leather bodied Intercessor figures and their ongoing story of aiding humans.

The world's chickens, ducks, and migratory birds needed a leader to shepherd them to safety from the evil misguided human species. Whilst thumbing a book about extinct and vanishing birds of the world, I spied the words Pink-headed Duck. Oh! What a name and, I am very fond of the color pink. I turned pages to the chapter on this mysterious creature thought to be extinct. Here was a being that could lead bird populations of the world to safety.

Evolution of a theme. Creatures that had suffered at the hands of humans. Endangered. Extinct. Red listed. Each one specifically picked to come teach misguided human species a lesson. And, I would not depict the usual suspects. Species with specific messages from around Mother Earth. An image that haunts me is one of how cattle will circle round a cow giving birth, facing outward to protect. These same cattle will encircle a dead cow, facing inward, mourning. Translate that image to a bestiary of Intercessors facing inward, encircling Mother Earth ( depicted by a globe). Powerful message for misguided humans.

Each creature would have a red cross patch on its chest to signify that it is a pilgrim on a journey to teach lessons and cause humans to pause and contemplate.

Goal: Put on someone else's "shoes" for awhile. To gain empathy, tolerance, understanding.

Lean away so that others may breathe.

A sanctuary
of EN y EX beings
dance
a dance
a ghost dance
or maybe
a dance of
things as they are
but dance
they must
a dance
beyond us
a dance
around Mother Earth
twirling inward
twirling outward
beings
gather
to dance
in a circle.

Siberian Crane, CR ( critically endangered)

Siberian Crane
Grus leucogeranus
CR, (critically endangered)
14"x6"x9"
mixed media, hand sewn and beaded painted leather figure seated on hand made wooden chair
photograph by Bruce Mathews

Siberian Crane
Grus leucogeranus
CR, (critically endangered)

Adult Siberian cranes stand five feet tall and weigh only thirteen pounds. Females generally lay two goose-sized olive green eggs which are incubated for twenty-nine days. Rarely do both chicks live. Siberian cranes are omnivores. Whilst living on the breeding grounds, they will hunt rodents,fish, insects, and gather cranberries. On migration and whilst living on wintering grounds these cranes dig up nutrient rich roots and tubers from the wetlands. The oldest living documented Siberian crane lived to be eighty-three years old.

Nine of the fifteen species of cranes worldwide are threatened with extinction. The Siberian crane with a rapidly declining population of less than three thousand is listed as critically endangered. Historically there were three populations of Siberian cranes.

The western population's breeding ground is in Russia just south of the Ob River and east of the Ural Mountains. They migrate southward to a single site along the south coast of the Caspian Sea in Iran. The crane's primary threat here comes from human hunters.

There is little doubt that the central population has been extirpated. This population once nested in western Siberia and migrated south to India, spending a resting period in Afghanistan. The last documented sighting of a Siberian crane in India during the winter months was in 2002.

The eastern population which makes up 95% of the entire Siberian crane global population locates its nesting grounds on the lowland tundra of northeastern Siberia near the Arctic Circle in wetlands, bogs, and marshes. These cranes winter along the lower Yangtze River (Chang Jing) in China. It is here, in China, where the species is threatened with losing its critical wetland habitat.

This wetland habitat is Poyang Hu lakes, a maze of small lakes and marshes filled with shallow water, wet meadows, and broad mudflats. During summer floods, this area grows into a single lake which shrinks every year becoming the perfect wetland habitat for cranes and numerous other migratory waterfowl. This critical habitat is in the lower Yangtze River basin in southeastern China.

Siberian cranes are threatened in these wetlands by commercial hunters and by farmers who are draining the pools of water, gaining new cropland. A growing human population also threatens this habitat. But by far the most imposing imminent threat to the very survival of this population is the manmade Three Gorges Dam. This hydroelectric dam spans the Yangtze River, upriver from the Poyang ecosystem. Below this dam, plans are to deepen and re-channel the lower river to improve transportation, agriculture, and industry. These changes will disrupt the seasonal flow of the river and change water levels in the lowlands. This dam also threatens other endangered species such as the Yangtze dolphins, Chinese sturgeons, Chinese tigers, Chinese alligators, and giant pandas.

Arabian Oryx, EN (endangered)

Arabian Oryx
Oryx leucoryx
EN (endangered)
15"x7"x7"
mixed media leather jointed sculpture
photograph taken by Bruce Mathews

Arabian Oryx
Oryx leucoryx
EN (endangered)

Around 1800 the habitat of these white antelope was the desert plains of the entire Arabian Peninsula. Nomadic herds composed of two to fifteen individuals followed the rare rains in search of grasses, leaves, and buds. During the heat of the day, the oryx would rest in the shade offered by trees and bushes. Their white coats helped also to reflect the desert's sweltering heat. The lifespan of an oryx could be as long as twenty years. Each birthing after a gestation period of eight to nine months produced a single calf. The jackal, a native predator, preyed on young calves. Humans hunted the adult oryx for their meat and hides.

World War II birthed new powerful human guided predators. The automatic rifle and the Jeep. Decimation escalated in the decades after this war until it is thought that the last wild oryx was killed in 1972. The main cause of extinction of the Arabian Oryx in the wild was overhunting. Bedouins killed them for their meat and hides. Sport hunters killed them as a trophy.

Thankfully, captive breeding had begun in the 1950s on the Peninsula. In 1962, several individuals were sent to the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona where the breeding program flourished. Oryx were reintroduced into the wild in Oman in 1982. In the following years others found the desert in Bahrain, Israel, and Saudi Arabia to be their new homes. The reintroduction population in the wild numbered 886 in 2003.

Sadly, poaching by humans has once again become a serious threat to the reintroduced oryx. Also the escalating temperatures in the desert are stressing these creatures.

Proboscis Monkey, EN ( endangered)

Proboscis Monkey
Nasalis larvatus,
EN, endangered
11"x7"x8"
mixed media leather jointed sculpture
photo by Bruce Mathews

Proboscis Monkey
Nasalis larvatus
EN, endangered

"Dutchmen monkeys", as they were known historically by local people on the island of Borneo, live only on this island in the treetops of riverine and coastal forests and swamps. The male monkeys huge noses, which swell and turn red when angry or excited, reminded the locals of the Dutch sailors during colonial times. These Dutchmen and Proboscis monkeys also shared the characteristic of appearing potbelllied. These monkeys have huge chambered stomachs which contain healthy bacterias that aid the digestion of leaves, seeds, and young sour fruits that make up their diet.

One of Asia's largest monkeys, the proboscis, who lives in groups, can weigh up to fifty pounds and have a lifespan of thirteen years. After a gestation period of 166 days, a female will give birth to one baby. Twins are rare. Proboscis monkeys have long thick tails which help them balance in treetops and are excellent swimmers due to their partially webbed hands and feet. This ability to swim allows the monkeys to cross rivers which are the crocodile's habitat. Crocodiles and humans are the main predators of this monkey.

The population trend for the Proboscis monkey is unknown because their habitat is shrinking at an alarming rate. These monkeys need vast expanses of native forests in order to hunt enough vegetal material for sustenance. Native forests are being logged for timber, burned to clear the land, and replaced with oil palm plantations. Palm oil, a major ingredient of soaps, moisturizer, lipstick, and foodstuffs such as margarine, confectionery, chocolate, and ice cream, is one of Malaysia's top exports.

In Sumatra the tigers and elephants are also losing their habitats due to these plantations.

Siberian Tiger, CE ( critically endangered)

Siberian Tiger
Panthera tigris ssp. Altaica
CE (critically endangered)
photograph by Bruce Mathews
11"x7"x6"
mixed media sculpture, painted hand stitched and beaded leather

Historically the Siberian tiger, ( reverently called "Amba", Great Sovereign, by the Udege people of Russian Far East) inhabited the Korean peninsula, Manchuria, and the Russian Far East. There were thought to be between six hundred and eight hundred tigers in the Russian Far East prior to economic development of the area. By 1940 this estimate dropped drastically to no more than thirty with an unknown number in China and Korea. Approximately two hundred and fifty mature individuals live in the Russian Far East currently but the numbers are declining. Only twenty percent of this declining population can be found within the supposed safe havens of three small reserves.

The Siberian tiger can live to be fifteen years old in the wild and possibly to twenty if kept in a zoo. Males can weigh as much as 660 pounds and be almost eleven feet long. Females will weigh between 200 to 370 pounds and be eight and one half feet long. Their orange colouring is paler than other tigers of the world and their stripes are brown instead of black. In the winter their hair can grow to be as long as twenty-one inches, helping insulate them from frigid winter temperatures. Tigers live a solitary life for the most part. After a gestation period of approximately 110 days, a female will give birth to a litter of two to three cubs, though this number can range from one to six cubs. The Siberian tiger's diet typically consists of red deer and wild boar. Their habitat is mixed pine and broadleaf forest.

Humans are the predators of the Siberian tiger. In the early 1900s the building of the Chinese Eastern Railway aided in the slaughter of the tiger in Manchuria. Poaching continues to this day, in spite of it being against the law, because of unstable economic conditions, the demand for hides and body parts for traditional Chinese medicine. Commercial logging within the dense forests of the Russian Far East and the subsequent development of the cleared land has reduced the tiger's habitat. Humans hunting red deer and wild boar make it difficult for tigers to exist on their traditional diet, forcing them to range into open grasslands to kill cattle for food.

Captive breeding of Siberian tigers within zoos worldwide has been quite successful and their existence in captivity is considered secure. The same can not be said of their existence in the wild.

Thylacine, EX ( extinct )

Thylacine
Thylacinus cynocephalus (pouched dog with a wolf head)
EX (extinct)

12"x6"x7"
mixed media sculpture, painted, hand stitched and beaded leather

April 1930
EW (extinct in the wild)
Last confirmed Thylacine in the wild was killed

7 September 1936
EX ( extinct)
Last Thylacine died in Hobart Zoo, Tasmania due to human neglect

A prehistoric survivor, the Thylacine, thought to have evolved over thirty million years ago, was the largest marsupial predator to have survived into historic times. Its historic habitat included the entire mainland of Australia and New Guinea, as well as Tasmania. With the introduction of dingos and dogs, both alien species, to Australia and New Guinea, Thylacines had competitors for prey. This competition caused the Thylacine to die out in these locations leaving them one last island on which to survive. Until the arrival of European settlers with their sheep.

Mistakenly called Tasmanian Wolf ( because it was wolf-like in shape) and Tasmanian Tiger ( because of its stripes) this hapless creature did not have a chance of survival against humans. Thylacines, nocturnal hunters, were at the top of the food chain on the island, preying on kangaroos, wallabies, small mammals, and birds. Unfortunately humans got it into their thick heads that Thylacines were sheep eating machines. Thylacine's habitat on Tasmania was in open gum forest and grassy meadows, never in the dense rain forest of the western mountains. Their lairs were in rocky outcroppings. As an adult, the Thylacine, would weigh approximately 65 pounds (German Shepherd dog size). A female carried her litter of two or three joeys in a backward facing pouch.

Van Dieman's Land Company was the largest of the wool growing operations to move to the island of Tasmania. Gum forests were logged, converting the land into pastures. Sheep were brought to Tasmania in 1824. They were settled into these newly converted pastures as well as the native grassy lowlands and savannah areas, forcing the Thylacines out of their native habitat.

Because of the ill-conceived notion that Thylacines were vicious livestock killers, the Van Dieman Land Company put a bounty out on Thylacine carcasses. The government also paid a bounty on each scalp that was brought in. From 1830 to 1909 thousands of Thylacines were killed. Their hides shipped to London to be made into waistcoats. In 1909 the government quit paying bounties.

By 1909 it was rare to see a Thylacine and the prices paid by zoos for live specimens rose. Trappers now tried to keep the Thylacines alive if they caught one. It is believed that this last Thylacine was captured along with two siblings and mother by a trapper, Walter Mullins, and sold to the Hobart Zoo in 1924. The mother did not survive very long in captivity and the siblings died during the early 1930s.

The story of the incarcerated animals in Hobart Zoo beginning in 1930 is a sad tale. If you want to know the whole story, I suggest you read Robert Paddle's account in his book, The Last Tasmanian Tiger, pg 174-195. The last Thylacine, a female, died because of human neglect. Temperatures in her concrete floored cage during the month of September varied from 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the day to below freezing at night for almost two weeks. One lone deciduous tree outside her cage had lost its leaves offering no shade during the day. The door into her den was bolted offering no escape from the bitterly cold nights.

The last Thylacine died during the night of 7 September 1936 unprotected and exposed to the elements.

On a final note, the zoos Bengal Tiger died on 24 July 1936, also a victim of neglect. The pair of lions survived another year until the zoo was closed on 25 November 1937. No buyer could be found for the lions so they were shot.

Steller Sea Lion, endangered

Steller Sea Lion
Eumetopias jubatus
EN (Endangered)
mixed media sculpture, painted and stitched leather
12"x7"x8"

George Wilhelm Steller, a German naturalist, accompanied Vitus Bering, a Russian explorer, on his second Alaskan expedition in 1741. Mr. Steller was the first qualified observer to study and classify these northern sea lions. Thus the name Steller Sea Lion.

The world population is divided into two groups, the western stock and the eastern stock. This division occurs at 144 degrees W longitude (Cape Suckling) just east of Prince William Sound, Alaska. The western stock can be found in the North Pacific Ocean from northern Hokkaido, Japan through the Kuril Islands, Okhotsk Sea, Commander Islands in Russia, the Aleutian Islands and central Bering Sea. The eastern stock live off the southern coast of Alaska and south to the Channel Islands of California.

Steller Sea Lions spend time on land on offshore islands. Some are called rookeries where the females and pups live. The other islands are called haul-offs. The rest of the time is spent in the water hunting for food. Their main diet is composed of a wide variety of fishes, squid, and octopus. Some of the most important prey species in Alaskan waters include walleye, pollock, Atka mackerel, Pacific herring, capelin, Pacific sand lance, Pacific cod, and salmon. These sea lions have rear flippers that can rotate to help them waddle on land and they have external ear flaps. Their lifespan can be as long as twenty-three years. Males can weigh up to 2,400 pounds and be ten to eleven feet long. Females can weigh about a thousand pounds less and be seven to nine feet long. Females give birth to a single pup after a year long gestation period. Native predators are killer whales ( orcas) and white sharks.

Populations have dropped drastically within both the western and eastern stocks off the coast of Alaska and down the continental United States and Canada in the past thirty years. Exact reasons for the decline are not known but researchers believe that increased commercial fisheries are catching large numbers of the Steller Sea Lion prey. Drownings occur also when sea lions become entangled in the fishing nets. Pollock is the major prey fish consumed by the western stock. Current distribution of the Pollock fishery overlaps extensively with the distribution of foraging sea lions and their habitat. Commercial fishing for pollock within these waters increases during the fall and winter which further stresses the sea lions because their metabolic demands are greater at this time. Nursing females and young lean sea lions are most vulnerable during the harsh winter season. When Steller's have to swim further out to sea in search of food they are increasingly exposed to predation.

The Eastern stock has its own tale of woe. Open sea salmon farm pens all along the Pacific coast are cropping up in sea lion habitat. Shortages of herring, hake, and pollock as a food source has driven the sea lions to invade the salmon nets. In the past, salmon farmers have shot and killed thousands of marine mammals, including Stellers. Thankfully now the Steller sea lion is protected under the Endangered Species Act though this act does nothing to slow the commercial fisheries invasion of the Steller sea lion habitat.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Ivory-billed Woodpecker
13" x 6" x 9"
mixed media, hand painted, sewn and beaded leather, seated on wooden chair

The two largest species of woodpeckers in the world, Imperial Woodpecker (20% larger than the Ivory-billed Woodpecker) are both all but extinct. The Imperial has not been definitively sighted since 1956 in its historic range, the Sierra Madres of northwestern Mexico. Logging of dead trees that host the beetles which are its primary food source and hunting have wiped out this majestic woodpecker. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker's tale could be just as tragic.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Campephilus principalis
CR ( critically endangered)

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, two feet long from beak to tail, has a wingspan of two and one half feet. Its bill ( three inches long and one inch wide at the base), is used to scale bark off of freshly dead mature trees, with trunks up to three feet in diameter, in search of beetle grubs, their primary food source. This gigantic bill is also a tool used to excavate holes for nesting and roosting within these tree trunks. Ivory-billed Woodpecker's diet also consisted of persimmons, wild grapes, seeds from poison ivy and magnolia, and various berries. They are thought to pair for life and female will lay between one to four white eggs a year.

Once the Ivory-billed Woodpecker could call home million and millions of acres of pristine bottomland hardwood forests within the Mississippi River Valley, vast swamps and river bottomland forests that stretched across the southern states down into Florida, as far west as eastern Texas and northward into the boot heel of Missouri, then eastward across southern Illinois, southern Indiana, and southern Ohio. The hardwood forests of Cuba were ( and possibly still are) the only other place in the world that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker inhabited.

Of that vast contiguous forest across the southern United States only small scattered pockets of timber remain. Tiny sanctuaries possibly too tiny to sustain the feeding requirements of this large bird. Timber and agricultural industries still threaten the existence of their compromised range.

If the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is extant and has adapted to these isolated habitats, we humans have been given a second chance at saving this species from extinction. Sightings of one woodpecker were made in February 2004 and October 2005 in eastern Arkansas. Intensive survey teams have scoured the Big Woods area, part of which is located in the White River National Wildlife Refuge, looking for the bird or signs of a nesting tree. Searches are also being conducted in the remaining forested mountains of Cuba where suitable habitat remains. The last confirmed sighting of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in eastern Cuba was in 1987.

I highly recommend reading The Race To Save The Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose from cover to cover.

Year of the Ox

One last peek at Red Rat as the Year of the Rat ended yesterday. As you may remember this rat sculpture was fabricated by Rhett out of part of our old 1969 Chevy pickup. (May it rest in peace .) Rat Rat sits on our kitchen table. And so, with the first day of Year of the Ox , I have no photo of an Ox to show you. Neither of us have 'whipped' one up yet. Instead, I chose Lucky Bird to share with us pages from an imaginary Chinese pothi (pilgrim's handbook). Canaries are kept in cages and act as oracles for passing pilgrims by selecting scraps of paper in the bottom of the cage that have messages on them for each pilgrim.

The traits associated with someone born in a Year of the Ox are traits that we all could aspire to exhibit in the year ahead of us. Hardworking. Dependable. Calm. Modest. Unswerving patience. Tireless in their work. Capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaining. Filled with common sense with feet planted firmly on the ground. Not extravagant. Caring soul. Kind. What do you think?
And so, instead of a page from a pothi to remind us as pilgrims on this year's journey, Lucky Bird is suggesting that we wear a tag with the image of a hand on it. The hand of helping our neighbor whether across the street or across the ocean. A hand of peace. A hand of caring concern. No more either you are for us or against us. No more 'us or them' mentality. A 'we' mentality instead. The printed image on this tag which, of course, Rhett fabricated the case and lens for, comes from the beaded brooch you see in the image below. The tag is 1 and 3/4" across and comes on a nickel plated steel ball chain which is 24" long. These will be for sale along with a charm sized version of the image on my website in the following days but if you can not wait for that , Missouri Bluffs in Weston, MO has some for sale. Their phone number is 816) 640-2770.
This is the brooch from a collection I beaded in 1996. It measures 7" long and 4" wide. Beaded in glass seed beads on painted canvas with mixed media baubles hanging from the bottom. An old watch face and old pressed glass button made to look like a Chinese coin, and a pot metal lucky horseshoe are sewn to the beaded portion of the brooch.

Here is a close-up view of the printed version of the hand that I use for the tags and charms.

I hope all of our neighbors in China made it back home for the festivities with their families.
Happy New Year !

Black-tailed Prairie Dog

Black-tailed Prairie Dog
Cynomys ludovicianus
misunderstood being of the prairie
12" x 7" x 8"
mixed media hand sewn and beaded painted leather jointed figure seated on wooden chair.

A member of the Rodentia order, the Black-tailed Prairie Dog is a large burrowing ground squirrel. Its habitat for thousands of years has been the Great Plains of North America. Misunderstood from its initial encounter with pale faces in 1742, when Louis and Francois Verendrye, French explorers, called them petit chien ( little dog ), the Black-tailed Prairie Dog's fate rests in our hands.

What was once the largest prairie ecosystem in the world, the Great Plains spanned from southern Saskatchawan, Canada, across Montana, North Dakota, southward through New Mexico and Texas into northern Mexico. These vast uninterrupted grasslands provided habitat for herds of migrating bison and pronghorn antelope. Amongst these herds on this short grass prairie and in semi-desert country, the Black-tailed Prairie Dog did dwell. Pronghorn antelope grazed on weeds amongst the mounds and bison found respite within the dust wallows. Within the colony of multi-chambered burrows just beneath the surface of the earth, other denizens of the prairie coexisted and depended on the Prairie Dog for their survival. Rabbits. Rattlesnakes. Lizards. Burrowing Owls, as well as other birds. Insects. Toads. Salamanders. Spiders. Badgers. Swift fox. The endangered Black-footed Ferret. Just to name a few of the species.

From historic accounts written in the nineteenth century estimates of the Black-tailed Prairie Dog population reached five billion. One particular colony in Texas contained 400 million inhabitants and covered 25,000 square miles it was calculated. A head count of Black-tailed Prairie Dog today would be a number less than 2% of these historic figures. Their status is locally common in some areas though have been extirpated from eastern Arizona and western New Mexico.

Black-tailed Prairie Dgs are herbivores, eating an occasional insect. Life span in the wild is about four years. Females produce one litter in the springtime with usually four to five pups in a litter. An adult's weight will average between one and one half to three pounds and are between thirteen and seventeen inches long. They do not hibernate but remain dormant deep within their burrows in a nest during the harshest days of winter. Black-tailed Prairie Dogs molt twice a year. In the spring, molt begins at the head working its way to the tail. In the fall, the molt works in reverse from the tail to the head. And the tail only molts once, in the summer, when the spring molt is completed.

Black-tailed Prairie Dogs are highly social animals that prefer to live in large colonies. They dig elaborate burrows with entrances angled to catch cooling summer breezes. Mounds built just outside of these burrow entrances act as vantage points to keep a watchful eye on predators.

Predators of the Black-tailed Prairie Dg are coyote, bobcats, hawks, and golden eagles. Add to that list humans. In particular farmers and ranchers, predators also of the Great Plains ecosystem. Human persecution through government funded poisoning, mindless shooting, urbanization, and the conversion of habitat to cropland and feedlots for cattle has taken a toll on a healthy Black-tailed Prairie Dog population and other species that depend on them.

Sylvatic plague caused by a bacterium ( Yersinia pestis ) brought to North and South America in the late nineteenth century made its way to the Plains on the backs of animals carrying the diseased fleas. This plague is deadly to Black-tailed Prairie Dogs and to its endangered predator the Black-footed Ferret.

Please become knowledgeable about and respect our brethren of the Great Plains who's existence is so important to a healthy ecosystem. Please do not let happen to this species what happened to the Thylacine of Tasmania and Passenger Pigeon of North America due to human ignorance.

I created my interpretation of the Black-tailed Prairie Dog during an artist residency at the Johnson County Central Resource Library in Overland Park, Kansas in 2007. I sewed and beaded every day in a setting where patrons could watch and ask questions. I am working on an ongoing series of endangered and extinct beings from around the world. Researching the plight and story of the species chosen and then interpreting an image with leather, beads and other materials and then writing a message. For this month long residency I chose to work on species from the state of Kansas that are having a hard time. The Black-tailed Prairie Dog and its predator the Black-footed Ferret.

My Black-tailed Prairie Dog now abides at the Johnson County Central Resource Library and is a part of their art collection. Young readers can visit him and learn about his message. ( older readers are welcome to visit him also)

Grizzly Bear Intercessor

Grizzly Bear
Ursos arctos horribilis

"It was verry large and a turrible lookiing animal, which we found verry hard to kill."
William Clark 20 October 1804

The Grizzly bear has been extirpated by the human species in all but three or four states south of Canada.

Within the lower forty-eight states and Mexico, the Grizzly bears historic range began at the eastern edge of the Great Plains in about the longitude of the one-hundredth meridian sweeping westward to the Pacific coast. To the south, their range extended into northern Lower California and to Durango, Mexico. Moving northward beyond the contiguous states, grizzlies were common in British Columbia and western Alberta, Canada, Yukon, and Northwest Territories, and on into the southern central parts of the Alaskan Peninsula and the Arctic coast.

Grizzlies were common across most of North Dakota. In the mid nineteenth century they were plentiful in Nebraska and Kansas. By 1900 the grizzly bear was extinct in these states. Humans eradicated almost 100,000 Grizzlies in the western United States between 1850 and 1920.

The last documented Grizzly bear was killed:
In Texas 1890
In New Mexico 1917 ( one of the last grizzlies)
In California 1922
In Oregon 1931
In Arizona 1935
In Colorado 1979

The Grizzly bear's current range is less than 1% of its historic range in the lower forty-eight states. They can be found in the Rocky Mountain region in the states of Montana and Wyoming. Some wander into Idaho and on rare occasions on into Washington. Grizzlies that live within Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks are somewhat protected

A healthy habitat for Grizzly bears could be found in dense forests interspersed with open meadows, rivers, and lakes in mountainous areas with lots of open rugged country and along the western coast. A habitat devoid of logging, energy exploration, mining operations, roads, 0ff-road vehicles, and intolerant humans who come to recreate and build residential developments, raise livestock and grow crops.

Protected habitats have an umbrella effect in that what is good for the grizzlies is also beneficial to harlequin ducks, bull and cutthroat trout, lynx, pine martens, wolverines, mountain caribou, great gray owls, and gray wolf , just to name a few species. Threatened plant life such as water howellia also flourishes when areas are protected from logging, mining, road building, and the drainage of wetlands.

Grizzly bears must roam over vast areas searching for food with a high nutrient content in order to build up their fat reserve to get them through a long winter's hibernation. In spring they feast on cutthroat trout, which are indigenous to Yellowstone Lake and are being threatened by exotic lake trout. In the summer months grizzlies will climb in the mountains above the timberline (to elevations above 10,000 ft.) in search of army cutworm moths. These moths migrate to this tundra in search of sub alpine wildflowers that provide nectar, their food source. Grizzly bears will eat thousands of these moths. The army cutworm moth is itself threatened by pesticides used on its host plants in the valleys below and in the Plains states. Also global warming is taking its toll on the wildflowers above the timberline. In autumn another high nutrient food source is the white-bark pine nut. This food source has declined within Yellowstone Park since the forest fires of 1988. A disease known as blister rust is also stressing remaining trees in the forests within Yellowstone.

Berries, grasses, roots, tubers, sedges, ants, ladybugs, and meat from ungulates, and small mammals also provide nutrition for grizzly bears within the Rocky Mountain region. Along the coastline, salmon and other fish provide nutrient rich food sources.

For the most part Grizzlies live in solitude. Cubs ( and twins are common) may live with their mother for up to three years whilst she protects them fiercely from predators and teaches them how to forage for food. Grizzlies will wait to mate until five or six years of age and females will have litters only every three years. Life span for a grizzly in the wild varies from fifteen to thirty-four years.

Currently the Grizzly bear is protected under the Endangered Species Act. It is listed as threatened and endangered. There is some pressure by lobbyists representing oil and gas and livestock industries along with big game hunters and land developers to de-list the grizzly.

Gaining knowledge about this species hopefully will lead to empathy and tolerance and halt the impending extinction of the Grizzly bear from the lower forty-eight states.

Big Fly, Navajo mentor

Big Fly, mixed media sculpture
34cm x 32cm x 30cm
wooden base with wire armature

Big Fly
a mentor,
takes earthly being form
of horse bot fly.

He too is blood red.
Danger.

Perched
on an ear
to whisper
instructions,
answers,
forecasts of the future.

Deafness
necessitates
entering
host's mouth,
to bellow.

Dance
Big Fly
dance,
break free
of
mounted specimen pins.


Okay, I can sense that quizzical look on your face. "What is Kelly drinking on this fine Earth Day?" The answer is dandelion tea, to be truthful. Big Fly is one of the Intercessors that I created two years ago. From Navajo readings I meditated and then fabricated Grandmother Spider, Yellow Rat, and Big Fly. With each , I write "words". I hesitate to call it poetry because I do not care for labels and I do not want to be encumbered by the rules of the game.

" So, explain the words ! "

Thankfully in the book about Navajo religion there were no images of Big Fly. I could imagine anything that I wanted. I thought about Big Fly's "job" here on Earth. A big job, getting humans to listen. I imagined that no one was listening to Big Fly and that in desperation he had taken the form of an earthly species . A fly that gets attention in a big way. The horse bot fly.

The last "paragraph" refers to the cigar box science lesson that teaches kids to kill insects and pin them in a cigar box for a good grade. Big Fly has broken free of these pins.

The red cross (which you will come to see appears on all my Intercessors) lets us know that the Intercessor has come down to Earth to help misguided human species.

Big Fly is created out of leather which is painted , sewn by hand, and then stuffed with a wire armature and cotton batting. The wings are of old copper wire window screen . Many of the seed beads used were recycled from a bedraggled Victorian era dress. The base is another recycled piece, a wooden form. Big Fly holds an old hat pin which represents the specimen pin.

I have decided that Big Fly will appear within this blog when I feel the need to post "the emperor hasn't any clothes on once again" soap box "sermons". Big Fly will tap tap tap us with the specimen pin to remind us to listen to his gentle whispers. If we don't listen , he will have to take on the form of the horse bot fly.

back to my dandelion tea and sewing tiny beads to leather......

Year of the Rat

Olla, dear reader. Yes, I know that Year of the Rat has commenced and that this is not a timely image. But, I had fun setting up this scenario on the appropriate day using Red Rat and the "spotted spring sisters". I share the diorama with you now. The "sisters" are members of my ever growing tribe of old hand made dolls and animals. Red Rat is from my Intercessor series of figures. He is fabricated from painted leather and is hand sewn and beaded. His limbs are jointed. Rhett, my husband, created the chair and table from rescued bits and pieces of wood found in junk heaps.

My goal through this dialogue is to provide a glimpse into Rhett's and my life, our artwork, and from time-to-time may feel the need to step upon my well-worn soap box to voice concern over issues. "The emperor hasn't any clothes on once again." I promise to keep the soap box sermons concise. Hopefully my comments will cause us all to step away from the tilt-a-whirl ride of life, to reflect, and to take action.

So, (deep breath) this ends my first entry. Surely in a few days I will be able to share an image of a morel mushroom in its natural habitat. Tis the season, according to the calendar. Barn swallows are returning daily from their winter migration. Cricket frogs are singing in the pond. Spring has arrived on this hilltop in Platte County, Missouri.