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.

Our Lady of the Earth

Our Lady of the Earth
2003
28"x15"x8"
photograph taken by E. G. Schempf
mixed media, beadwork

Our Lady of the Earth
Patroness of world's highest mountain peaks
Feast Day 29 May

The Inka conquered the Andean people in the fourteenth century.

The Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro and his army conquered the Inka Empire in 1532. This conquest brought Spanish priests and missionaries along with their faith and the image of Virgin Mary to Peru.

A group of native born artists in Cuzco rebelled against the Spanish guild system, establishing an independent art guild in 1688. This guild was known as the School of Cuzco. It was the first indigenous organization of artists in the New World. The Cuzco artists blended European traditions with local beliefs and imagery.

In paintings and sculptures, the image of the Virgin Mary took on the attributes of Pachamama, Earth Mother. Her outer garment became a triangular form representing a mountain.

The Andean people realized that veneration of the mountains and earth along with the maintenance of earth's landscape were essential to their existence.

On the other side of the planet the Buddhist Sherpas of Nepal also respect their landscape as being sacred. The mountains are the sacred abode of deities and the protectors.

In 1953 on the 29th of May, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand along with Tenzing Norgay, a local Sherpa, conquered the summit of Mt. Everest. "Well George, we knocked the bastard off!" were Hilary's words to a fellow teammate after descending. The British Queen Elizabeth II later knights Hillary. With the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary's ascent of Mt. Everest, I decided that this interpretation of the Virgin Mary would be rendered in the Cuzco School style. She would quietly remind us to protect mother earth.

As transient stewards of this earth, its landscape and environment, we must constantly protect and venerate.

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.

Nuestra Senora de los Dolores ( Our Lady of Sorrows)

Nuestra Senora de los Dolores
Our Lady of Sorrows
created in 2001
28"x15"x14"
photo taken by E. G. Schempf
mixed media, hand sewn and beaded leather figure

Nuestra Senora de los Dolores
Our Lady of Sorrows
Feast Day: 15 September

Our Lady of Sorrows represents the Blessed Virgin Mary mourning the suffering and crucifixion of Christ. She is usually shown with a dagger in her heart, symbolizing the piercing of her heart with sorrow. This image is based upon the Gospel verse: "Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also," (Luke,ii,35). Sometimes she is depicted with seven swords piercing her breast denoting her seven sorrows. The first sorrow refers to the prophecy of Simeon. The other six sorrows refer to her suffering during Christ's life: the flight into Egypt, loss of the divine child in Jerusalem, meeting with her Son bearing the cross, the Crucifixion, receiving the body of her Son from the cross, and placing his body in the tomb. Other attributes traditionally associated with this depiction are the cross, nails, crown of thorns, lance, sponge, column, chalice, and washbasin. Our Lady is usually portrayed in a grieving attitude, head covered, usually with hands clasped and tears streaming down her face.

In my interpretation, the holy shroud is draped and the sacred heart is hung on the cross. Our Lady is holding the nails from the cross. Painted on the sides of the shrine are novenas in honor of the seven sorrows of Mary.

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.

Archangel Gabriel

Archangel Gabriel
created in 2003
21"x13"x11"
photograph taken by E.G. Schempf
mixed media fabrics, leather and hand beading

Archangel Gabriel
Feast Day 29 September
Patron of telecommunications and postal workers, philatelists, diplomats, messengers, and ambassadors
invoked during childbirth

Gabriel is one of the two highest ranking angels in Judeo-Christian and Mohammedan religious lore. He is the archangel of annunciation, resurrection, mercy, vengeance, death, and revelation.

In the Old Testament, Gabriel interprets Daniel's visions, (Daniel 8: 15-27, 9: 20-27). Gabriel appears next in the New Testament to announce the birth of John the Baptist to Zachariah, (Luke 1: 11-20). Again within the book of Luke, (1: 26-38), he visits Mary in Nazarene which becomes the scene of the Annunciation.

It was Jibril (Gabriel) who dictated the Koran, sutra by sutra, unto Mohammed. In Jewish legend death and destruction to the sinful cities of Sodom and Gommorah were dealt by Gabriel. Court testimony of Joan of Arc states that Gabriel inspired her to take up arms in the name of the King of France. As a guardian angel along with St. Michael, he shares the duties of hindering demons from entering churches.

Gabriel is usually depicted as a winged, beardless youth with a nimbus. In the Annunciation scene he wears a long tunic. His attributes are a kerykeion ( messenger's staff), lily, a scroll with the greeting to Mary: Ave Maria, gratia plena ( Hail Mary, full of grace), and sometimes a unicorn.

I have chosen to depict Gabriel during the Annunciation scene. He stands at the right hand of Mary making the sign of Heaven and Earth with his left hand lowered toward earth and his right lifted towards heaven. This sign implies that he has descended from heaven for a brief visit and also calls on heaven and earth to witness what will transpire with Mary. Gabriel's eyes are also lifted towards heaven expressing his concern that the will of God shall be done.

He is clothed in a tunic, chlamys (mantle with clasp at the shoulder), and a diadem ( ornamental headband worn as a badge of royalty).