This month I’m working on my series entitled 'Ornaments of Extinction', about the devastating eradication of animal life on our planet in my lifetime (specifically birds). I loosely based these masks on endangered or extinct avian life. In some cases the bird skull masks veer into fantasy...a nod to creatures lost that are outside of fossil documentation. My series began in 2018 at Big Cypress National Preserve in south Florida and I've continued the project at home in Atlanta. The finished masks are now in collections in California, Virginia, Atlanta, and Nashville.
The North American population is down by 2.9 billion breeding adult birds since 1970, with devastating losses among birds in every biome. Forests alone have lost 1 billion birds. Grassland bird populations collectively have declined by 53%, or another 720 million birds. In fact, humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilization.
