This entry is from my sketchbook on the series, “Path and Compartments” exploring the concept of the shrinking habitats along the Mississippi fly away for its wild inhabitants. Occasionally in my sketchbook exploration of birds, I think about the context of the water, not just the sky. Given the history of Koi, and the relation to food sources and as a decorative cultural element, I tend to work them in as a subject. There is symbolic references to water quality from stream to river to ocean, same as the birds, impacted by human behavior and climate.

While we have the migratory bird Treaty act (MBTA) and local policies that help protect bird species we are losing the habitats and population due to a rising temperature in our climate and the sprawl of human activity and agriculture. The Wood Thrush bird alone needs 700+ acres of forest to thrive. There was one reportedly found in a small forested area near the Mississippi river in Illinois a few years ago, but numbers are in serious decline, some calling it a signal that the extinction of this species and others in our lifetime could be on the horizon.

Original art was rendered with mixed media: Charcoal, graphite, color pencil on paper. Each page has been scanned at high resolution and ready for print at various sizes. Please email me at sticks.stones@andrewnaeger.com if you are interested in the orginal. Some of these pages I’m still using as reference for larger pieces and need to remain in my sketchbook until project completion.

Original size: 5.5 inches wide x 8.5 inches high

Please support policies and acts that protect our wildlife. For usually that comes with an array of other benefits that bring us closer to nature. Find ways to be resilient to the division and work to unify what makes us human.