Ecosystem in action.

Mixed media: Ink, graphite, colored pencil and carbon transfer on paper, 8.5 x 11”, Winter 2012.

As the keystone species of North America’s Great Plains, Bison bison (buffalo) shaped America’s grassland ecological system for millenniums. Before man re-shaped this vast ecosystem with sprawling networks of housing, agriculture, industry and infrastructure, the American Bison were the crucial player in maintaining this delicately balanced land of grass, fire, and migrating herds. Today, less than 1% of America’s “pre-discovery” prairie grasslands remain and approximately only 4,000 “wild” buffalo remain, down from an estimated 80 million buffalo in the mid-1800’s.  

Mixed Media Series: Pencil, ink, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", October 2009 to present, Series of 73 as of May 2015.

Buffalo Head Source: Harper’s Magazine. Publication date and artist unknown.

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2012

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2010.

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, digital typography on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2011

“In Cornwall, Connecticut, and wherever iron was made in the Birkshires, you may still see where burning mounds were: the hardwood is coming back in those hills, except for the chestnut, which reaches about ten feet before it browns and succumbs to the blight of 1904.” (Sloane, 1965)

If you didn’t know better you might believe the chestnut tree is making a comeback. The chestnut blight (caused by infection of Diaporthe parasitica, a fungus imported from Japan on nursery stock) is a cruel organism; just as the chestnut sapling appears to have made its triumphant return and is ready to shoot up to be a mighty tree of yore. It doesn't. The diseased tree remains in a sad arrested state of poor health.

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2011

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, water color paint, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2010

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2010.

The Massachuset and Wampanoag tribes called the land I grew up in“Nanamooskeagin,” or “land of many beavers.” Sadly, the only castor canadensis  I ‘ve seen in my hometown are found on the Abington town seal at the top of property tax bills.

Silkscreen print on Rives BFK grey paper,  8 X 10", Spring 2013.

Beaver Head Source: Curious Woodcuts of Fanciful and Real Beasts, Gesner, Konrad, ed. New York Dover Publications, Inc. 1973.