CURRENT ART

Call of the Wild - Kingfisher's Balancing Act

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Sacred Kingfisher bird - beauty and treasure of NZ

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Sacred Kingfisher - Kōtare

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"The delicacy and brilliance of a hummingbird wedded to an industrial-strength beak that would do a woodpecker proud, the chimeric little kingfisher stakes a claim in our hearts...  Turquoise fire falls  from the sky and splashes into the water just ahead of me. Within milliseconds it is airborne again. Only when it alights a moment later is its form made manifest: a pretty little bird with a silver fish in its beak. The dazzling kingfisher has struck again.. "

                                     Geoff Moon, NZ Geographic magazine

 

The sacred kingfisher or Kōtare is not a threatened or endangered species in NZ. However it is a bird we hold close to our hearts when we spot it sitting on a fence line or a power line. It's colours dazzle and shimmer, as do others of our native and endemic species, how can we not fall in love with them all? Balancing on top of a set of scales and books, I use symbols from objects to convey questions to the viewer. Our beauty, our native treasure, our companions, these are the birds and other endangered or threatened species and their Call of the Wild.

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My Still Life Series focuses on our threatened and endangered species within NZ. Where are we at now? Where will we go next? We are standing on the threshold of the extinction of our species. Using inspiration from the Old Masters I use objects as symbols of hope or illusion. Birds and other creatures are shown, often looking to us for the answers, or for hope.

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