Habitat Loss, Plumage Mismatch

Ptarmigan are adapted for survival by feathers changing color from brown in the summer to white in the winter, and back again. The length of daylight is the main determinant of this seasonal molt. As our climate changes, snow melts earlier each year, leaving white ptarmigan visible in the midst of their browning world. As climate changes bringing warmer temperatures, vegetation is able to grow at increasingly higher elevation. Brushy undergrowth and spruce trees invade areas previously inhabited by ptarmigan. Many of the fabrics in this piece are hand-dyed, silkscreened, and/or designed by me. I use drawings and textures, some photographic, which I manipulate in Photoshop, and have commercially printed. The white-tailed ptarmigan images in this piece have been silk-screened onto fabrics. Birds at the top of the piece are surrounded by typical vegetation and snow patterns found in their environment. Outlines toward the bottom represent ghost images of birds surrounded by vegetation species which now inhabit areas where they used to live.

This work was displayed at Birds of a Fiber, March 29 – April 30, 2022 at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum in La Conner, WA, and at Celebrating Alaska's Birds: Juried Bird Art Show, March 1–31, 2019, at Well Street Art Company, in Fairbanks, AK.