I’m happy to share that “Black-Billed Magpie & Shadow,” one of my favorite works, got a little award! A Distinction Prize, in the juried art contest Living & Breathing (Animals) by Gallery4%, a San Francisco-based international online gallery. It’s a wild, woolly and wondrous group of animal images, as is the rest of Gallery4%’s website. Here’s the link: https://www.gallery4percent.com/
I first saw a black-billed magpie in Telluride, Colorado in 2022. You can’t not notice them – they’re big, beautiful, cheeky, and flashy birds, with bold black & white feathers and vivid teal blue tailfeathers and wing tips. I got close enough to snap a great profile view, and that photo was the starting point of this mixed media image.
You may wonder – what’s the story behind the name Gallery 4%? The website explains that despite the mind-boggling size of the universe, we’ve only discovered and understood 4% of it — all the rest is a vast unknown of dark matter or dark energy. Look, I can’t speak to the science behind how they made their calculations. But I do know that Gallery 4% exists, their website features really cool art and artists, they seem like very nice people with discerning taste, and I’m honored that they like my little magpie.