Fading Song, 40" x 30", acrylic on maple panel, 2021

Once considered one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, the California landscape has been drastically degraded due to colonization, extreme pressures from livestock, competition with invasive plants, drought, large tree removal, and fire suppression. Invasive species dramatically compromise ecosystem health by decreasing biodiversity, out-competing and displacing native plants and animals, and threatening endangered species. The introduction of sheep, in particular, allowed for extreme erosion of topsoil.

The painting highlights the demise of many of the declining and endangered species that were displaced in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. A porcupine hovers near the entrance to its burrow, now rare or absent from areas where they were once abundant. A juvenile grizzly bear skull lies buried under layers of soil. Declining populations of the limestone and Mt. Lyell salamanders climb amongst the rare species of unfurling flowers. A Sierra garter snake hunts for the critically endangered mountain yellow-legged frog, once the most abundant frog species in the Sierra Nevada. Grasshopper sparrow, horned lark, and loggerhead shrikes flutter about the roots. At the top of the painting, a lamb sits, perched on top of a cut tree, listening to the willow flycatcher sing its fading song.