Aug
28
By Anne Hansen, James Bay Art Walk artist
I grew up in a birdwatching family who went camping, hiking, and botanizing all the time. Now it's fashionable to be a birder or environmentalist, but back then it was considered weird, if not suspect.
It's not surprising that my artistic subject matter is birds, heavily themed on a fascinating species that inhabits the rocky west coast from Alaska to California.
When I saw my first oystercatcher, it was not my intention to paint almost 350 of them over the next five years. But an artist can get on a trajectory. (However now you will see on my canvases the occasional California quail, goldfinch, Steller's jay, flicker, or nuthatch.)
The black oystercatcher is a jaunty character, well-known to naturalists and kayakers. It is surprising that many people who have lived here all their lives are unfamiliar with this common and comical species.
"Is the oystercatcher endangered?" people ask. Yes, it is. And so are we.
Renowned scientist James Hansen, the godfather of global warming, sounded the alarm in 1986. Today he's regretting that his grim predictions were way too rosy. Although we would never know it from our privileged climate in Victoria (but our time will come!), this summer has seen the hottest July on record in the USA, beating the previous one set in the dust bowl of 1936. (Wikipedia explains, "The phenomenon was caused by severe drought coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops or other techniques to prevent wind erosion.") That sounds a lot like corporate farming today! The past 12 months have been the hottest ever recorded in the USA, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
With Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government recent passing of Bill C-38 - which is really enabling legislation for the oil industry - the federal government has "not just weakened environmental assessment in Canada, it has destroyed it," says Elizabeth May, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands. I am privileged to have worked on her campaign. I am also thankful to Denise Savoie, MP for Victoria, for her hard work opposing these laws.
I painted Oystercatchers #306 - a kayaker's view of oystercatchers, fish, seaweed, whales, mountains and a sea lion - to accompany me at a Comox, BC, rally against the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline last March. This project's biggest champion is Stephen Harper, Canada's very own George W. Bush and son of an Imperial Oil accountant. He seeks to stampede it through, from Alberta to BC's coast, nevermind First Nations land claims, the forests, salmon rivers, mountains, tourism, climate havoc, the Kyoto Protocol, and formal opposition from countless town councils along its path.
Recently I had printed a series of postcards of some of my favorite oystercatcher art images. I sent a handwritten postcard to over 200 Canadian Members of Parliament, urging that they work across party lines to put the brakes on Bill C-38, which not only trashes the environment, but also guts our social fabric, labor legislation, and culture. So troubling is this legislation that several former cabinet ministers from all parties have written an open letter of concern.
Another avenue of protest is the World Naked Bike Ride every June in cities around the world, including Victoria. It was a cold day, but I was shielded from the wind with my sign saying, "Stephen Harper is indecent".
BC premier Christy Clark is oblivious to British Columbians' resolve against the pipeline, in her announcement that if only BC was paid enough money, the project would be welcome. If you listen to the deeply-felt, articulate citizen testimony from the National Energy Board hearings on the pipeline proposal, it's clear that the matter is not about financial compensation between provinces, or strictly about oil spills.
It's about modern energy policy, democracy, and responsibility to future generations. It also calls into question the colossal taxpayer subsidies to the oil industry which delay the innovations proposed by Victoria's own Guy Dauncey in his book The Climate Challenge: 101 Solutions to Global Warming. It's also about the future of oystercatchers, fish, whales, and their kin.
See Anne Hansen's Oystercatchers in the James Bay Art Walk, September 22 & 23, at the James Bay Community School, 140 Oswego Street. www.oystercatchergirl.blogspot.com