LOOK AT US: Portraits of Endangered Species

A Note from the Artist

Wild animals often appear in my dreams. Sometimes, they are peering out from under foliage along a river. Other times, staring at me in a group, silhouetted against the night sky. I’ve dreamed of birds carrying me aloft, of riding on a tiger’s back, of butterflies alighting on my head, where spiders, worms, and other small insects are nesting in my hair. They have wanted my attention.

In August of 2021, in an early morning reverie in the peaceful silence just after dawn, the words Look At Us, For We Will Be Gone floated into my head. Moments later came the idea of making fifty portraits of endangered animals framed by those words. This experience was so compelling I knew I had to embark on this project-a total departure from my half-century of painting plein-air landscapes I feit the message came from Source a place beyond my normal physical experi-ence. The animal kingdom was telling me it wanted to be SEEN. To be loved and appreciated for all its wondrous diversity and beauty.

Having grown up in a world where we all took lions, tigers, and bears for granted, the fact that so many species are now endangered is shocking. Chimpanzees and tigers, snow leopards and manatees, elephants and sea turtles, on and on. So many will be lost in this period of mass extinction.

Since that August morning, I have made 50 portraits, painted with pastel on birch panels. It amazes me that I actually made my dreamy experience a reality. Those few morning minutes changed my life. Each portrait started out by my being drawn to a specific animal. I fell in love with them one at a time. I felt their eyes on me as I drew, looking on patiently and with encouragement. I decided not to frame them under glass, wanting nothing between them and the viewer. So, these portraits themselves are also vulnerable.

This is my homage to the animal kingdom-bearing witness to what may disap-pear. I hope you will marvel, as I do, at all of their splendor and magnificence!

– Scotty Mitchell