SECTION ONE
A population explosion took place in the panel!
The valley oak is a star species in this panel. There is also a magic evergreen forest, below which a pair of wolves are playing. Black-tailed deer – two males, a doe, and a yearling – are at a watering stream.The bull tule elk has his tongue out, something males do during mating season, as they approach females with head held high, neck extended so she can properly appreciate his antlers.
A local woman Sparkles Totten has had two beautiful rescue wolves, and both were my models! She is with Heavenly in the photos below, who I painted running above the golden birches.
Her beloved Cinnamon (who has passed away) is depicted in the mural’s lower left foreground.
I have always had a special feeling for wolves, and have even been in their presence in the quiet golden summer night of arctic Canada listening to them talk to each other.
The foreground of nature has the endangered native Lange’s metalmark butterfly, which feeds on naked buckwheat flowers in the lower left. (source photo here) At the right in the mural is red twig dogwood, leafless in autumn.
Source photos for my brush rabbit and manzanita tree below.
My intention was to show a thriving environment, FULL of life, even without people, who came late to our continent.
There are four hearts above and to the right of the mother mountain lion!
Can you find the three bees in the detail above?
The rich natural world leads harmoniously into the time of Native habitation. Notice the continuous background. At the same time, the gray column separating the two does have meaning: the gulf between a world without and then with humans. Next panel: