Bird-Loving Artist David Tomb on his Recent Palo Alto Residency and Exhibition

Originally published at Huffpost Arts & Culture by John Seed.

During a recent visit to Palo Alto, I was able to visit artist David Tomb, who was nearing the end of a residency at the Palo Alto Art Center. His installation-in-progress, which uses art and multi-media elements to involve visitors with local marsh birds and their habit, was engaging and full of delightful elements and details. David has a lifelong interest in birds, and also a significant commitment to the conservation of species and habitats that is reflected in his work.

I interviewed David after he completed the installation to ask him more about how the project had evolved, and what it has accomplished.

John Seed Interviews David Tomb.

David Tomb

David, how are you feeling now that your residency is winding down?

Well, I have never done a residency before but I have to say, this one seems to be different than most.

In the past I have always worked in the studio and I like my studio in San Francisco very much. Early on in this residency I decided I had the option to make a full commitment to the residency, as I wanted to show visitors an “actual studio,� not just a gallery. So I moved much of my studio to Palo Alto to feel comfortable. I brought a lot of art books, my infamous rocking chair, one big work table, way too much in terms of art supplies, rolls of paper, and some stacks of cardboard. I also brought some previous work to add a bit of background. It took about 3½ days of trips in my fully-loaded Honda Element…

A Studio Corner

Once you got fully set up, how did you feel?

Well, it helped that the staff here helped to make me comfortable. Honestly, I was fine right away with people stopping by. When asked “Is it weird for you, working in a glass fishbowl?� I have replied: “I’m a birdwatcher, but I like to look at people too.�

Installation View

What kinds of visitors did you have?

During a two-week period I had something like 200 kindergartners on class tours. I’ve had grade school kids too, including an 11 year old who asked me “Do you live here?� Lots of adults and return customers too who wanted to see how things were developing. People enjoyed viewing and also commenting on my progress. They loved seeing the artwork start from a few pinned up drawings to seeing the studio fill up and be transformed.

David Tomb leads a local marsh tour

Do you feel like your work and installation has been making an impact?

Through the work and through various events and talks, I have tried to advocate for birds and bird conservation. I have led ten public events including five boardwalks at the nearby Marsh in January. I should mention that the theme of this residency Creative Ecology and I am the second of 4 artists in a series sponsored by the Junior Museum and Zoo. My personal topic has been the birds and marshes of Northern California.

The completed installation on opening night

What do people experience when they walk in?

Well, when anyone walks in, they experience what is essentially a walk-in natural diorama of a marsh habitat. I think of it as “2½D� as it isn’t quite 3D. To make the habitat, I went full out and made corrugated cardboard mudflats. One reason I think kids can relate to this show is that I keep my art strategies on a third grade level: there is a lot of cutting out of shapes and use of hot glue guns.

This is a total and complete environment: there is even sound in the form of a sound-loop of shorebirds. I have one tiny kinetic bird that is attached to a battery-operated locomotive that moves through the marsh reeds. It is barely visible, but it is there…

The kinetic shorebird on its railroad

Has the residency changed your work?

I would say that my work itself has expanded. The interactions are so important and I have had so many great conversations with so many people. A lot have people have loved being in a full blown studio and several have said “It is magical being in this room.�

One interesting thing is that the installation has gotten people connected with the real marsh and birds. Through this project, many people have had both their first experience of being in an artist’s studio and their first visit to a nature preserve.

Installation Detail

Is there anything else that people really responded to?

Yes: people love my rocking chair…

David with his rocking chair

Continuing Exhibition:

King Tides and Elusive Rails, featuring the artwork created by Tomb during his in-the-gallery residency, will be on display at the Palo Alto Art Center, 1313 Newell Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94303, from April 26-July 3.

Tomb will also be presenting a free public lecture June 9, 7 p.m., at the Art Center.

Originally published here by Karla Kane in Palo Alto Weekly.

At the Baylands, on campus and in galleries, avian art is taking wing this winter. What makes birds — those feathered, flighty creatures — such appealing subjects?

“Birds are simply a beautiful expression of the natural world. They are one of the most accessible wild creatures to experience and connect with. If that’s not enough, they can fly! Oh, and they are descended from dinosaurs. Truly awesome,” said artist and self-described “bird nerd” David Tomb.

David Tomb will lead nature walks and bird-drawing workshops at the Baylands, home to many species, including great blue herons. Image courtesy of David Tomb.

This month, as part of the Creative Ecology project (a partnership between the Palo Alto Art Center and the Junior Museum & Zoo supporting work that blends art and science), Tomb will lead a free series of activities for the public at the Baylands. Participants in the five drop-in events can accompany Tomb on nature walks, practice drawing birds, contribute to a three-dimensional community diorama, and visit several learning stations, rain or shine. Art and reference material will be provided. And while it’s not required, if you have binoculars, Tomb said, “bring ’em on down.”

Tomb said he was “stoked” to have been chosen to share his two passions with the public.

“Watching birds and making art should be super fun,” he said.

His enthusiasm for ornithology is apparent. He has a particular fondness for the Philippine eagle.

“They are chocolate brown with Frank Sinatra-colored eyes and have a stylish, massive crest of feathers on their heads that can hang down like a lion’s mane or go totally vertical,” he said of the critically endangered species. “This bird inspired friends and I to start a conservation group,” Jeepney Projects. The group partners with conservation groups to raise funds in support of endangered birds through art exhibits and sales of prints.

While there won’t be any Philippine eagles present at the Baylands, there will be a special appearance by Sequoia, the Junior Museum & Zoo’s own bald eagle.

Tomb has been an avid birder since childhood, when he’d watch turkey vultures roost in a dead oak tree in his back yard.

“This back-lit scene had a very cool ‘goth’ appeal. My parents tell me that I stared at them every morning as a toddler,” he said.

Palo Alto Art Center’s Exhibitions Coordinator Selene Foster agreed that there’s something special about vultures.

“I’m really into vultures right now, both due to their scavenging nature and the way they stretch out their wings to bask in the sun while perched — absolutely gorgeous, if a bit ominous,” she said.

She’s also a burrowing owl fan.

“They live in Santa Clara County but are a species of special concern due to their dwindling habitat. Besides being ridiculously adorable and living in the ground, they also seem to be immune to the plague, which I find endearing,” she said.

According to Foster, birds have attracted attention and inspired human art throughout recorded history and continue to do so. Birds have often played a role in superstitions, she said, such as the belief that sparrows carry the souls of the dead, or the presence of human-avian hybrids in mythology and pop culture, from Hindu legends to Big Bird and the Harry Potter novels. She and Andrea Antonaccio co-curated a new exhibit, “Bird in the Hand,” to accompany Tomb’s Creative Ecology residency.

“Bird in the Hand” will feature the bird-themed work of more than 40 contemporary artists, including a painting by Robert Minervini that portrays the ghosts of birds currently listed as threatened or endangered and a peacock by Laurel Roth Hope constructed partly out of nail polish, barrettes and false eyelashes.

“All the work in this exhibition is evidence of contemporary art’s ongoing romance with avian species, and I hope some of that romance rubs off on our viewers, if it hasn’t already in their everyday lives,” Foster said. “This show is also meant to be a small window into the artists’ soul,” she said. “The struggle is to capture and possess the magic that comes to birds so naturally.”

“Bird in the Hand,” which will run from Jan. 16 to April 10, will have an opening celebration on Friday, Jan. 22, with food, hands-on art activities, and more photo opportunities with the Junior Museum & Zoo’s resident bird ambassadors.

After Tomb’s Baylands series is complete, he’ll create new work in the Art Center’s Glass Gallery, eventually exhibiting it alongside “Bird in the Hand.”

Meanwhile at Stanford, an exhibit called “Art at Exits” has been quietly displayed throughout campus since 2014. The exhibit pairs 10 prints of John James Audubon’s famous avian paintings — those depicting species that are found locally, such as the California quail and the red-winged blackbird with captions offering scientific information on the birds. They’re placed strategically at the exits of buildings near the particular birds’ habitats, with the hope that passersby will see the art and then become aware of the real birds just outside.

Curator Darryl Wheye has been observing and championing the birds on Stanford University’s campus since the 1990s, co-authoring a bird book with noted Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich in the 1980s.

“It’s disconcerting to realize how little aware we are of the avian diversity around us. Science Art can help make it easier to notice,” she said. Ultimately, she’d like to bring the exhibit to other locations — major Silicon Valley companies, perhaps to raise awareness of local birds and their vanishing habitats. Some of the Audubon prints are easily visible to the public, such as at the Tressider union, while others are more hidden. Viewers can look online for a complete catalog. A new addition to the exhibit is truly “for the birds,” in the best way possible. A hummingbird garden was recently planted outside Green Library, where an Anna’s hummingbird painting is featured. Viewers can see the painting, then look right out the window or step up to the garden to witness the real thing. Wheye, who is especially partial to red-shouldered hawks, saw hummingbirds and others at the garden’s opening in November.

No matter which species or habitat you fancy, Tomb’s advice for would-be bird artists is simple: “Firstly, get out and enjoy and connect with Mother Nature. Nothing is better than first-hand experience in the field.”

What: Creative Ecology activities with David Tomb, “Bird in the Hand” and “Art at Exits”

Where: Baylands, Palo Alto Art Center and Stanford University

When: Nature/art activities with David Tomb are on Jan. 10, 12, 20, 24 and 27; “Bird in the Hand” runs Jan.16 through April 10; “Art at Exits” is ongoing.

Cost: Free

Info: For more information, go to Palo Alto Art Center and Art at Exits.

Originally published here by Emily Brendler Shoft.

Whether he’s traveling on a muddy trail in the Philippines, hiking through the hills of Chiapas, Mexico, or painting in his studio in San Francisco, artist David Tomb has one mission: to expand the world’s awareness of endangered birds through art. With the help of the Jeepney Foundation, an organization he co-founded with two friends from middle school, Peter Barto and Howard Flax, and Ian Austin of San Anselmo, he’s doing just that. Tomb’s carefully illustrated birds from his expeditions all over the world showcase the beauty of the world’s rarest species. In doing so, he’s raising awareness and money for the birds’ preservation.

Philippine Eagle Installation

“I have one of the luckiest jobs in the world,� Tomb explains, “I get to channel my love for art and for travel into my passion for bird conservation.�

In Telluride, we will soon have a chance to see Tomb’s paintings firsthand. He’s coming to town as a part of Mountainfilm this Memorial Day Weekend. You can check out his fantastic work in the East Room of the Ah Haa Gallery. He will also speak at the second coffee talk with Tim Laman and Edwin Scholes.

As a child, Tomb was fascinated by birds and grew up sketching raptors. He went on to study art at California State University Long Beach. For 20 years Tomb was a portrait artist, but in 2005 he decided to focus his art solely on his boyhood love of birds. Tomb’s work has been featured all over the world and in major publications such as The New Yorker and Harper’s.

The Jeepney Foundation connects with local non-profits on conservation efforts. Once JPF has identified the bird they’re going to focus on, Tomb travels to the region to paint the bird. After assembling a collection of work, Tomb holds exhibitions to raise money and awareness about that species.

David Tomb in Borneo on the Kitabatagan River

The name “Jeepney� came about from the WWII jeeps that Filipinos have converted into colorfully decorated taxis. As Tomb explains on his website, “The Jeepney is a fitting symbol for us as they represent a quirky and authentic re-purposing of a utilitarian vehicle that has been transformed into an artful expression to thrive!�

Click here to learn more about the Jeepney Projects and more about David’s exciting adventure to Philippines to check out the “holy grail of birds�: the Philippine Eagle. “Of the 10,000 birds in the world,� said David Tomb, “it’s the most desired bird to see.�

Posted by Hungry Hyaena. Originally published here.

David Tomb
“Azure-breasted Pitta”
2012
Painted papers with mixed media and partially pasted and or completely pasted on paper with mixed media
42 x 30 inches

“Grand Birds of the Philippines,” David Tomb‘s current solo show at Electric Works, is deserving of a thoughtful review. Disappointingly, my writing time is limited this month and I can provide only a few observations.

David Tomb
“Mindanao Wattled Broadbill and Swift”
2012
Painted papers with mixed media and partially pasted and or completely pasted on paper with mixed media
42 x 30 inches

Birds have been the principal protagonists of David Tomb’s colorful watercolor and gouache paintings for the last six or seven years, but “Grand Birds of the Philippines” sees the artist pushing the construction of his works in exciting ways. Tomb builds the new pictures by pinning and pasting select fragments of various paintings and drawings onto larger paper grounds or directly onto the gallery walls. Viewers will spot numerous pin holes in the exhibited assemblages, evidence of earlier permutations; an orchid was moved to a different branch, perhaps, or a swift‘s dark silouhette adjusted so that it chases another gnat. Here and there, a vine or butterfly wing is left unfixed, protruding from the picture’s surface and lending a sculptural effect to the work.

Tomb’s approach, which calls to mind Judy Pfaff‘s “sculptural painting,” is a surprisingly effective technique for a wildlife artist (or, more accurately in the case of Tomb, a contemporary artist working at the fringe of that genre). The assemblages have a playful and provisional feel to them that is satisfyingly fresh, but the technique also heightens the sense of space and, in some of the works on display (most notably, the show’s pièce de résistance, “Great Philippine Eagles“) supplies a verisimilitude normally lacking in natural history art and illustration. As in the field, our eyes dart around the impressive image, and the 3-dimensional elements cause the lenses of our predatory eyes to subtly flex and relax, bringing different subjects or areas into focus. Tomb smartly exaggerates this effect by painting soft watercolor wash backgrounds that fall suddenly away where they come up against a pinned down hard edge.

David Tomb
“Great Philippine Eagles”
2012
Painted papers with mixed media pinned to wall surface
130 x 180 inches

Of the smaller works in “Grand Birds,” “Azure-breasted Pitta” and “Mindanao Wattled Broadbill and Swift” are the most compositionally engaging and successful, but this writer, a birdand snake nut, also reserves a special place for Tomb’s exuberant “Mindanao Hornbill, Wagler’s Pit-Viper, andCollared Kingfisher.”

If David Tomb’s work appeals to you but, like me, you’re operating on a lean budget, you can support the artist’s conservation non-profit, Jeepney Projects, by purchasing benefit prints and, in a few weeks, note cards on the Jeepney website store. 100% of the print and card sales proceeds support bird conservation efforts in Mexico and thePhilippines.

David Tomb
“Mindanao Hornbill, Wagler’s Pit-Viper, and Collared Kingfisher”
2012
Painted papers with mixed media and partially pasted or completely pasted on paper with mixed media
42 x 30 inches

Image credits: copyright, David Tomb, 2012; courtesy David Tomb and Electric Works

(Excerpt originally published here on ArtBusiness.com).

Comment by AB: Lush mixed-media works on paper by David Tomb remind us that we’d better do what we can now to protect our endangered species before it’s too late. The particular birds spotlighted here are all native to the Philippines.

Endangered species art by David Tomb

David Tomb art show at Electric Works Gallery.

Oversized mixed-media bird art by David Tomb in above image.

Endangered species art by David Tomb at Electric Works Gallery.

David Tomb art show presented with preservationist Jeepney Projects.

by George Oxford Miller

(Originally published in Living Bird Spring 2012, pp 28–35. Republished with permission of the author; see publisher’s site for original version)

A captive-breeding program offers new hope for the Philippine Eagle

Eleven hours of waiting, watching. Yesterday we sat for six hours on a bamboo bench in an intermittent drizzle and scanned a distant slope hoping for a glimpse of the largest, most endangered raptor on the planet, the Philippine Eagle, national bird of the Philippines. Today we’ve been scoping the mountain ridges intently for another five hours, this time in the blazing sun. Soaring Oriental Honey-buzzards and Phil- ippine Serpent Eagles temporarily get our adrenaline pumping, but they’re only diversions.

Finally, Pete, a fellow bird watcher, yells, “A big, white bird landed in the tree by the cliff.� We had studied the distant slopes for so long we had the landmarks memorized. I focus the scope to 50x and see the object of our quest perched regally in the distant tree about a mile away.

The eagle flies to another tree, and we spot an immature. The adult soon departs as the juvenile bends over and rips pieces from the prey its parent brought and eagerly gulps them down. After its meal, the juvenile flies a short distance to another tree, sits a while, then flies back as though practicing its flying. Transfixed, we spend the next two hours gazing at the bird.

Even in captivity, a Philippine Eagle is a stunning sight to behold with its shaggy crest and huge size.

After flying from Manila to Cagayan de Oro on the island of Mindanao, we drove for four hours on a narrow, winding mountain road through remote villages with thatched-roof, bamboo huts, then transferred ourselves and our gear to the back of a four-wheel-drive flatbed truck. Finally, at the end of the muddy road, villagers lashed our luggage onto the backs of some scrawny little horses. We pulled on rubber boots and started a one-hour ascent up a slippery trail, sometimes sloshing through ankle-deep slush, to reach our rustic bird-watching “ecolodge�—a decaying barn with a dormitory loft that had no beds or flush toilets, and only a plastic bucket for bathing.

At that point, we still had another two-hour, rubber-boot hike to reach the eagle-viewing site—a long bench made from split bamboo in a hacked-away clearing in an overgrown potato field that nature has reclaimed. But the view is spectacular, a deep gorge with a hidden river encompassing a long ridge and twin rounded mountains—perfect habitat for the soaring kings of the rainforest.

Nicky Icarangal, our guide with Birding Adventure Philippines, studies the eagle in the scope. “See the white spots on the wings?� he says. “It’s an immature. Philippine Eagles mate for life and take two years to raise a chick. The young take five to seven years to sexually mature. They live about 20 years in the wild. This pair nests up and down the river gorge, so this is one of the most reliable places to see the eagles in the wild. Plus we get a chance to see the mountain endemics that live at this elevation.�

Mount Kitenglad birding ecolodge was built in 1993 with a grant from Del Monte.

During our hours of idle watching, flocks of small birds dash past to break the monotony. Sparrow-sized Chestnut Munias, a popular cage bird in the pet trade and former national bird of the Philippines, zip into the tall grass. Apo Mynas, black with a brilliant yellow patch of bare skin around their eyes and a fuzzy crest, perch and watch us watch them. The smaller birds are exciting, yet not the reason we flew 7,000 miles and tramped four miles up a muddy trail. But with the first sight of the magnificent eagle, we forget the hardships.

Birders scan the skies at the Mount Kitenglad eagle viewpoint.

Besides seeing the endangered raptor, we came to plan a fundraiser for the Philippine Eagle Foundation. Located in Davao, the foundation is ground zero for efforts to breed the eagles in captivity and release them to the wild, and also to educate mountain villagers about the bird. A study published in the journal Ibis in 2003 reported that enough habitat exists to support 82 to 239 nesting territories—depending on how the remaining forest on Mindanao is analyzed—and concluded that “the Philippine Eagle probably remains the most important [avian] single-species con- servation issue on the planet today.�

David Tomb, a wildlife artist who organized our group of four, previously created life-sized paintings of the Mexican Tufted Jay to raise funds for a wildlife preserve in the oak canyons near Mazatlan (see “A Canyon of Their Own,� Living Bird, Summer, 2009). For the current project, he is planning an exhibit at his San Francisco gallery featuring the Philippine Eagle and other birds of Mindanao to benefit the foundation and its education projects. So seeing the eagle fires our enthusiasm for better reasons than achieving another check on our life lists.

After a few quick first views, we take turns at the scope for longer studies of the eagle. Then David shouts, “Look! A monkey! Climbing the limb above the eagle!� Again we rush to the scope. The 3-foot-tall raptor with a 7-foot wingspan was formerly known by the more sensational name of Philippine Monkey-eating Eagle, but the juvenile pays no attention to the foolhardy macaque perched above it in the canopy.

As every birder knows, not every adventure has a checklist payoff. With hundreds of square miles surrounding Mount Kitanglad, our chance of spotting the eagle, much less a nest, was far from assured. A pair of Philippine Eagles requires 50 square miles of hunting territory to be able to catch enough flying lemurs, squirrels, snakes, civets, hornbills, and long-tailed macaques to nourish a nestling.

Though the area is designated a natural park, most of the land surrounding the mountain habitat, with the exception of deep ravines, has been cleared by slash-and-burn farming. Only the forest on the steep mountain slopes and rugged ridges remains intact. The trail from the lodge passes one field after another—some new, some exhausted and overgrown with thorny lantana, bushy sunflowers, and a bramble of invasive weedy species. In many places, the shallow layer of soil has washed away, exposing barren mounds of slippery, infertile red clay.

Farmers plow with water buffalos and pack out 200-pound sacks of cabbage, corn, peppers, taro, potatoes, and tomatoes using the same workhorses that toted our luggage on the same muddy foot trails we labored up. Farmers sell their cabbage to dealers in the village for 6 pesos per kilogram ($.06 per pound). Dealers get 15 pesos per kilogram wholesale, and the stores in Manila charge 45 pesos per kilogram ($.47 per pound) retail. Field workers receive about 150 to 200 pesos a day ($3.35–$4.50). The ever-expanding farmland pushes wildlife into the diminishing forest and eventually to extinction.

Along the trail, we see a Sunbird and tramp across the charred, fractured remains of a recently burned section to the edge of the uncut, verdant forest. Foot-tall fiddleheads sprout from rhizomes through the charred soil and cover the denuded plot. In a few weeks waist-high ferns will blanket the hillside. Potato seedlings sprout from the broad rows of recently plowed and planted adjacent fields.

Visiting bird watchers hiked past one slash-and-burn farm after another on the way to the Philippine Eagle viewing area.

The variety of bird calls announces a mixed flock foraging through the canopy. Busy little Mountain White-eyes, which we see in abundance, skitter through the leaves, joined by the flamboyant Coppersmith Barbet, Grey-hooded Sunbird, Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, and Rufus-headed Tailorbird. Mixed flocks give us the exciting opportunity to see a flush of rainforest birds all at once, especially when they congregate around a tree in flower or fruit.

“This forest will be cut before next year,� Nicky tells us. “Every season the squatters slash and burn deeper into the forest. This is a natural park, but that doesn’t stop villagers and even people from other islands from moving in and farming.�

Deforestation and illegal hunting pose the greatest threat to the Philippine Eagle and other forest birds. The Philippines topped 100 million inhabitants in 2010. Estimates of how much old-growth forest remains vary greatly, but a best guess is somewhere near 7 percent. From what we see during our two-week visit on Mindanao, primary forest is doomed in the short term and secondary forest in the near future. With an exploding population and a government not interested in environmental controls or conservation, the forest will of necessity be converted into farmland or banana and palm-oil plantations.

Danny Docenos (left) is one of the bird guides at Mount Kitenglad ecolodge. Bird guide Carlito Gayramara (center) and his family operate the ecolodge. Nicky Icarangal (right) leads birding tours for Birding Adventure Philippines.

The near-perpendicular ridges and slopes of Mount Kitanglad resist farming and harbor the breeding pair of Philippine Eagles we see. Other populations live in remote areas, most too rugged to inventory, on the islands of Luzon, Samar, and Leyte. The Philippine Eagle Foundation estimates that enough habitat exists for at most 200 pairs in the mountainous regions of Mindanao and another 200 pairs in the rest of the archipelago.

As the finale of our trip, we visit the Philippine Eagle Foundation in Davao, largest city on Mindanao. As part of the yearlong research for his art exhibit, David has conferred with the foundation and arranged for us to meet the staff and tour the grounds. Executive director Dennis Salvador has been with the foundation since it began. We sit in his office and dodge Glossy Swiftlets that dart though the open window to get to their nests in the hall.

We cross the bridge into a wooded compound and see more birds foraging in the trees than kept in cages. A Blue-throated Bee-eater and Hooded Pitta temporarily distract us from a tethered Brahminy Kite sitting on a limb a few feet above the path. It poses for us unperturbed.

Three large flight cages built into the hillside hold breeding pairs of Philippine Eagles. Other cages hold fishing eagles, serpent eagles, hawk eagles, and some native mammals. We meet Anna Mae Sumaya, director of breeding biology, in front of a Philippine Eagle perched on a stump just off the path.

“This is one of our captive-bred eagles,� she says. “He’s nine years old. The first breeding in captivity occurred in 1992. We use him for artificial insemination and education.�

The foundation harbors 35 Philippine Eagles, including three males and two females used for artificial insemination, three natural pairs, and six pairs in various stages of bonding. The oldest is 43 years old.

“Our goal is to produce two eaglets per year,� Anna Mae says. “We had four chicks in 2001, but our breeding pairs are getting old and don’t produce as much. The challenge is to add new breeding pairs. We hope some of our new pairs will bond soon and breed.�

Raising and releasing captive-bred eagles into the field presents a host of problems. Of the seven captive-bred and rehabilitated eagles released since 2004, only two have been successful. Anna Mae hopes new techniques and training will improve the odds.

“We have to be sure the chicks don’t imprint on humans,� she says. “We feed them with puppets and use mirrors so they never see us. As they near release age, we put them through aversion training to learn to avoid electric wires. A released eagle was electrocuted in 2004. Another had to be recaptured because it stayed around a village and preyed on farm animals.�

After two years of tender care and training, the captive-bred eagles are ready for the greatest challenge. “We have a young eagle ready to release next month, but we only have one hacking site, on Mount Kitanglad. We need other sites, but finding habitat is a major problem.�

The release team monitors the eagle and provides food if needed for three months. But food isn’t the newly released eagle’s greatest threat. “Hunting is a major problem,� Anna Mae says.

Dr. Bo Puentespina volunteeers as the veterinarian for the Philippine Eagle Foundation.

The morning we arrive at the foundation, avian veterinarian and volunteer Bo Puentespina has just finished operating on an immature eagle with gunshot wounds in its wing and leg. He leads us to a small building and gently opens the door. The eagle lies on a bed of leafy branches in a small cage.

“He was shot two days ago,� he says. “The DENR [Depart-ment of Environment and Natural Resources] brought him to us about midnight. I had to amputate part of his wing but I think he’ll live. He’s only ten months old. It’s a pity to lose a juvenile that could replace the older birds.�

Puentespina has talked to hunters and recently testified in a court case against a man who killed a Philippine Eagle. “I try to understand why someone would shoot them, but I can’t find a good reason,� he says. “Eagles are big amazing birds. It only takes one person to destroy years of work. We’ll use this eagle for edu- cation, to show children what their ‘uncles’ did to this bird.�

Educating the people in the mountain villages about the value of the eagles and their habitat is an integral part of the Philippine Eagle Foundation’s mission. “We must educate communities to save some forest,� Dennis says. “Not just one village but all the villages around a fragment of forest. Our programs try to link conservation to their own lives and change their values.�

The foundation offers 2,000 pesos (about $45) to any villager who finds a nest and another 2,000 pesos for the village. A field team goes to the village and evaluates the grassroots needs with meetings and discussions.

“Sometimes it’s a water system or a school building,� Dennis says. “We provide fertilizer so they won’t have to abandon wornout fields and slash and burn more forest. Our urgent goals are to preserve what’s left of the forest and to reforest corridors to connect the fragments. But to do that we must educate communities that their survival is linked to the survival of the eagle. Saving the forest saves the watershed, prevents flooding, and can bring money through ecotourism.�

Another major concern is avian influenza. “It’s not if but when it reaches the Philippines,� Dennis says. “I wish we could send Philippine Eagles to zoos around the world in case our population is affected. I’ve requested permission from the DENR but they haven’t responded.�

The majestic Philippine Eagle, king of the rainforest, stares at us from its perch as we leave the foundation. Despite a lack of government support and with official policies that encourage mining and clear-cutting for agro-industrial plantations, the Philippine Eagle Foundation pushes forward with a commitment forged in passion and persistence.

While waiting in line to enter the Manila airport on my way home, I pass a large sign on the door that reads: “Warning, Wildlife Resources and Conservation and Protection Act 9147 prohibits collecting, hunting, or possessing wildlife.� How ironic.

George Oxford Miller is a freelance writer and photographer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He frequently writes for this magazine.

The Philippine Eagle Foundation uses nonreleasable male eagles that can’t be released for artificial insemination and public display.

[Reprinted with permission. Please visit Audubonmagazine.org for the original article.]

Birding Inspires Painter to Save Eagles through Art

By Daisy Yuhas, Audubonmagazine.org
February 15, 2012

The Greater Philippine Eagle, painted by David Tomb

It was a moment that changed everything. David Tomb had journeyed nearly 7,000 miles to see this bird —the holy grail of birding— and when finally face-to-face he discovered a creature that was majestic, leonine, and incredibly vulnerable.

The bird was a great Philippine eagle, a massive raptor with a seven foot wingspan and mane of feathers. An impressive predator, the powerful bird of prey was once called the “Monkey-Eating Eagle,� and today human activity has reduced its numbers to about 200 individuals in the wild.

Tomb, an artist who returned to his first love — birds — after twenty years of human portraiture, travelled to the Philippines in 2011. He and a group of birding buddies found themselves moved in an unprecedented way when they encountered the Philippine eagle not in the wild but in a hospital run by the Philippine Eagle Foundation. There, they watched as the majestic animal, recovering from surgery after suffering gunshot wounds and a wing amputation, awakened from anesthesia.

“We went into the recovery room and there it was: One of the biggest eagles in the world, wrapped in bandages,� Tomb says. “Its eyes were blinking and it just started to chirp… It was this incredibly awesome creature that was so incredibly vulnerable.�

Discussing the experience with his travel companions, Tomb decided he wanted to do more than just witness these amazing animals, he wanted to save them. With friends Peter Barto and Howard Flax, Tomb founded the nonprofit Jeepney Projects Worldwide to use art as a way to raise awareness of high-priority conservation birds, their habitats, and support their survival.

The group takes a creative approach to their mission. Tomb draws viewers into the experience of seeing birds in their habitat with a multi-sensory gallery experience. Live plants hint at the scent of the outdoors. An interactive soundscape, designed by johnnyrandom’s Flip Baber, follows the viewer through the gallery, immersing the viewer in the eagle’s world with calling macaques, blowing breezes, and bird song.

The experience is meant to captivate, raising awareness of a the endangered eagle and importance of saving its habitat. Tomb uses art as an entry point to dicuss the bird’s plight and the work of the center in preserving habitat, rehabilitating birds, and empowering local communities whose poverty puts pressure on the eagle’s habitat. Tomb also sells benefit prints through the website to raise funds for both the Philippine Eagle Foundation and another key bird habitat, El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas, Mexico.

“It’s so gratifying to utilize art work, to make art work of something you love and put it towards something you love,� says Tomb. “And to have it work.�

So far, Tomb notes, responses have grown with every retelling of the eagle’s story. In the year since the project’s creation, Tomb has created several original prints and already sold twenty. Tomb also hopes that as awareness of the Philippine Eagle grows, more people will learn about sustainability and how the demand for Philippine Mahogany has pushed the bird’s numbers down, causing massive deforestation.

Below are two more of Tomb’s paintings, and you can click this link to listen in to a soundscape depicting the eagle’s habitat (hint: you can run it on a separate tab while viewing the paintings here). For those near Berkeley, California, you can see Tomb’s work on display at The Bone Room through February 29, and his work will also be displayed this June at San Francisco’s Electric Works.

Paintings above and below by David Tomb

By John Seed, Huffington Post
January 23, 2012

While growing up on an Oakland hillside, artist David Tomb — his last name is pronounced “Tom� as in “Tom Sawyer� — was interested in both art and birds. “I’m not sure which interest came first,� he muses. The home where Tomb grew up was filled with landscape paintings by his grandfather, the California Impressionist Sydney Lemos (1892 – 1944), and he remembers being fixated on the texture of a painted redwood tree in one of them. On the other hand, there were often turkey vultures sunning themselves in an oak tree behind the house, and they were at least equally fascinating.

“I was a bird nerd kid,� says Tomb. Accordingly, he spent many hours with his nose in vintage bird books including the field guides of Roger Tory Peterson (1908 – 1996), and numerous illustrated books by the American ornithologist and artist Luis Agassiz Fuertes (1874 – 1927). Fine art was a kind of parallel fascination, and although 18-year-old Tomb did a few bird drawings at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, art was about something else; at least it started out that way.

David Tomb

While attending Cal State Long Beach as an undergraduate, Tomb studied drawing with John Lincoln, who in turn was a student of the figurative expressionist Rico Lebrun (1900 – 1964). Not surprisingly, Tomb also used the figure as his main artistic vehicle. After earning a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1984, Tomb returned to the Bay Area where his work consisted mostly of portraits, including many of friends who would drop by his studio.

As a portraitist, Tomb demonstrated tremendous persistence, developing a practice in which drawing played a key role. “Tomb uses his subjects’ appearance to get his hand going, not as inroads to their character,â€� is how critic Kenneth Baker put it. In one memorable sequence executed between 1985 and 1991, Tomb, who does not do commissioned portraits, made several hundred drawings and about 50 paintings of “Richard,â€� a high school friend. Writer Bruce Nixon detected in Tomb an artist who was “…always testing the breadth and depth of what he knows or is willing to consider.â€� Another key aspect of Tomb’s artistic approach — which counterbalances the artist’s hesitations with his moments of clarity — is that he clearly wants his viewers to join him in the arduous process of “scrutinization.â€� To put it another way, Tomb is an engaged artist who encourages engaged viewing.

Although a few images of birds cropped up in some of his paintings of the late ’80s, Tomb avoided using them as primary subject matter, despite his continuing hobby of “birding.� Because he is “not a fan of pet birds,� Tomb remained unsure how he might properly observe them, and render their particulars. Then, in 2004, several friends simultaneously challenged him: “David, when are you going to do bird paintings?� Realizing that he had been given a “signal,� Tomb tentatively returned to the California Academy of Sciences, and got a pleasant surprise as he began to again draw specimen birds. “I had a great time,� he recounts. “Eventually those studies became the basis of birds in paintings. It all came together naturally.�

With “birder� friends, Tomb had begun making pilgrimage to seek out rare specimens in their native habitats. In the early ’00s there were trips to Mexico and South America, and by 2008 Tomb had begun to publicly exhibit bird-themed works beginning with an exhibition titled “Treasures of the Sierra Madre: Birds of West Mexico.�

In January of 2011, Tomb set off on a trip that was was a life-changing experience: a visit to the Philippine island of Mindanao to observe the Philippine Eagle. Spurred by the lingering impressions made by plates of the “Philippine Monkey-eating Eagle,� in his childhood copy of Eagles of the World, Tomb was hoping to experience what he characterizes as “one of the most coveted of all bird sightings.�

The Philippine Eagle is considered critically endangered, with as few as 200 adult birds now surviving in four island habitats. Tomb’s expedition took him to the southern island of Mindanao, then to the city of Cagayan de Oro, then to the tiny village of Dapitan where his gear was loaded onto water buffalo for the trek up a muddy gully to the lodge — a “funky old shack with bats and rats.�

On the first day of birdwatching all that Tomb and his friends saw was rain, but on the second day eagles appeared. Huge, shaggy brown and white birds with distinctive crests — Tomb says the crests remind him of lion’s manes — the eagles can weigh as much as 18 pounds. It was a “huge thrillâ€� to see the birds, Tomb says, comparing the experience to “…going to Rome and seeing a Caravaggio; a beautiful special thing of rarity.â€�

David Tomb, “Great Philippine Eagle,� 16¾ × 22½ inches. Archival digital limited edition print from an original watercolor/gouache

Then, after a successful quest for beauty, Tomb took in the downside. The Philippine Eagle, which Tomb describes as “iconic, like the panda or the tiger,� might not be around much longer. Deforestation, the presence of pesticides, mining, development, and poaching are all taking a serious toll. Before leaving the Philippines Tomb visited the Philippine Eagle Foundation in Davao where some 37 eagles — many of which have been injured and cannot return to the wild — are being used in a breeding program. On the night that Tomb’s party arrived a badly wounded adult eagle arrived. It needed emergency surgery to remove one of its wings, and the next morning Tomb’s friend Peter Barto solemnly took video of the giant maimed bird, wrapped in gauze, blinking its eyes as it came out of anesthesia.

Another sobering moment came when the group visited a defunct logging concession near the town of Bislig on Mindanao. There, they came across a vast, open, treeless landscape. The view included “…charred waist high tree stumps of smallish to medium girth and a few random very large stumps of what was the few old growth trees that survived the first clear cutting some forty to fifty years ago.â€� Tomb’s guide then explained that just a few months before, at the same site, he had observed a very rare Rufous-lored Kingfisher in a healthy second growth forest. “Now there was no Kingfisher and no forest,â€� Tomb laments.

Upon their return to California, Tomb and his friends reflected on their trip and realized that it had been a call to action. Together with Peter Barto, Howard Flax, and Ian Austin, Tomb set up “Jeepney Projects Worldwide: Art for Conservation,� an organization devoted to raising funds for the Philippine Eagle Foundation, and to educating the wider public about bird conservation in general.

Tomb’s personal webpage now has a section entirely filled with his bird-themed works of the past few years. Spread across the page are paintings of an Eared Quetzal, a Great Kiskadee, an Emerald Toucanet and many other rare creatures. The birds are rendered in stunning detail, and Tomb’s expressive line has tightened up to better suit the realism required by his new subjects. At the very top of the page, reigning like a king, is a Philippine Eagle. More than any other, this particular bird — through its majesty, its rarity, and its beauty — has opened up a new phase in Tomb’s artistic career. Somehow, an artist’s search for rare beauty brought him towards responsibility, a beautiful thing in itself.

Beginning on Feb. 2, Tomb’s installation “The Bone Room Presents� in Berkeley will feature works on paper depicting not only the Great Philippine Eagle but also other rare and beautiful endemic birds of the Philippines, including the Rufous Hornbill. There will be living plants and an audio installation that will highlight sounds of the Mindanao jungle. The exhibition is meant to shine a light on the rare and beautiful birds of the Philippines and also to communicate the challenges and tensions these creatures face in order to survive and share a sustainable future with an ever growing Filipino population.

“Making artwork of the birds is a way to connect and personalize my experience of seeing the birds.� Tomb relates.“The ultimate goal is to have people think: ‘That animal is incredible.’�

***

Jeepney Projects Worldwide: Vanishing Birds of the Philippines

An Exhibition and Installation by David Tomb
Audio by Flip Baber and Johnny Random
Feb. 2 – 29
The Bone Room Presents
1573 Solano Avenue, Berkeley, California
Artist Talk by David Tomb: Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m.