This is the last weekend of my show at the Compound Gallery. Thank you to Matt Reynoso and Lena Verderano Reynoso at the Compound Gallery, my wonderful husband Shane Bliss, my best friend Claire Taggart for all of their hard work and wonderful support in the show!

If you would like to learn more about the show, here are some links to online write ups:

John Casey

Oakland Art Enthusiast

Eclectix Arts

I am very happy with the work I made for the show and the feedback it has recieved. Please come and join me in the culmination of ‘In Our Nature’ this Sunday with tea, snacks and artist talk.

The Compound Gallery

1167 65th st. Oakland, CA 94608

Closing Tea & Artist Talk: July 15th, 3-6pm

Talk will start at 4:00pm

 In Our Nature: Western Black Rhino

Available for purchase here, at The Compound Gallery.

The western black rhinoceros was heavily hunted in the beginning of the 20th century, but the population rose in the 1930s after preservation actions were taken. As protection efforts declined over the years so did the number of western black rhinos. By 1980 the population was in the hundreds. Poaching continued and by 2000 only an estimated 10 survived. In early 2006 an intensive survey of northern Cameroon (the last remaining habitat of the species) found none, but efforts to locate any surviving individuals continued. The illegal poaching, limited anti-poaching efforts, failure of courts to hand down sentences to punish poachers and more all contributed to the species’ eventual demise. No animals are known to be held in captivity. On November 10, 2011, the subspecies was declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

In Our Nature: Baiji River Dolphin

Available for purchase here at The Compound Gallery.

The Baiji is a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze River in China. The Baiji population declined drastically in decades as China industrialized and made heavy use of the river for fishing, transportation, and hydroelectricity. Efforts were made to conserve the species, but a late 2006 expedition failed to find any Baiji in the river.

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has noted the following as threats to the species: a period of hunting by humans during the Great Leap Forward, entanglement in fishing gear, the illegal practice of electric fishing, collisions with boats and ships, habitat loss, and pollution. During the Great Leap Forward, when traditional veneration of the Baiji was denounced, it was hunted for its flesh and skin, and quickly became scarce.

As China developed economically, pressure on the river dolphin grew significantly. Industrial and residential waste flowed into the Yangtze. The riverbed was dredged and reinforced with concrete in many locations. Ship traffic multiplied, boats grew in size, and fishermen employed wider and more lethal nets. Noise pollution caused the nearly blind animal to collide with propellers. Stocks of the dolphin’s prey declined drastically in the late 20th century, with some fish populations declining to one thousandth of their pre-industrial levels.

Text from Wikipedia

In Our Nature: Ibex

Available for purchase here at The Compound Gallery.

The Pyrenean Ibex has one of the more interesting stories among extinct animals, since it was the first species to ever be brought back into existence via cloning, only to go extinct again just seven minutes after being born due to lung failure. The Pyrenean Ibex was native to the Pyrenees, a mountain range in Andorra, France and Spain. The Pyrenean ibex was still abundant in the fourteenth century (Day 1981). The Pyrenean ibex’s population declined due to a “slow but continuous persecution” and disappeared from the French Pyrenees and the eastern Cantabrian mountain range by the mid-nineteenth century. Its situation has been critical since the beginning of the 20th century, when it was estimated that the Pyrenean population in Spain numbered only about 100 individuals. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the population never rose above 40 individuals. In 1981, the population was reported to be 30. At the end of the 1980′s the population size was estimated at 6-14 individuals. The last naturally born Pyrenean Ibex, named Celia, died on January 6th, 2000, after being found dead under a fallen tree at the age of 13. That animal’s only companion had died just a year earlier due to old age.

Text from Listverse