While artist has depicted many birds that are significant to her people of Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off British Columbia, the White Ibis, a species common across Florida, was a novel challenge. Yet in its body and beak, White, who belongs to her people鈥檚 Raven clan, saw shapes and colors compatible with formline, a design style traditional to First Nations of the Northwest Coast. The technique demands a minimalist aesthetic, but 鈥渇rom there, there鈥檚 a lot of freedom to make it your own,鈥 she says.
With the ibis, she eschews symmetry鈥攁 classic formline tenet鈥攂ut retains a sense of visual balance. The central bird fits within the curves of a human eye, and the echo of the ocular motif elsewhere hints that 鈥渨e should be a lot more aware of what鈥檚 around us.鈥 Other shapes represent the cycle of life: A juvenile ibis consumes a fish close to its mother鈥檚 breast, while its father peers through her wing. To inform her work, White researched ibis mythology and ecology. A former geologist, she admires John James 约炮视频鈥檚 keen naturalist鈥檚 eye: 鈥淗e looked at the birds very scientifically, and I do as well.鈥 鈥擩ulie Leibach
This story originally ran in the Summer 2018 issue of 约炮视频. To receive our print magazine,