D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
May
2009
A Flock of Art
Artist Narca Moore-Craig, featured in a new exhibit at the Chiricahua Gallery in Rodeo, travels the world to put birds
on her pages.
By Jean Chandanais Bohlender
Up a rocky road beneath the stony mountains near Portal, Ariz., a round little house perches amidst cypress, mesquite and cactus. Birds twitter in the sunlight, while feeders and thistle bags sway gently as the birds come and go.
 |
Narca Moore-Craig at Lake Titicaca
in Bolivia. (Photo by Charles Parker) |
Inside the house, bookshelves line the walls, herbs perfume the air and sunlight beams through the many windows. Narca Moore-Craig, this issue's cover artist, descends the ladder from her second-story studio to have tea at an antique oak table gracing the kitchen.
The tea cups, decorated with images of birds and Alaska, are the only clue that this petite graceful woman thrives on strenuous hiking and braving extreme, only to grin with glee at getting a nine-second glance at a hoped-to-find bird. Moore-Craig has led 100 tours across the globe, teaching others about birds, their environs and conservation efforts of local cultures. She is also an internationally known illustrator of books, magazine articles, travel brochures, birding trail maps and natural history brochures, including the cover for the 2008 "Wings Over Willcox" (Ariz.) program. Her own book is in the works, too, but Moore-Craig must fit it in among the huge chunks of time inked out on her calendar for various travels.
"It's a juggling act," she concedes.
Moore-Craig plans her travels around her own knowledge and experience. She keeps lists of sightings, and collects inspiration from other people with similar interests around the world who post their own trip lists of birds on the Internet.
Her outstanding book collection includes innumerable reference guides, field guides, encyclopedias and resources about birds and other wildlife. But the most fascinating offerings of the host of bookshelves are Moore-Craig's own books of field sketches, observations, journaling sights and thoughts and insights. In them you see the heart of the artist. Her quick sketches capture the posture and attitudes of the subjects, which later lead her to a finished illustration.
Moore-Craig also uses a camera in the field to record the landscape, vegetation and habitats. "You have to love the environment, and richly illustrate the backgrounds in order to really show the bird," she says, pointing out a piece on her drawing table that reveals incredible detail even in the "empty" spaces of air and sky.
Moore-Craig's background has been strongly based in art directing and illustration, in a career that spans over 40 years. She says she's been drawing as long as she can remember. In college, she was interested in many things, but minored in art. She started out in languages; after three and a half years, however, she quit college for 12 years. During that time, she raised her daughter and built a practical life, while also indulging her love for birds and creating bird art.
When she went back to college, Moore-Craig returned with a clearer purpose, and received a degree in biology, to give her wildlife art more depth. Then she began touring.
Today, she has hundreds of drawings and paintings in drawers, in process on the drawing table and digitally stored in her computer. So what next?
"Well, I started my own publishing company, called Sky Island Press," she says. "My present goal is to finish the book I have begun, entitled Harvest — Narca's Wildlife Art."
It isn't a retrospective, an ending of life's work, but a pause midstream, to not only document her art, but reveal the lives and environments of the birds and animals. Interjected with humor and whimsical observations, quick sketches reveal the essence and spontaneity of that shared moment between artist and wildlife. The book, which she is "holding to 160 pages," is filled with illustrations, drawings, paintings and full-color plates, sometimes several to a page, all interlaced with haiku written by the artist, as well as personal reflections and observations written at the moment.
For example:
"Winter 1984, San Jacinto Wildlife Area — A tiny screech owl is lying all in a heap at the side of the road, eyes clamped shut against the searing sand grains, nostrils clogged with dirt, soft feathers covered with a fine golden sheen of mica specks. He barely protests when I gather him up, barely stretches his wings — at least they aren't broken. Hardly bigger than a poor-will, he fits into one hand. I carry him into the house and gently swab the cruel sand from his eyelids. He relaxes, lets me work, lets me pull back the outer lids to cleanse the nictitating membrane, all filled with dirt, and to rinse his fine, luminous eyes. The yellow iris barely shows, so dilated are his pupils. Delicate little gray feathers fringe his eyes, still shut tight against the pain. He is the first screech owl we've seen on the wildlife area. Is he a fledgling of the year, now grown, dispersing from his parents' territory in some cottonwood tree along a river? If he recovers, will he live in our olive grove and add his quavering call to the night chorus?
"I leave him in a box padded with soft white batting at the rehabilitation center, and the news is good: He will survive and be released back into the wild."
The book ties together decades of work, laid out to share a life of wonder and discovery. She hopes to have it available in mid-2009.
Meanwhile, the Chiricahua Gallery in Rodeo, NM, will host a collection of about 60 framed pieces of Moore-Craig's, May 16 through June 20. The show opens with a reception on Saturday, May 16, from 2 to 7 p.m. The nonprofit Chiricahua Gallery is located on Hwy. 80 in downtown Rodeo.