Pine Grosbeak and Red Crossbill, left to right, pictured above. Oil on linen, 18×18″ 2023.
On view from August 21st to December 31, 2025.
“The 66 Birds/3 Degrees project is a visual and sound environment of Pacific Northwest birds that are at risk if global warming is not mitigated. I first conceived of the project after seeing the publication “Survival By Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink” by the National Audubon Society. This study assesses the impact of climate warming at up to 3 degrees Celsius on North American bird species. With the intention of using birds to make a visceral impact about the consequences of global warming, I refined a list of western Washington birds identified as at risk in the Audubon study and birds listed as endangered or threatened by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. I determined to paint the birds with a neutral plain background in a portrait style. Each bird is looking the viewer in the eye, and “3°” is silkscreened somewhere on the canvas—I was aiming for a confrontation, one in which the bird is not sentimentalized nor anthropomorphized, but respected. Some paintings are accompanied by a motion sensor device playing the bird’s song. I enlisted the help of Dr. John Bower, who wrote the text about each bird in the display using the Audubon study and his extensive knowledge of Northwest birds. A diverse set of at-risk birds were chosen, with species representing forest, grassland, montane, freshwater, and marine habitats. In our choices, well-known and common species were favoured over transient or rare birds, as the intention of the project is to make an impact on the viewer through what is familiar, known, and—possibly—deeply felt.”
-Natalie Niblack
Natalie Niblack lives on the Skagit River in a rural area surrounded by natural and human-made environments where she observes the pressures of conflicting demands on a fragile landscape. This has led her to create work focused on the causes of climate change, including burning fossil fuels and the breakdown of plastic pollution, and most recently, the impact of climate change on bird populations.
Niblack taught visual art at Shoreline Community College for 20 years. She received her Master’s degree from Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland in 1993, and has shown her work in solo and group shows internationally, nationally, and regionally. She is currently represented by i.e. gallery.
natalieniblack.com
Join us for an evening with the artist and special guests on October 16th, 2025, programming begins at 6:00pm.
Featuring:
Natalie Niblack
Kathleen Dean Moore
Holly J. Hughes
Sarah Bassingthwaighte
Kathleen Dean Moore is the award-winning author or co-editor of more than a dozen books about our moral relation to the wild, reeling world. Formerly Distinguished Professor of Environmental Philosophy at Oregon State University, Kathleen’s anguish about accelerating extinctions and climate chaos led her to leave the university to write and speak out about the urgency of action. The co-founder and Senior Fellow of the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word, Kathleen collaborates closely with musicians, ecologists, filmmakers, and artists to stand against the corporate and now political plunder of the planet. Her newest books are Take Heart: Encouragement for Earth’s Weary Lovers and Earth’s Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World. For more information, please see www.riverwalking.com.
Holly J. Hughes is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Hold Fast, coauthor of The Pen and The Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World, and editor of several anthologies. Her fine-art chapbook Passings received an American Book Award in 2017. She is co-publisher of Empty Bowl Press, directs Flying Squirrel Studio, which offers residencies for women, and consults as a writing coach. She divides her time between a log cabin in Indianola and her home in the Chimacum.
Sarah Bassingthwaighte is a Canadian-American composer and flutist from Seattle. She’s the winner of the European Music, the International Satie Competition, the International Saint-Saëns Competitions, the International Couperin Competition, and a two-time finalist for the American Prize in Composition, and six-time winner of the NFA Newly Published Music Award. The London Symphony Orchestra recorded an album of her orchestral works, which was just released on the Aria Classics label in April of 2025. She has been in residency at the Visby International Centre for Composers in Sweden, the Uncool Residency in Poschiavo, Switzerland, and in 2025 Svalbard for the Arctic Residency.
