20×30 framed original painting by Erin M Linton

gouache on pH-treated upcycled tea bags

PICK UP AT END OF SHOW FROM THE SEWARD PARK AUDUBON CENTER

The subject of this painting is Paddington, a Barred Owl and education ambassador at Badger Run Wildlife Rehabilitation in Keno, Oregon, where I volunteer. She came to Badger Run in 2020 after being struck by a car, sustaining a wing injury that left her unable to return to the wild. There was, however, a second reason she could not be released: Oregon Fish & Wildlife prohibits the return of Barred Owls to the wild in this state. They are classified as invasive.

That classification deserves pause. Barred Owls did not arrive in the Pacific Northwest by ship or in the hold of a cargo plane. Their range expanded westward gradually and organically—following human settlement, which fragmented the old-growth forests of the East and opened corridors that made western migration possible. They followed us. And now, as culling programs target them in an effort to protect the imperiled Northern Spotted Owl, individual birds like Paddington find themselves caught in the consequences of choices that were never theirs to make.

I painted Paddington because I know her. I have watched her adapt to her life with grace and curiosity, and I wanted to honor that—and to ask, quietly, who the real author of this story is.

The proceeds from the sale of this piece, after costs, will be donated to Badger Run Wildlife Rehabilitation, a top-rated nonprofit dedicated to the care of injured and orphaned wildlife. The work will be exhibited at the Seward Park Audubon Center in Seattle beginning July 1st, where I will also give a talk and host two painting sessions on Saturday, July 25th.