Loon on Nest | Oil and the Caribou | 2002 | 12 in. x 12 in.

Late June 2002, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, Alaska. In my essay in the Third Text journal special issue, “Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology,” I wrote: In these bird portraits we do not get much information about their natural history but instead a psychological state of being–in–the–land. The loon sleeps briefly, then wakes up, and rotates its head to look around. … I surmise that the loon (besides being curious) was keeping an eye out for predators, like the Arctic fox, that would try to get the eggs—at times the fox wins. … Loons critically depend on large deep lakes—both for access to food and as transportation corridors. … Arctic lakes are disappearing rapidly due to warming—permafrost is thawing and the water is draining away, leaving the lakes dry. Beyond the tundra there is no more land or lakes, only ocean, all the way to the North Pole. Loons cannot go any further north than they currently go to nest.