Biscuit On Alert








Biscuit Nervous About
Another Bear









Drawing: Biscuit Looking
for Company










Biscuit Wants to Play

(Click on any Image to see a higher resolution version)

Bad Weather Continues

After the longest stretch of fog, drizzle and wind with temperatures averaging 5¾C two consecutive days of good weather arrived at the end of June. Hopeful that this was to be the trend with the thermometer reaching a scorching 14¾C we relaxed in the relative heat wave.

July 8th, welcomed the worst bout of wind and driving rain we have experienced here to date. Winds gusting to 120K to 130K with continuous rain lasting 3 days. As the snow is still covering our most protected area from wind for the plane. We could not attempt to park it in this safer spot as the screws that go into the tundra holding it down would not permeate the permafrost there. Thus it was perched rather precariously on a slope close to the alder. The first and worst night of the three, Charlie and I were up every hour refastening ropes. We both remember all too well a similar storm in 1997 that flipped the plane over causing weeks of repairs for us.

Charlie walked out at 2:00AM to see the plane appearing to be lifting up on one wing! He screamed and ran, catching the upper wing, completely forgetting the entire plane carried a small electric current set up to keep bears from playing with it. Catching jolt after jolt he held on as he screwed in a tie down thus giving himself a direct ground that hugely intensified the current where previously he was mostly insulated with his rubber boots while standing precariously hanging on. In a lull in the wind he reached over and switched off the Gallhager electric fence unit. Not much comment when he returned to the cabin soaking wet. But the plane is OK and now moved to a better mooring. An advantage of driving rain is that it melts a lot of snow.

Charlie flew to Petropavlovsk yesterday to attend court where he has been asked to act as a witness to the case still continuing where the huge vehicle destroyed a lot of tundra in 1997. He may describe all in his next entry. I am here at Kambalnoye enjoying my time alone considering my current artistic direction and the work I am trying to accomplish this season.

The Language of Bears

In 2000, when exhibiting Through the Eyes of the Bear at camac Gallery, Marnay Sur Seine, France, I was approached by jazz musicians Francoise Lautrec, Anne Ballester and Mimi Lorencini to consider working together using my recordings of bears. I accepted an invitation to Paris this past spring to see what was possible on the theme of dialogue between man and bear using their abstract music and my recordings.

Completely fascinated with these artists' work, with eyes and ears agape, I returned to Canada wondering what further I could contribute to bring an exhibition concept to fruition. Anne had brought to my attention that the chirring song of cubs I love so much does indeed have a rhythm, as do some of the other vocalizations. Adding the idea of bears singing to simple interpretations of individual sounds, I realized I was onto something exciting. I am looking at the language of bears - not only what sounds they make and what they mean, but what is meant by their as equally varied body postures and facial expressions. Suddenly what appeared separate challenges - recording sound and taking photos, doing drawings, merge into one goal. I am artistically looking at what the bear is trying to communicate.

As I have mentioned in past entries relative to my drawing process, I take hundreds of black and white photos. Until now I have focused on the softer side of the bear with hints of a focus on more. Now I find myself looking for a more complex series of feelings. I constantly wish that as my camera zooms in on a specific expression or posture, I could simultaneously be recording the sounds made. For example the combination of the body posture shown in the photos Biscuit on Alert and Biscuit Nervous About Another Bear, the sound of chuff and whoosh through her nostrils accompanied by rather rapid footwork makes a now obvious interpretation. She is nervous. She is standing 5 feet from me, looking past me to see what is going to appear on the horizon. She has either heard or smelt something on the wind.

In the drawing, Biscuit Looking for Company, she is making no sounds of alarm but looking rather yearningly up-slope at Gin, Brandy's 3 year old cub. We thought perhaps she was looking for a mate, but we think she is missing her sibling and looking for company.

There are so many examples of the myriad of bear vocalizations that I now hear. Brandy talking to her cubs offers another aspect of communication I want to record. I don't know yet how the painting will evolve this summer. The drawings are pretty straightforward but technically more demanding, as are the photos that support them.

In the photo Biscuit Wants to Play, we missed her cues. She later startled us by shaking her head from side to side, rolling her eyes running up to both of us - standing up in front of Charlie, batting the air, I responded loudly to this invitation to rough play: "NO!" She leapt away casting mischievous glances, shaking her head in delight - at the source of the "NO". She instantly ran to within a few feet of me, performing more of the same. She clearly wanted to see if I would still hold my ground. Understanding immediately that I was still as firm as when she was a cub, on the issue of "no body-contact wrestling", she leapt by me with a laughing look. Soon she was rolling over and over as she slid by in the snow showing she understood our wishes for greater caution on her part; thereby accepting that rough play would have to be on her own.

- Maureen