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Maureen and Biscuit
Maureen's Goals for 2001
Artistic Goals:
I will continue with the black and white photography and drawings of Chico
and Biscuit as they are revealing more and more about the feelings of
bears as the years go by. My camera lens is faster and more discerning,
hopefully revealing more of the depth of grizzly bear feelings. This year,
I hope to add Brandy and her new cubs to my list of subjects.
As a result of interest sparked at my exhibition outside
of Paris in 2000, I am now collaborating with 3 very "concrete"
French jazz musicians to create: Dialogue Between Man and Bear.
It will be an exhibition partly in sound and partly about painting to
tour France. When Francoise Lautrec, Anne Ballester and Mimi Lorencini,
the musicians, worked with my recordings of our cubs, we all realized
there was a song bears sing as well as a distinguishable basis for understanding
their language. So now I am collecting more bear vocalizations to understand
more of their language. I am fascinated at the linguistic potential in
understanding bears. I hope to record sounds Brandy and her new family
and more of those of Chico and Biscuit now that they are adults.
I will paint something for Dialogue Between Man and Bear but it is currently a wide open challenge. I will see what the summer will bring.
Electric Fence:
I have plans to develop a prototype back in Canada for the back-country portable
electric fence unit this fall. (sponsor pending) The use of electric fencing
in bear control is a particular focus of mine which I would also like to see
in a small guidebook with a few additions. For example, there is no way the
average person can gather together packages of electric fence units for simple
applications such as around a chicken pen or bird feeder. Ranchers certainly
know how to do it and where to find parts, but not the acreage owner.
Additionally, I hope to create a bear-proof birdhouse or nesting ground and
bird feeder. I have two favorite gulls that nest every year on a rock that
Chico discovered, as a cub, that is worth a visit at hatching time. No chicks
have since1997 have survived this onslaught though the intrepid pair continue
to lay up to 3 batches of eggs per season. The female is already on this nest.
I plan to use the Ghallager portable fence unit and run a short fence around
her nest site. As for the bear proof bird feeder, that will have to wait until
my return to Canada in the fall.
-Maureen
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