2023 was a wild time and I appreciate everyone who was a part of Welcome Spruce Grouse, from sharing my events, providing funding, hosting my programs, making art, and of course the biologists who are working to help save the spruce grouse. That’s just a fraction of all the different ways people came together to help me make community art programing happen and I couldn’t have done it without y’all.

I’ll share some pictures of what folks created for the exhibit here and I will do a separate post with my recipe for balsam syrup that I made soda with for the exhibit.

From left to right:

Disgruntled Grouse Sketches by Marianne Hebert made with colored pencil on paper.

Angie Hat. From the artist Dr. Michale Glennon, Angie Hat is inspired by the work of Angelena Ross and Glenn Johnson to restore spruce grouse populations in the Adirondack Park. The white spots on the hat are reminiscent of the white-tipped feathers on the bird’s chest and are equal in number to the number of adult birds that Angie and Glenn have translocated to the Adirondacks from Canada or Maine as part of the recovery plan. I believe it is felted wool, but I will have to check!

Then there’s a part of the paintings I made and a taxidermied spruce grouse that SUNY Potsdam graciously loaned for the exhibit.

Here is another drawing by Marianne and François the Friendly Fool Hen, a hand-stitched soft sculpture by Aimee LaRue.

Kaya Diop and her sisters made some wonderful drawings for the exhibit and enjoyed drawing on some open-ended coloring sheets I made with other folks at the opening. You can download copies of the coloring sheets here if you are interested.

From left to right here is Rainbow Tail Spruce Grouse by Addie Diop, made with pencil and marker on paper

The poem Color Me by John Berbrich and The Spruce Grouse by Ena Diop made with colored pencil on paper.

You can see more pictures of the art made on my Facebook Page and I’ll end with the text of John’s poem.

Thank You For Joining The Flock