Jane Kim: Migrating Murals.
In the summer of 2010, I lived in Yosemite National Park where I learned about a very special animal, the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep. The Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep is a distinct subspecies and exists only in the eastern range of California’s Sierra Nevada. At one time, they numbered in the thousands. In the nineties, there were so few sheep they could be identified as individuals in the field. Today, it is considered one of the rarest large animals in North America.
It became an obsession of mine to see a Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep. It’s hard, really hard. I contacted a biologist who has devoted his whole life to studying and restoring the Sierra bighorns and I finally saw them! I even helped collect sheep poop, and once poop’s involved, you know you’re in deep. It was then that I decided I would make the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep the first animal of The Migrating Mural.
The Migrating Mural: Chapter One: Sierra Bighorns is a year-long project during which I’ll paint a series of four murals about the life of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep along US Highway 395, to bring attention to this very special megafauna. The murals begin in Olancha, CA and end in Lee Vining, CA, a distance of about 145 miles. Each mural corresponds with a herd unit occupying that area and shares some of their biology, such as the growth stages of a ram. I’m very excited to make this animal the first subject of The Migrating Mural and committed to being a steward for wildlife through art.
My dream for The Migrating Mural is for it to become global in scope and scale. It could become a program for key environmental and public and private sectors to partner with. We’ll identify an animal, region, and series of mural sites, then offer grants for artists to paint each one. The migration route of North Pacific blue whales runs from Baja to Alaska, so a panel of judges would choose an artist in each town along this route to paint a mural. It’s a beautiful way to connect many different places with one project, one animal, and one goal.
