In early 2020, ornithologist Ana Luiza Catalano defended her doctoral thesis on birdsong on the Federal College of São Carlos in Brazil. Per week later, the COVID-19 pandemic introduced the world to a grinding halt, and he or she quickly discovered herself confined at house, dwelling along with her dad and mom and brother. It was a shock to the system for somebody whose work typically took her into the sphere. To fill the hours indoors, she enrolled in an internet embroidery course.
Though Catalano knew little or no about embroidery, she was drawn to needle portray, an in depth fashion that makes use of coloured threads the best way different artists make use of oils and watercolors. She selected a category through which the ultimate venture was—naturally—a chicken. “I feel birds are a very good factor to embroider,” she says. “The threads assist to offer it this feathery look.”
As soon as Catalano shared a photograph of her first piece—a robin—on-line, her ornithologist associates instantly clamored for commissions. She began mixing her new artwork type along with her scientific background, embroidering real looking portraits of assorted species. Catalano created an Instagram account to share her work, utilizing her artwork as a jumping-off level to speak concerning the birds she depicts. In a nod to her experience on birdsong, she additionally stitched graphs to signify the species’ songs. In the present day, Catalano continues to do that art-science communication in her spare time whereas additionally getting again into the sphere as a biologist, learning whether or not mining impacts birds’ acoustic communication.
For her Aviary creation, Catalano rendered the White-bearded Antshrike, a shy, uncommon species native to Argentina and Brazil. The hanging forest dweller, which she’s by no means noticed or heard within the wild, is lowering in quantity; its mature inhabitants is lower than 10,000, and the species is classed as Weak by the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature. “It’s fairly unhappy to consider,” Catalano says. “However I feel to painting these birds can be a form of contribution to make them seen, as a result of they’re so exhausting to see.”
Catalano’s piece, produced from embroidery floss on cotton cloth, is an idealized household portrait through which each the black-capped male and the rufous-headed feminine seem collectively—a sight that, to Catalano’s data, has by no means been captured within the wild. “Though the literature says that the dad and mom are normally collectively, you’ll be able to’t discover a photograph with each of them,” she says. Native bamboo vegetation—some recent and inexperienced, some older and dying—crisscrosses the body, giving the birds a spot to perch and lending the piece construction. It’s symbolically important, too, as a result of the White-bearded Antshrike depends upon the plant and is extremely delicate to forest degradation and destruction.
Within the decrease a part of the body, embroidered graphs illustrate the antshrike’s song in waveform (which exhibits how loud the sound is thru time) and spectrogram (which exhibits the frequency, or pitch, because it rises and falls). The 2 traces of the spectrogram signify the overlapping layers of sound waves these birds give off. “They sing in harmonic, which implies there are lots of frequencies,” Catalano explains. “It’s extra much like how we communicate, as a substitute of a extra whistled sound.”
Catalano’s completed product is a beautiful rendering of those weak, shy birds and their music within the bamboo-rich forest they inhabit—and a reminder of the biodiversity at stake.
This piece initially ran within the Fall 2024 situation. To obtain our print journal, grow to be a member by making a donation today.