Arts Lifestyle Sustainability

Sustainability: The Arts & Wildlife

Powerful Partners for Conservation

Photo by Steve Atkins

By Paula Musto

Most of us have seen photos of the solitary polar bear stranded on a melting ice floe. Or have passed by an art gallery where a portrait of a woeful wild beast caught our eye or where we admired a piece of pottery adorned with hard-to-resist critters. Art connects us to nature in powerful and visceral ways. Perhaps nowhere more so than in places like Asheville where artists of so many genres are drawn to the natural world for inspiration. Or is it the art that inspires a deeper, even spiritual, look at nature?

Both, according to local artists who, when not working in their studios, volunteer at wildlife sanctuaries and care centers. There are many ways to conserve wildlife, they say, but the arts are an especially powerful way to connect with other species who share our planet.

Photo by Steve Atkins

Rodney Leftwich, a potter known for his Southern Appalachian folk art designs, had an epiphany of sorts a few years ago after finding an injured possum with its babies sprawled on a roadway near his Mills River home. Even though attempts to rescue the family failed—the mama was too badly hurt and the babies too young to survive—he decided to re-focus on wildlife as prime subject matter. Giving up valuable studio time, Leftwich began volunteering two days a week at the Appalachian Wildlife Refuge in Candler, which cares for injured and orphaned animals with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. Though the work is not glamorous (he spends much of his time cleaning up after the critters), Leftwich believes that he is making an important contribution to conservation along with gaining a greater understanding of his wildlife subjects.

“I have reached a point in my art that I no longer want to create pieces just to sell,” Leftwich says. “I want to give back something of value…to create the best pottery I can to reflect the beauty of wildlife and the natural world around us.”

Poet Nickole Brown is a volunteer with Animal Haven of Asheville and a devotee of nonhuman species which, she says, need our attention and protection. Like Leftwich, Brown purposely decided to switch gears a few years ago and, rather than write about people, her poetry is now almost exclusively about animals. “Humans have so much power,” Brown, a literature professor and author of several volumes of poetry, says. “We are slowly killing off so many species. Many are suffering at our hands and we do not even notice.”

Using the power of the arts to carry a message to the general public is an important part of the artist’s job, Brown says. “It’s our job to pay attention, to notice. Poets take what they find and, writing the words down, turn it into a piece of art that we hope will get people’s attention.” In her poem titled “Mercy” from her 2018 collection To

Those Who Were Our First Gods, Brown gives voice to wildlife and commands us to listen to the nonhuman world, including an endangered aquatic species: the hellbender salamander.

you hellbender—giant salamander you are—a
rarity
now put on educational display, you eel-
looking
haint once pulled up by fishermen in these
mountains.
Speak, because no one knows who you
are
anymore; you must make us remember. Turn
your
slack maw to my tapping on the bent
plexiglass
and speak.
Say what it is you need to say….

The hellbenders, once common in Western North Carolina, are greatly diminished. What such creatures need to say, according to the award-winning poet, is “mercy, mercy, mercy”—that is, to beg, plead and demand mercy from humans to not pollute our waters, change the climate, destroy habitats and cut down trees. “If we do not have mercy,” Brown says, “we will not survive. All living things will go down together.”

Photo by Steve Atkins

Photographer Steve Atkins always loved wild creatures. He was the child who stuffed toads and snakes into his pockets. Eventually, Atkins realized it might be better to take photos of the animals. His hobby became a lifelong career. Atkins, who has volunteered with the Western North Carolina Nature Center, believes that photos seen by millions—the stranded polar bear, for example, or a turtle with a plastic straw protruding from its shell—do more to make people aware of how our modern world stresses wildlife than any amount of scholarly research or scientific data.

“These photos have a huge impact,” Atkins says. “Many people will never go to a coral reef, but when they see heartbreaking photos of the destruction to marine life, they become aware and concerned.” The visceral power of art opens our eyes and makes us want to protect the beauty we see.

You don’t have to be a professional artist to experience this connection. The next time you are out in nature, whether hiking or just on a lazy stroll, bring a sketchbook, camera or journal along. Take a close look at your surroundings and, perhaps, you will be inspired to draw or scribble a few words. Perhaps, you’ll walk away feeling a bit different about what you see.

Paula Musto is a writer and volunteer for Appalachian Wild, a nonprofit whose mission is to help injured or orphaned wildlife, support WNC’s wildlife rehabilitation network and provide wildlife conservation education. To help save wildlife, donate and learn more, visit AppalachianWild.org.

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