Amazing artist, blogger, and all-around science fan Glendon Mellow (check out his blog The Flying Trilobite) has kindly painted this fabulous banner for Migrations, incorporating the themes that inspire me and my journey (if you will).
From the most obvious aspect comes the Red Knot on the right, symbolizing not just birds but threatened birds in particular. Although Red Knots are not commonly seen in Cyprus (they’re vagrants here), one of their most threatened migratory stopovers is relatively near where I grew up, the Delaware Bay area in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US. So in a way, the Red Knot symbolizes both the fun pursuit of vagrants when birding, as well as the objective of conserving biodiversity.
The hand brushing aside olive branches so the observer may look out to the island ahead symbolizes both the perspective of discovery and my own peregrination to the Mediterranean country of Cyprus. It’s a journey that has challenged me, enriched my life, and just been amazing all around.
And the symbols of migration are plainly there – the silhouetted v-formation above, the threatened migrant in flight, the impression of exploration and discovery.
The banner itself and Glendon’s account of its creation have been praised in the journal Evolution: Education and Outreach, which Glendon blogged about here.
For more, check out Glendon Mellow’s ‘the making of’ posts:
Part 1: Concepts
Part 2: Final Workflow
Red Knot, by Glendon Mellow
Migrations 