Created 2015. Oil and metallic leaf on canvas mounted to a hand-built panel.

Part of a series: "Something opens our wings" from a Rumi poem. The Harris's Hawk was named by Audubon for his good friend Edward Harris. This particular image is of a rescued Harris's Hawk that lived in captivity to be seventeen years of age. A friend photographed this bird at an educational event and gave me a print of the image. I lived with the image in my studio for a number of years, always captivated by the intense facial expression and power of it. I created the cropped image as it was photographed, asking the environmental question: "Are we in the picture or not?" Part of series, Plant, Mineral, Animal Medicine. I see this image as interconnected with the space above the bird. In the ecological fields of our shared existence, I cannot imagine being on the planet without the magic of the winged ones.

More about the Artist:
Deborah Gavel is an artist in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  She currently lives and works in a studio on historic Rt. 66.  She received an MA and an MFA in Painting from the University of New Mexico.