ARTIST STATEMENT
In their book titled In the Company of Crows and Ravens, Tony Angell and John Marzluff posit the notion that crows and humans engage in a mutualism of existence, wherein each affects the behavior of the other. They expand on this idea of a “cultural co-evolution” between humans and corvids throughout the book, and it is on this premise that I have continued to explore these remarkable birds. The drawings in this series suggest the intricacies of human and animal relations, particularly the extent to which humans have come to dictate the terms of co-existence.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Karen Bondarchuk, a Canadian-born visual artist living and working in the United States, has exhibited widely in the United States, as well as in Canada, England, France, Italy and India, and has been awarded residencies in Austria, France, Virginia, Vermont and Illinois. Her work has received honors and awards in New York, Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Maryland, and is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada, the Woodson Art Museum and several other public and private collections. Bondarchuk received her MFA from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and her BFA from the NSCAD University in Halifax, Canada. She is a professor in the Frostic School of Art at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI.
© Karen Bondarchuk