When Art and Birding Meet, Magic Happens.

12/4/2021

By Charlie Stowers

by Paul Rodriguez

I recently had the opportunity to meet a young a birder at one of our Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve events. When we had a chance to talk he informed me that he was an artist and especially likes to create digital bird art.

I asked him to send me some example of his recent work, so here it is along with some interesting information about the amazing young artist.

Hey! My name's Charlie Stowers, I'm a 17 year old birder born and raised in Las Vegas, and I'm also a Visual Design major at my high school. I've always been passionate about the natural world, but birds have always caught my eye in particular, from the first time my grandmother brought me out to the Henderson Bird Preserve and I was thrilled just to see "ducks!". I even legally changed my middle name to Finch as a snappy homage to the way birds have impacted my life.

How long have you been birding?
I've been birding most of my life casually, but I started my official list in middle school, and then I really became committed to adding to it midway through high school, junior year or so, when quarantine put most of my other responsibilities on hold and I was free to bird to my heart's desire. I think I might have doubled my life list at that point, even though I was pretty much solely doing backyard birding. Getting a car and a license when I was 16 only made that passion stronger, and these days I love driving to local preserves and parks to see what I can see!

Was there a particular bird (spark bird) that really got you hooked on birding?
There's definitely been a few sightings that really stand out to me in my mind- once, as a 7 or 8 year old, a Snowy Egret burst from a bush like an angel while my family and I were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic in California, and my resulting excitement caused a minor fender bender that kept us on the side of the road for quite a few hours- not my proudest story, but definitely one that I'll never forget! Another time, in Arizona, I found myself less than 4 feet directly below a Cactus Wren and was able to listen to it sing for almost 20 minutes, and the calm that I felt in that moment is something that I only feel so easily in the company of birds. Some other highlights include a tree in Zion National Park completely full of Yellow Warblers, a juvenile Ring-Billed Gull that being able to identify made me feel like Audubon himself, flocks of nightjars expertly zipping over ponds to catch mosquitoes in the dying evening light, and a Killdeer feigning a broken leg to lead me away from its nest, (which I dutifully followed until it seemed to be satisfied with my position). Honestly, though, sightings don't mean so much to me as the people I go birding with- the real value in seeing an Evening Grosbeak, for example, was seeing my friend's eyes light up at its beautiful gold gradient, and even an Osprey rising out of some reeds with a fish in its talons wouldn't have been as cool if my aunt hadn't unintentionally yelped at the sight of it. So to circle back to the question, I guess every bird I see with friends is a spark bird to me!

Where is your favorite place to go birding?
That's a toughie! There's so many places that I wish I could have experienced with a more advanced or local birder because seeing them alone was overwhelming- Spain, for example, and Mexico- both beautiful places with beautiful birds, but the sheer volume of birds I had never seen before had me tearing through books and scribbling out sketches so fast I couldn't really sit back and enjoy myself. So to me, my favorite place to bird comes down to a place with a combination of old familiars and novel birds, which has to be North Carolina. From the woods near West Jefferson to the thin strip of Cape Hatteras, I can rest assured knowing I'm looking at a Northern Cardinal or stretch my brain trying to ID a Royal Tern, and I can't get enough of it.

Your art is amazing. Where do you get your inspiration?
Well, thank you!! Honestly, I draw inspiration from so many things, but being born and raised in the Mojave desert, I think a lot of my subject matter, color palettes, and even symbolism can be traced to desert-y things, from wild horses and sagebrush to coyotes and cacti- however, I was also heavily influenced by the first wave of digital art to hit sites like Deviantart in the early 2010s, so I can't resist the look of heavy saturation, dramatic compositions, and surrealist concepts and poses. I like to think that combination gives me a pretty unique style, and I can't be happier that my art appeals to so many people!

Click on the images to enlarge