Olivia draws for the birds

By Paromita Pain on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 11:35

After the oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico, this 11-year-old girl decided to do her bit for the environment through her art. So far, she has helped raise funding to the tune of $175,000, with her drawings of birds. Paromita Pain speaks to the little artist.

It’s easy to cry over spilled milk but spilt oil is a completely different matter all together. We aren’t strangers to the recent British Petroleum Oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico. Estimates now put it as the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry globally.

As Wikipedia says, “On July 15, the leak was stopped by capping the gushing wellhead after releasing about 4.9 million barrels (780×10^³ m³) of crude oil at the rate of 35,000 to 60,000 barrels per day (5,600 to 9,500 m³/d).” In simple terms, that’s a lot of oil whose detrimental effects on plants, birds and animals that make up the ecological environment in and around the Coast will perhaps never be undone.

The water is now unfit for the fish to live in. Birds can’t fly or move freely since the oil makes their feathers stick. Plants just die. Olivia Bouler (resident of Long Island, United States of America) wept when she saw the catastrophe on television. But soon she decided to do more. At 11, this aspiring ornithologist, artist, and saxophone player, decided to use her considerable artistic talent to assist raise funds and awareness to help the injured animals. She contacted the National Audubon Society (whose mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds and other wildlife for the benefit of humanity) and asked how she could help.

Inspired by wildlife artist John James Audubon (1785-1851) and his work Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size prints, Olivia decided to give bird drawings to those who donated to the Audubon Society’srecovery efforts, setting a goal of 500 original drawings.

“My grandparents have a beach house in Orange Beach, Alabama. We go there about once a year. We do a lot of swimming. My grandfather takes us out in his boat and one time we were even able to feed dolphins off the side of the boat. I really like watching all the birds down there too.  I saw a brown pelican, a green heron and a great blue heron,” says the young artist. She heard about the injured birds from her grandfather and was very worried because she knew the birds were in the nesting season and would die.

 “That night over dinner my parents and I brainstormed ways to do something. Birds are fascinating creatures.  They are the only animal with feathers.  I don't have a pet bird but my grandparents have an African Grey parrot named Woody,” she explains. “The first picture I drew for the project was a brown pelican since that bird will be most affected by the spill.  They can't just leave their nests and go somewhere else and they were just taken off the endangered species list.” That drawing now hangs in Audubon's national headquarters.

The response has been incredible, raising over $175,000 for a variety of organisations helping wildlife in the Gulf region and having over 26,000 people sign up for her Facebook fan page, “Save the Gulf: Olivia’s Bird Illustrations”. Her work is now featured as an AOL Artist, with AOL giving The Audubon Society $25,000 in honour of Olivia’s efforts.  AOL has alsofacilitated the mailing of her limited edition prints. Olivia has drawn at least 80 different species of birds in 225 original drawings.  Ask her what she feels about her art and she says candidly, “I took one little class. I think I am a decent drawer.”

Olivia’s favourite is thechickadees because “that bird is so cute”.  She also likes the patterns on the feathers of the American Kestrel. “It takes about 30 minutes to do one picture. My mom and dad set a limit on 500 original drawings, so now I'm just drawing to finish those requests.  I also have a show of 25 watercolours up for auction in Texas,” she says proudly.

Balancing school and her art can get hard at times. “It was tough at the end of the year because I had to leave school to go talk about the project.  It’s summer vacation now so it has given me some time to do my drawings,” she explains. Besides birds and art, she loves playing her saxophone in band and has always loved science.  “My least favourite subject is history because I hate learning about war.  That makes me sad,” she says.

The Twilight series tops her favourites list and she is re-reading them right now.  “I even listen to them on CD while I am drawing,” she says. She enjoyed the Warrior series of books by Erin Hunter, even though it was about cats and not birds.

For other young people wanting to do their bit for the environment, Olivia has some simple tips: “Make sure your backyard is a good place for animals-- birdhouses, food, and no chemicals please.  Just do what you like to do. Find a way to connect.  For me it was drawing. Kids have a lot of different things they can do.”

Anyone interested in contributing can log onto http://www.aolartists.com/projects/help-the-gulf/ which has links to donate to Audubon.  The receipts must be sent to oliviasbirds@aol.com with a mailing address and AOL will send across them a print of Olivia’s birds directly.