Linda Powell has been blessed with a life spent on the boundary between people and animals.  The daughter of a cowboy in Alberta, She moved to Alaska at nineteen and lived and worked in the high Arctic before moving to the Sonoran Desert of Arizona.  Animals' lives have always been 'real' to her -- not at a distance, but as my neighbors and friends.   Growing up on ranches in southern Alberta, she lived closer to animals than people.  She was taught to watch for them, love, and protect them.   When she arrived in Anchorage, Alaska in 1970, there were no department stores, but there were grizzly bears, moose, ravens, wolves and wild sheep in the city limits.  And they remained her neighbors until she left in 2010.  'Inspired' is not the word she'd use to express why all of her artwork has always featured animals and the natural environment.  That assumes a distance.  She simply strives to capture the intimate moments between her 'neighbors' who just happen to not be human.