Study of a Barn Owl at dusk

The old barn is gone now. It was blown over by a triple-tailed tornado that danced and swirled  across the family farm last spring. But the memories remain. It was in that old barn that I sat silently in the moonlit darkness with my older brother Joe. Joe had become somewhat of an expert architect at the construction of bale houses by that time, and we perched on top of one of his latest creations. But that wasn't why we were there. Joe wanted me to experience something.  You see, my oldest brother Joe was a “naturalist” too, who took it upon himself to educate his youngest brother in the finer things in life. It was he who taught me how to catch those bullfrogs with my bare hands.

Joe had discovered that a barn owl had taken up residence in the old barn, and we sat silently in the darkness in wait, illuminated only by the moonlight that filtered through the knotholes and cracks in the weathered siding. Before long we saw a shadow swoop in and alight upon one of the beams, the silhouetted head bobbing in the darkness. After a time, it swooped silently down into the hay at the other end of the barn, presumably after one of the many mice that overran the feed room. I saw little and heard nothing – just a shadowy ghost that came and went in absolute silence. “Barn Owl in the Old Barn” was created to pay homage to that memory.

My brother Joe went on to become a zookeeper at the Topeka, Kansas Zoo until his tragic death in a car accident 12 years after our barn adventure. The painting resulting from that experience was ultimately framed in wood salvaged from the tornado damage, and was selected to be part of the Artists For Conservation Foundation 2014 Exhibit of Nature in Art, to bring attention to conservation causes. It was ultimately acquired by the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, AZ, and is now part of their permanent collection of wildlife art.

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