Mary is quick to explain the impetus for this show. “I love the outdoors!,” she says with enthusiasm. “Just out of University my husband and I took jobs teaching in Zambia. We were there for three years and had a year-round school schedule, meaning that we got a month off every three months.  So of course we bought an old Land Rover and spent the time traveling to Game parks and some other countries.  We saw so many amazing birds and mammals, as well unusual reptiles.  Many of those animals are now endangered.”

 

“When we came back to the states.” Mary continues, “we took jobs up on the Klamath River teaching in a two room school.  I had grown up with a father who spent every fall fishing on the Klamath.  Now the Klamath and other large rivers in CA are experiencing warming; the amazing Salmon and Steelhead don’t do well in warm water and water fluctuations.”

 

Mary sees beauty all around her in spite increasingly devastating wildfires and other threats to the environment. “Now we are fortunate to live on a large piece of land with lots of wildlife,” she explains. “My husband and I used to go backpacking just to be in beautiful places, not to mention discovering what would be around the next corner.  California has so many beautiful places. I just had to include some art about the beauty of our environment in the hopes that it will all survive Climate Change.”