Alecia McBride: Artist in Residence at Sauk Creek Nature Preserve

July 27, 2023  |  Topics: featured artist

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The Natural Realm presents Alecia McBride, who is among 12 artists participating in a year-long residency program called ARTservancy, a collaboration between Gallery 224 in Port Washington and the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, River Revitalization Foundation, Milwaukee Area Land Conservancy, Tall Pines Conservancy, and Lake Michigan Bird Observatory. The mission of ARTservancy is to promote the visionary work of both the artists and conservationists. Each artist has selected a preserve to spend time in and to engage with.

Artist’s Statement

At the end of February, I began to take bi-weekly visits to Sauk Creek Nature Preserve to observe local and migratory species of birds within the preserve.  Coming from suburbanized Wisconsin, it was really refreshing to see species that gave myself along with others a sense of nostalgia for what the Midwest hopes to be. 

A lot of the documentation I have been taking either within my journal or on my phone will become distorted to reflect on my current growth and age, as well as what it means to be an individual with mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression. As a rather sheltered kid existing in downtown Waukesha, there was never a lot of vibrant wildlife. 

Week 2, I began to see my distortions stray away from fear, flight, and anger. I was beginning to focus on the beauty of the birds themselves along with their characteristics. Now, as I live outside of Milwaukee in the more nature-centric city of Mukwonago, I find myself seeing Baltimore Orioles as normal visitors to my backyard. Or even a female turkey that takes a dust bath in my dad’s construction zone. 

The ultimate goal is to document as many birds as possible—migratory and local, in relation to my continued growth into a healthy mindset. Some will be completely motion-based with how the creatures will move or communicate to each other. Some will be near identical with only small distortions. However, all of them will show myself, my identity, and how I have grown my own mindset.

Gallery

Biography

I am a queer creative fabricator based in Mukwonago, WI. I engage with self-guided ornithological research to help heal my own mental health, but to also share with others how art can be a transformative form of mental healing. Self-taught, I create freeform wooden paintings to stand on their own. 

I have most recently shown at the Birds in Art Show at Dunes National Park, Twin Lakes Art Gallery, and will appear in Disappearing Birds of North America as a participating artist.

This residency is sponsored by Lake Michigan Bird Observatory. To learn more about Sauk Creek Preserve go to our Find-a-Park page.

This is the latest in our series of featured artists, which is intended to showcase the work of photographers, artists, writers and other creative individuals in our community whose subjects or themes relate in some broad sense to nature, urban nature, people in nature, etc. To see a list of previously featured artists, click here. The work of the 2022-2023 ARTservancy artists in residence is currently being exhibited monthly at Gallery 224. To meet the other ARTservancy artists in residence, click here.

All images courtesy of the artist, except as noted. The featured photo at the top of Alecia McBride in a meadow at Sauk Creek Preserve is by Eddee Daniel. Lake Michigan Bird Observatory is a project partner of A Wealth of Nature.

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