Alex Warnick: The Art of Observation

Alex Warnick’s Fickle Taxonomies Foreword How can artists help us to engage with the natural world? Natural history artist Alex Warnick tells us that art acts as a bridge that connects citizens with seemingly inaccessible science. With her art, she aims to do just that. Warnick’s reverence for and curiosity about the natural world is tangible. Her process of inquiry, exploration, and discovery reflects the role of art in helping us to connect with and experience the world around us.

As Artist-in-Residence at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Warnick spent a week during the spring of 2022 immersed in the Peterson collection. Alex Warnick: The Art of Observation features works that Warnick created based on her research of the Peterson collection, as well as her insights into Roger’s work and career. Her post-residency project, Fickle Taxonomies, is a tongue-in-cheek look at the way that earlier ornithological books grouped the birds. She also shares her fascination with the history of natural history illustration, and investigates the historical connections between art and science.

In considering what had come before, Warnick’s project explores how the Peterson Guide was a catalyst for a new movement in connecting people with nature: “Previous books often grouped birds in artificial ways such as by size or by color—reminiscent of folk rather than scientific taxonomies. If Roger had organized his field guide according to these more artificial classifications, would it have triggered the same drive to collect, to add species to a life list? My paintings explore that question. Each one is based on an artificial classification found in the books from Roger’s own library.”

With Fickle Taxonomies, we learn that exploration of the natural world is a personal journey for each of us. We may be drawn to certain shapes, colors, or patterns. Perhaps we feel a connection with birds that are phlegmatic and meditative, or realize that we particularly enjoy the birds which can be observed in low trees. Through her carefully composed and meticulously detailed paintings, she shares with the viewer her observations about the character and aesthetics of birds. Through her art, Warnick reminds us that there are myriad ways which we can find enjoyment in the natural world.

Maria Ferguson Curator, Roger Tory Peterson Institute

The Art of Observation Alex Warnick

If someone were given a definition and asked to find the word associated with that definition in the dictionary, where would they begin? Would they open to page one and read every definition until they found the word they were looking for? Would they scan random pages, hoping to land on the correct word by chance? An efficient search would require a reverse dictionary, one that facilitated looking up words by their definition.

A reverse dictionary might group definitions into classifications—one section for nouns, one for verbs, and one for adjectives. The section for nouns could be broken down into sub-sections like animal, vegetable, mineral, etc. Users could then easily narrow their search to a specific section.

This is essentially the same challenge faced by early bird book authors, but instead of words, users were searching for the names of birds. Early authors came up with creative ways to funnel people towards the birds they were looking for, and their quirky classifications inspired the series of paintings in the exhibit Alex Warnick: The Art of Observation.

In Birds Through an Opera Glass published in 1889 by Florence Merriam Bailey, we find the classification “Backs More or Less Streaked”. The grouping includes birds like the Bobolink, Ruffed Grouse, Purple Finch, Pine Siskin, Red-winged Blackbird, Song Sparrow, Rosebreasted Grosbeak, Brown Creeper, and Eastern Meadowlark. If a bird with a streaked back was spotted in the field, the viewer would consult this section of Bailey’s book. It seems comical to organize birds in this way since the Ruffed Grouse and Brown Creeper have almost nothing in common except for the streaks on their backs.

In another arbitrary classification, “Phlegmatic and Meditative”, we find the Belted Kingfisher, Cedar Waxwing, Northern Flicker, White-throated Sparrow, and American Robin. If an unknown species is spotted sitting still, appearing to ponder life’s deepest questions, this is the list a birder would consult.

Some birds included by Bailey won’t strike the average birder as being phlegmatic or meditative, and more obvious species, such as the Mourning Dove, she chose to leave out. Classifying birds based on an author’s perceptions makes identification in a field guide a game of chance.

Neltje Blanchan’s Bird Neighbors published in 1904 and The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess published in 1919 exemplify more challenging classifications: “Birds Wholly or Largely Black” and “Birds Conspicuously Red”. While grouping by color can be helpful, especially for beginning birders, it can also create confusion and redundancy in a bird guide. A Red-winged Blackbird belongs in the section depicting birds that are wholly or largely black, but the female would need to be included in a second section depicting birds mostly brown. Again, a Rusty Blackbird appears black for some of the year while it is significantly brown during other times of the year.

Blanchan’s “Birds of Low Trees” effectively categorizes species usually found in low trees.

However, seeing a bird in a low tree doesn’t guarantee that it is typically a “bird of low trees”. If the user can’t find their species in this category they could check Blanchan’s other categories, “Birds of Tree Trunks and Large Limbs” or “Birds Seen Feeding Among Terminal Twigs”. Between them these

classifications span the wide gamut of every possible passerine.

Other peculiar categories include “Birds With a Song Pitch Higher Than C5 on the Keyboard” from F. Schuyler Mathews’ Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music (1909), “Migrations of Birds in the Vicinity of New York February 15 to March 15” from Blanchan’s Bird Neighbors, and “Swallows and One Who Isn’t” from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess (1919).

Roger decided to forgo the challenges associated with these methods of organizing birds and instead organized his field guide according to modern taxonomy. In modern taxonomy, every bird has its place, and no bird belongs in two places at once.

There is no redundancy. That made Roger’s visual collection into a finite list which triggered the human instinct to check things off. Birding was born.

Roger himself said in the preface to his first-edition guide: “Field birding as most of us engage in it is a game—a most absorbing game.”

Aspiring to see, for example, every wren species that Roger included in his field guide plate gives a birder purpose and drive. It focuses their actions towards a measurable goal. It compels them to search for birds in rain, wind, or snow, visiting mosquito-ridden marshes and maybe even garbage dumps.

What if Roger hadn’t organized his field guide according to modern taxonomy and instead used the arbitrary classifications of earlier bird book authors?

Would his guide have triggered the same drive to collect species for a life list? Would finding every “streak-backed” bird motivate someone to visit a mosquito-ridden marsh or a garbage dump in order to complete the list—or “beat the level” to continue with Roger’s game metaphor? If a birder had seen

all but one of the “phlegmatic and meditative” birds listed by Florence Merriam Bailey, would they spend vacation days and savings to fly 2000 miles for the chance to catch a glimpse?

Do the illustrations in the exhibit The Art of Observation compel us to collect with the same power as Roger’s plates that were organized according to modern taxonomy? Perhaps not. But the next time we’re watching a flock of Cedar Waxwings we might pause and ask ourselves if they seem phlegmatic and meditative, possibly noticing something about their character we hadn’t noticed previously. After viewing a plate of streak-backed birds, we may consider the unique characteristics of a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak independent of her more famous male counterpart. These arbitrary classifications, while not propelling us into nature with the same force as Roger’s guide, can change the pace and the dynamic of how we interact with these species.

Whether illustrating arbitrary classifications or organizing field guides according to modern taxonomy, authors and artists have the potential to alter the way we perceive the natural world.

Alex Warnick Backs More or Less Streaked 2022 Acrylic Courtesy of the artist

Alex Warnick Birds Wholly or Largely Black 2022 Acrylic Courtesy of the artist

Alex Warnick Birds Conspicuously Red 2022 Acrylic Courtesy of the artist

Alex Warnick Birds of Low Trees 2022 Acrylic Courtesy of the artist

Alex Warnick Swallows and One Who Isn’t 2023 Acrylic Courtesy of the artist

Alex Warnick Phlegmatic and Meditative 2023 Acrylic Courtesy of the artist