Birds have played a dominant role in my painting exhibitions over the past twenty-plus years. My paintings are not field guide illustrations, rather they are bird-centric fine art works and portraits of birds in which I hope to engender emotion, memory, and empathy. I am deeply concerned for our planet’s ecological health and future. Through my muted color palette, my use of taxidermy specimens, my quotations of past eras of bird illustration, my nods to art historical periods, and my suggestions of historical architecture, I hope these pieces evoke moods and associations, harken bygone epochs and Zeitgeist. Depicting endangered and extinct birds alongside common birds with my brand of mark-making and surface effects, I aim to portray my avian subjects as somewhat vulnerable and fragile.

“Portland’s ‘put a bird on it’ mentality receives a firm rebuke in the hands of painter Christopher Shotola-Hardt, whose avian imagery is the product of careful observation, deep appreciation and empathy. Never mere decoration, birds are both muse and indicator species for Shotola-Hardt, whose paintings combine complex visual references to art history, religion, architecture, decorative arts, and ecology.” — Merridawn Duckler

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