The Exemplary 2025
Honorable Mention, Non-Professional Adaptation

I was mesmerized by a beautiful photo of a saw-whet owl taken by a local wildlife photographer. I have owls in my backyard, and everything stops in the house when they start calling at night. We remain still and just listen, wondering what they might be trying to convey.

They do so much work keeping the rodent population down. Each year owls and other raptors are poisoned, secondarily, by eating small rodents that have eaten a rodenticide (poison). Secondary poisoning is the number one threat to barn owls. This is completely preventable. We need owls to do their important work for us and the environment. Please use safe pest control options so we can continue to hear their beautiful calls at night.

I started with a piece of vintage fabric. I carefully hand dyed it in colors of nature. I hand painted the old tree onto my fabric. I embroidered the owl using layers of wool, cotton, and angora threads. She was a young owl and still had her baby fluff. I wanted to convey this in my stitching. I added organic matter to the tree and then added the owl on the branch using trapunto for a 3-D effect.