Indoor Program: The Beautiful Art of Birding – Lesley Roy

Artist, photographer, entrepreneur, and Commissioner of Arts, Culture and Tourism for the City of New Haven, Lesley Roy will present a beautiful visual story of birds. She’ll share images of her bird artwork, local and migrant birds, compiled from the book Soaring in New Haven and birding trips to Central and South America. She’ll tell the amazing story of growing up in Bethany and loving nature so much she vocally invited a wild Raven out of a neighbor’s tree and it actually flew down and landed on her outstretched arm. The photo her mother ran out of the house and took is as remarkable as the experience and has served as an auspicious guidepost ever since. At first learning about local birds then traveling to other parts of the world, Lesley would return home and paint those birds with an eye toward habitat loss and the global economic strains put on the wildlife and subtly asking the question: What place will birds hold in the future? In addition to her extraordinary bird and nature photos, Lesley will include a sampling of how birds images impact and inform her creative process.