A previous post noted examples of organizations employing art to promote their activities. Here are 2 more examples concerning the California condor, both of which are exceptional.
In 1990, The Book Club of California issued “California Avifauna”, a set of 12 prints, as part of its “Keepsake Series”.
The prints are of pencil and watercolor sketches by Pedro Julio Gonzalez. Here is the California condor:
Luis Felipe Baptista from the California Academy of Sciences wrote essays to accompany each print. Here is the conclusion of Baptista’s essay about the condor, written at a time when there were no condors living in the wild:
The success of the captive breeding program renders it hopeful that California Condors will some day fill our skies again and thrill us with their majesty.
To solicit new members, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), with support from the Kiwi Products Ltd (the shoe-polish producers), offered a set of 4 prints.
These prints are of paintings by Norman Arlott that are dated 1979. The 4 paintings feature the brown kiwi (of course), golden-shouldered parrot, Japanese crested ibis, and California condor.
Here is the accompanying text about the condor:
In the folder containing the prints is a letter inviting recipients to join the RSPB. The letter, signed by the society’s director Ian Prestt, is not dated. The back of the folder includes a brief history of the naming of Kiwi Products and the logos of the RSPB and Kiwi Products:
Both the condor illustrations here provide a sense of motion. Gonzales shows the condor with beak partly open, as if in the process of opening or closing. Arlott shows one condor soaring but his perched bird also seems to be in motion, leaning forward as if ready to take flight.
These 2 prints are both noteworthy pieces of the history of the relationship between humans and the California condor.
My previous post on this topic is Promotional art.
Pseudogryps 