Alfredo Arreguin Amplitude*
2022, oil on canvas, 48" x 72"

I have had a love for nature since my childhood in Mexico. I have used my canvases to create images of all kinds of animals. When I arrived in the Pacific Northwest, I became aware of salmon and whales and writer Ray Carver. Ray loved salmon fishing. He received one of my paintings of salmon, which he adored, and used as cover for a collection of his short stories. We, as artists, have the duty to help these magnificent creatures stay alive for future generations.  www.alfredoarreguin.com

Alyssa Eckert: Run to Extinction*
2023, pen and ink on paper, 5.5" x 14"

The Southern Resident Orcas of the Salish Sea are a unique ecotype -- a community of exclusively fish-eating orca.  They do not stray far from their home in the Puget Sound, and are reliant on the dwindling salmon population that sustains them.  This work was created to illustrate the relationship between the orca and salmon, and the inevitable decline to extinction if we do not take action to saved them.  www.thebrightmerchant.com

Britt Freda: Tahlequah’s Respair*
2021, acrylic, graphite and gold leaf on birch panel, 36” x 48”

In 2018, J35, Tahlequah, carried her dead calf for 17 days as the world witnessed grief. In September of 2020 Tahlequah gave birth to a healthy male, J57. This painting is about respair (n.): “fresh hope or recovery from despair.” Endangered species and concepts of environmental impact have been the focus of Britt’s paintings for nearly two decades. The artist lives and works on an island in the Salish Sea on the traditional lands of the sx̌ʷəbabš or Swift Water Coast Salish people. The surrounding waters are home to Tahlequahand the endangered resident orcas of JPod. Learn more about Britt’s paintings, advocacy.

Eileen Klatt: Extinct: Snake River Coho*
2004, watercolor on paper, 32" x 42"

Tributaries of the Snake River provided spawning habitat to coho salmon for millennia. Not too long ago, after years of overfishing, and loss of habitat and passage due to dam building, coho salmon were extinct in the Snake River Basin. Concerted efforts by the Nez Perce Tribe over more than two decades are bearing fruit. Coho salmon have been reintroduced and are now returning to the Clearwater and Lostine Rivers, which are tributaries of the Snake River. Snake River Coho, extinct is one of a series of 61 paintings that comprise "A Litany of Salmon." The paintings are both an invocation and an elegy for all the salmon populations once inhabiting the Columbia River Basin that are now extinct. www.kalttfish.net

Erik Sandgren: Klikitat Dip Netter*
acrylic on canvas 14”X11"

Erik Sandgren invokes the interactions of Northwest land and waters in the light of myth, history and origins. His paintings and prints are inspired by the patterns and motion of nature: swirling waters, misty forests and coastal headlands. Deftly layered pigments and tactile marks are worked into topographical composites that are observed, imagined and remembered.

Sarah Koten: Samish River Salmon (detail)*
2022, oil on canvas, 18"x24"

Samish River Salmon was painted to commemorate the first time I saw salmon swimming in the wild. We heard from the neighborhood kids that they had arrived in the river to spawn. We ran over there! The sun reflected off the water and grasses in a way that made the salmon appear as though they were swimming through rainbows. It was a truly magical experience. www.sarahkoten.com

Amy Gulick: Full Circle
2015, photographs

Newly hatched salmon retain the egg’s yolk sac as a nutrient-rich “lunch bag.” When young salmon leave their freshwater natal streams, they enter the ocean where rich marine food sources allow them to grow rapidly. Adults return to their birth streamstospawn the next generation, and then die—ending life in the place where it began. The fertilized eggs will soon hatch, ensuring that the cycle of life is a circle, always flowing, never broken.Amy Gulick is a photographer/writer and author of The Salmon Wayand Salmon in the Trees. She lives on the homelands of the Coast Salish on an island in the Salish Sea. See more of her work at www.amygulick.com.

Annie Brule: We Are All Related
2020, watercolor and ink on bristol board

We all, as human beings, come from ancestors who understood that all beings are related, are kin. Some societies and cultures have continued to live and practice this understanding, and some have lost that crucial knowledge along the way. Annie has had the privilege of learning from and working alongside Indigenous colleagues for many years, and it is their teachings of relatedness and reciprocity that gave rise to this piece - an honoring of her home bioregion of the Salish Sea. www.anniebrule.com

Elise Richman: Sunbeam Dam
2021, watercolor, graphite, charcoal, oil and chalk pastel on watercolor paper, 45 x 29 inches

Sunbeam Dam was built on the upper main Salmon River in 1909 to power local gold mines. The dam only operated for one year, but remained until 1934 when it was blown up to restore sockeye salmon habitat in the lakes --including Red Fish, Petit, and Alturas --at the headwaters of the Salmon River. Will the lower Snake River dams --built over half a century after Sunbeam Dam --follow in Sunbeam’s footsteps, benefitting of the ecosystem, federal obligations to tribes, and the survival of fishing and recreation-dependent communities? Learn more about Elise Richman’s art and research into the interplay between water, ecological health, politics, and values at: www.eliserichman.net

Jen McLuen: Breach
2022, collagraph print with embossing, 4"x6"

Jen has spent countless hours sitting on the banks of the San Juan Islands, waiting for, watching, listening to, and connecting with the Orcas as they move through their home. This print honors the powerful movement of a whale breaching, and exemplifies the current need to breach the Snake River Dams in service of life. Jen's artistic work is dedicated to the Orcas and Salmon of this region, and they are a primary source of inspiration. The artist grew up in the Salish Sea region, and continues to experience awe and deep learning with the land, water, and beings of this place. www.jpodprints.com

Annie Marie Musselman: Great Blue Heron
photograph

Annie Marie Musselman is dramatically inspired by the human-animal connection. After spending two years helping an injured raven rehabilitate, she became focused on transcending this experience for others in her art. She believes that true kinship with animals may transform our lives. Her award-winning books chronicle this subject: Finding Trust (Kehrer Verlag Germany) and Wolf Haven (Sasquatch-Random House) and Lobos (Random House) Finding Trust received the German Photo Book award as well as one PDN”s selected books of the year. Musselman’s work has appeared on the covers of Audubon, Smithsonian, and Outside magazine and inside The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and National Geographic among others.

Rachel Teannalach: Persist
2020, oil, wax and charcoal on linen, 20” x 30”

“Persist” depicts a lone salmon fighting its way up Dagger Falls on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. The painting was part of a larger collection of artworks completed in support of the Pacific Salmon. Entitled “Confluence,” the collection was a visual journey of the salmon’s migration route from Sawtooth Valley, Idaho, to the Pacific Ocean. Confluence was exhibited in collaboration with Advocates for the West, a non-profit environmental law firm that fights to preserve the habitat of the salmon and so many other threatened species.  www.teannalach.com