Katherine Hocker

Owl Skull

A friend found a barred owl (Strix varia), dead, in the woods. After a few months in contact with the busy soil critters, the bones were clean. I am fascinated by the double-domed shape of the cranium.

It's interesting to compare it to the skull in the owl sketch page I posted on my "classes" page. I think that one's a great horned owl. This one is smaller, a bit more delicate, with a shorter bill. Also, the frontal bone (just above the beak) of the barred owl is much less swollen-looking than that of the great horned/great gray owl.

Hungry for Spring

I caught myself thinking this morning, In just a month, we'll be hearing varied thrushes… in just two months, we might be starting to work the soil in the garden beds… in just three months, the little lilies will be blooming… It's that time of year when I struggle to appreciate what's here rather than just longing for what's coming.

So the compromise is to look at seed capsules and buds. Rusty menziesia is a good example; its handsome little capsules are gaping wide this time of year, its seeds long gone, and the buds are sharp and tight and just touched with rusty color. They're late-openers around here, though–it won't be until long after the blueberry bells are out that these buds will open.

Deer Food

This one's a "vintage" page from several years ago. I set out to take a closer look at three plants that are considered critical winter food for Sitka black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus), the little forest deer of Southeast Alaska.

In winter, when the more delectable plants are sleeping deciduously underground or buried beneath heavy snow, these three winter-greens tough it out on the floor of the broken-canopied hemlock/spruce forest.

We've been seeing a lot of deer lately near my home. The warm sunny spring/early summer has coaxed bursts of ridiculously lush greenery out along the roadsides and beaches. Happy deer…

Sales

If you’d like to purchase any of the following items, please contact me via email to order or to get more information. My ordering system is pretty rudimentary right now, so let me know what you’re interested in and we can work out the shipping and payment information.

Art Cards

Four designs, and perhaps more to come! $2.50 each, 8 for $15. Envelopes included.

Handmade Fluke Pendants

These pendants show the distinctive flukes of several of Southeast Alaska’s humpback whales. The base is wood, with handpainting and a clear resin overlay. They’re strung on a cotton cord or a chain (your choice) with magnetic clasp. $24.

The Singer in the Stream

32-page full-color children’s book about the American Dipper, a bird everyone should get to know. “Go and see him, and love him, and through him as through a window look into Nature’s warm heart,” said John Muir about dippers.$10.95.

Illustrations and Custom Artwork

Plants, animals, landscapes, and more. Pen and ink, graphite, watercolor, acrylic…and more.

Otter-bahn

Here's a page of sketches from my recent stay in Seldovia, where I spent a couple of wonderful weeks as artist-in-residence. The school is very small (50 kids K-12) so I got to work with every student, every day.Great kids, great teachers, great staff, nice community… thanks, Seldovia!

One evening, I walked out the "Otterbahn" trail (constructed by a group of high school students in the 1990s, I think) to a small beach. As I settled down to sun and sketch, I heard harlequin ducks making agitated noises. The ducks huffed and squeaked, then finally took off just as a big otter rounded the point. He climbed ashore, shook himself off, and proceeded to entertain me for about twenty minutes, as this page attests.

Still Busy

Well, I've neglected this site for some time… Here's my latest project. I hope it will be the first in a series.

Woodpeckers are busy drumming these days. Yesterday I saw a sapsucker busily hammering at an electrical meter box. He must have been thrilled at the resonance.

I’ve Been Busy…

I've been busy on artwork lately–but not sketching. Here's the result. This is my second poster for the Alaska Folk Festival. Now that it's done…I'm back to sketching soon!

Chile, part 5

On the island of Chiloe, the forests were aflame with the bright red blossoms of notro trees. Firecrown hummingbirds, cometocino finches, blackbirds, and others were busy with the very nectar-rich flowers. Like hummingbirds everywhere, the firecrowns defended the trees fiercely.

Chile, Part 4

The island of Chiloe, in the south of the country, is an extraordinary place, with a highly-diverse forest, great variety of birds, and a mellow, friendly atmosphere. It was our favorite place; I'd gladly go back there for more seafood, hiking, birdwatching, and exploring.

Chaura was one of dozens of native forest species there. It's a Gaultheria, so it's closely related to wintergreen (procumbens) and salal (shallon). I got fascinated by the beautiful galls on many of the chaura bushes, so here's my page about them.

For some photos of Chiloe (and the other parts of our trip) go to the following URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46117111@N05/sets/72157623005731457

Chile, Part 3

One of the pleasures of going somewhere altogether new is seeing so many new birds. Even "ordinary" birds–the ones that everyone there is numbly familiar with, the ones analogous to crows or robins or mallards here–have an exotic appeal. Six days of enforced beach leisure, surrounded by all these "new" birds gave me plenty of opportunity to observe their habits and sketch them. Of the birds on this page, Franklin's gulls, neotropic cormorants, American oystercatchers, and whimbrels make their way to latitudes where I've seen them. The rest were brand-new to me…

And I'll put in a plug here for Jaramillo's terrific book Birds of Chile. Great illustrations, well-written, easy to use.