Todd McGrain is a visual artist and documentary filmmaker best known fo
The Lost Bird Project a public art initiative memorializing birds driven to extinction in modern times.
Career
Art
McGrain has created and installed large-scale bronze memorials at locations significant to the natural history and decline of six iconic North American bird species including the Carolina Parakeet, Eskimo Curlew, Great Auk, Heath Hen, Labrador Duck, and Passenger Pigeon. Additionally, McGrain created a traveling exhibition of the editioned bronze castings of the Lost Bird Memorials. Since its inaugural exhibition at the Cornell lab of Ornithology in 2008 the Lost Birds have been presented at a wide range of venues including the gardens of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Lost Bird Projectwas the subject of a documentary film produced by Middlemarch films in 2011.
In addition to his environmentally focused work, McGrain has created several large-scale sculpture installations reflecting Buddhist values, most notable for the Rochester Zen Center in Rochester, New York and the Chapin Mill Zen Retreat Center in Batavia, New York.
In 2021 McGrain was identified as the sculptor behind the unsanctioned and anonymously installed sculpture installation of York in Portland Oregon. Born into slavery in the 1770’s to the family of William Clark, York became a crucial member of the 1804 Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Through his long career McGrain has received several grants and awards including the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship.
Film and scientific work
In 2015 McGrain founded the documentary film company Lost Bird Films and had his directorial debut in 2019 with the release o
Elephant Path / Njaia Njoku Elephant Path captures the beauty of the rare and elusive Forest Elephants as it follows the lives of the people committed to studying and protecting this endangered species.
McGrain is also a Founding member of Smartfin, a community science initiative that enlists paddle sport enthusiasts to collect data for oceanographic research. The Smartfin Project offers research-grade, data-collecting surfboard fins to its ocean-engaged members and encourages them to surf or SUP with the fins regularly in order to transfer useful nearshore data to the cloud for oceanographic scientists to use in their research.
Works
Passenger Pigeon
The passenger pigeon or wild pigeon (''Ectopistes migratorius'') is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word ''passager'', meaning "passing by", due to the migratory habits ...
, the
Carolina parakeet
The Carolina parakeet (''Conuropsis carolinensis''), or Carolina conure, is an extinct species of small green neotropical parrot with a bright yellow head, reddish orange face and pale beak that was native to the eastern, Midwest and plains stat ...
, the
Heath Hen
The heath hen (''Tympanuchus cupido cupido'') is an extinct subspecies of the greater prairie chicken (''Tympanuchus cupido''), a large North American bird in the grouse family. It became extinct in 1932.
Heath hens lived in the scrubby heath ...
, the
Great Auk
The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus ''Pinguinus''. It is not closely related to the birds now known as penguins, wh ...
, and the
Labrador Duck
The Labrador duck (''Camptorhynchus labradorius'') was a North American bird; it has the distinction of being the first known endemic North American bird species to become extinct after the Columbian Exchange, with the last known sighting occurri ...
. McGrain
''
Elephant Path: Njaia Njoku''
bust of York
A 4 foot (1.2 m) Bust (sculpture), bust of York (explorer), York, the only African American on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was installed in Portland, Oregon's Mount Tabor Park, in the United States, from February to July 2021. The artist staye ...
in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
.
See also
*
References
External links
* https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/22/us/york-portland-lewis-clark.html?smid=url-share
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Living people
American sculptors
Year of birth missing (living people)