When art meets conservation. ACAP supporter Isabelle Beaudoin sculpts a Black-footed Albatross

Black-footed Albatross and chick, sculpted by Isabelle Beaudoin

ACAP Latest News regularly carries articles that feature the links between art and science in relation to the conservation of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels.  Subjects covered include paintings and drawings (notably in collaboration with Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) to mark annual World Albatross Day on 19 June since 2020), public statuary and even cake baking.  Less frequently reported are sculptures. An example of a Black-footed Albatross Phoebastria nigripes modelled in clay by ACAP supporter Isabelle Beaudoin who recently spent time among albatrosses on Kure Atoll (Hōlanikūj) in the North Pacific follows, using her own words.

Isabelle poses with her sculpture prior to its painting

“Since I’m no longer out in the field every single day (though it will pick up again soon!), this page will on occasion be given over to other bird-themed content - like art!

What do you guys think of my clay Ka’upu (Black-footed Albatross) and chick?  This was my first time ever working with the clay medium, and it was challenging to shape the bird in 3D.  But I’d spent so many hundreds of hours watching Ka’upu from every angle that my eye knew what it was looking for, even if my hands and fingers didn’t always know how to render it.   I’m pretty happy with it though.  I started with a wire ‘skeleton’ or frame, so that the figure would be rigid and could stand; then I covered the wire with clay and shaped it until it looked right. I made a base, a nest bowl and a little baby chick.  I let all this air dry over a couple of weeks, then I painted them all, and glued tiny shells and moss- and grass-like things to the base.  A shoutout to Etasha Golden who provided me with all the materials (from the wire to the clay to the shells) and encouragement to embark on this project!  You can see her in the last [Facebook] photos helping me to set up a photoshoot.  I’ve named these two Derpy and Derpling, after a bird I met and named on the island.  They will live on my desk at the university.”

Wire skeleton prior to adding the clay

The sculpture prior to painting

Isabelle continues “I think about the atoll every single day.  Sometimes when I pause, and detach myself from the hubbub and stress of my life now, I can still hear faint echoes of them all around me. The albatross.   The notes of whinnies, whistles, bill-clacks, screams, moos and coos used to suffuse the air and weave themselves through me.  Day and night.  The longing I feel to be in their presence again is impossible to describe, and is stronger than what I’ve ever felt for humans.  Who knows why that is.  But I have to remember that they aren’t really gone.  They’re still all around me.  In my heart.  In my memories.  In the sky.  In the sea.   In the air. Making art like this makes them feel closer.”

Close up of the sculpture’s base, photographs by Isabelle Beaudoin

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 29 July 2025