This year’s Art that Matters to the Planet exhibition takes its theme from Wild America, the chronicle of a 100-day, 30,000-mile journey undertaken by Roger Tory Peterson and his British counterpart, James Fisher. RTPI has invited artists from throughout the world to revisit this seminal work of exploration and discovery. This exhibition will explore the relationship between place and identity and depict the breadth and depth of American land and its histories.

2025 marks the 70th anniversary of the publication of Wild America, a classic in environmental literature and art. It has inspired generations of artists, conservationists, and birders, including Kenn Kaufman, who is the guest juror for the exhibition. As a boy, Kaufman was strongly influenced by the artwork and writing of Roger Tory Peterson. Wild America inspired Kaufman to pursue birds all over North America while he was still a teenager—an adventure later chronicled in his own classic work of environmental non-fiction, Kingbird Highway. An accomplished writer, artist and leader of international birding tours, Kaufman has authored or co-authored 14 books about birds and nature, including his most recent book, The Birds That Audubon Missed.

https://rtpi.org/exhibitions/art-that-matters-to-the-planet-wild-america/

Royal Creek, 2024, 35 x 31 x 1.5 inches, Alkyd oil and acrylic paint on wood panels with 23k gilding.

A plein air painting of Royal Creek from the Olympic National Forest with embedded raindrops. Surrounded by a shaped panel with invented expressions about the mysteries of dark spaces as night approaches. It is part of the "Sacred Earth Holy Water" series of the "Gentle Revolution" body of work.