Tony Angell

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Tony Angell
Explorers Club
, fellow

Tony Angell is an American

wildlife artist, environmental educator, and writer.[1]: 704  He has lived in Seattle, Washington, since 1959.[2][3]

Life

Angell was born in

Los Angeles, California, in 1940.[4] His father was a private eye, and his mother a painter and teacher.[5] Angell grew up in the San Fernando Valley.[6]: 88  As a child, he explored the Los Angeles River to hunt and fish, as well as the local beaches to surf and skin dive. This early exposure to nature instilled in him a life-long respect for the outdoors and native animals. He went to Seattle in 1959[2] on an athletics scholarship[5] and obtained a BA in Speech Communications and a MA degree from the University of Washington.[6]
: 88 

Angell taught high school and junior college communication courses before assuming the position of State Supervisor in the Office of Environmental Education for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction of Washington state. He remained in this position for over thirty years.

He was active in the

Nature Conservancy, with time as chairman and as a member of the board of its Washington chapter.[7]: 289  He received the national organization's highest award, the Golden Oak Leaf, for his work in establishing the Skagit River Bald Eagle Natural Area. He was recognized as a Champion of Puget Sound[8] by the Puget Sound Keeper's Alliance in 2014. His outreach with both his writing and artwork resulted in his election into the Hall of Fame of the Department of Communications[9]
at the University of Washington.

Artwork

Angell makes sculptures in

Among his many public commissions are Seattle's

Jackson Hole, Wyoming.[7]: 289  Cornell University has his paintings in their collections, as does the Victoria and Albert Museum
in London, England.

Awards for his artwork include the Master Artist Medal from the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Gallery of Wausau, Wisconsin, and a first prize award in illustration from the Victoria and Albert Museum[10] in 2006. His sculpture Stretching Kestrel received the Chilmark Award from the National Sculpture Society, an organization of which he is an elected Fellow.

In 2016, the Museum of Northwest Art awarded a Northwest Luminaries award[11] in Angell's name. The award is named in honor of those who have left a lasting impact on the Pacific Northwest region (including Patti Warashina and art historian Bill Holm). The award is then given to artists of promise, as chosen by a distinguished nominating panel and jury.

Angell acknowledges a number of influences on his work: the bird illustrators Don Eckelberry and Morris Graves, the carvings of the Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, and a Japanese Edo-period screen carved with crows in the Seattle Asian Art Museum.[12][13]

Publications

Writing and illustrating more than a dozen books related to nature, Angell has received the Washington State Writers Award for four of his works, including Birds of Prey of the Pacific Northwest Slope,[14] Ravens, Crows, Magpies and Jays[15] (University of Washington Press), and In the Company of Crows and Ravens[16] (Yale University Press). His most recent book, The House of Owls[17] (Yale University Press), received the 2015 National Outdoor Book Award[18] for nature and the environment writing. His book Puget Sound Through an Artist's Eye[19] (University of Washington Press) is a collection of his artistic works in stone, bronze and line along with a narrative that describes his artistic response to the region he lives in.

As author and illustrator:
As illustrator

Over the past half century the artist and his work has been featured in a number of newspaper and magazines articles. Among the most recent in news are:

Links

References

  1. ^ Allan Werden (December 1983). Marine Birds and Mammals of Puget Sound by Tony Angell, Kenneth C. Balcomb, III (review). The Wilson Bulletin 95 (4): 704-705. (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b Mary Ann Gwinn (20 November 2009). Tony Angell evokes Northwest nature in 'Puget Sound Through an Artist's Eye'. Seattle Times. Accessed October 2015.
  3. ^ Elizabeth Hunter. Tony Angell, December Exhibition. 10/5/2009. Foster/White Gallery. print.
  4. .
  5. ^ a b c Richard Seven (1 June 2003). Wrestling with Stone. Southwest Art. (subscription required)
  6. ^ .
  7. ^ a b c John Marzluff, Tony Argell (2012). Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  8. ^ Champion of Puget Sound
  9. ^ election into the Hall of Fame of the Department of Communications
  10. ^ first prize award in illustration from the Victoria and Albert Museum
  11. ^ Northwest Luminaries award
  12. ^ Jamaican Crows. London: Victoria & Albert Museum. Accessed October 2015.
  13. ^ Mary Ann Gwinn (23 October 2005). "Crows and Ravens": Fear and fascination, evermore. Seattle Times. Accessed October 2015.
  14. ^ Birds of Prey of the Pacific Northwest Slope
  15. ^ Ravens, Crows, Magpies and Jays
  16. ^ In the Company of Crows and Ravens
  17. ^ The House of Owls
  18. ^ 2015 National Outdoor Book Award
  19. ^ Puget Sound Through an Artist's Eye