Snowy Owl and Milkweed

The snowy owl is a special bird to me. It was one of the most exciting birds which I dreamed of seeing in my early teen years. It symbolized the great Canadian North. I had read stories of the Arctic and thought of it as a fabulous and exotic winter land. The snowy owl was like an ambassador which came to visit civilization only occasionally. Because I lived in southern Ontario, I had a good chance of seeing one as a winter visitor. My first sighting was on the Toronto waterfront. I frequented the Lake Ontario shoreline checking out the many species of ducks and gulls. There on the breakwater was this magnificent white predator, his golden eyes looking at me.

This painting was done to hang in my alma mater, Victoria College, at the University of Toronto. I chose the owl because of the connection with Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. The milkweed is a typical plant of southern Ontario, and its obvious system of seed dispersal represented to me the graduates of the university dispersing their knowledge far and wide.