Descanso: Shrine for Extinct and Endangered Species

 Dia de los Muertos:  "Reliquary for the 6th Extinction"

Xerces Blue Butterfly, indigenous to Northern California.  Became extinct in 1945.

 

"We have been raised to think that our body ended here, with this bag of skin, or with our possessions or education or house.  Now we begin to realize that our body is the world."

Joanna Macy 

Bonobo, Africa, critically endangered

Ivory Billed Woodpecker, native to Southeaster U.S., last seen in 1944

Red Crowned Crane, indigenous to southeast Asia, critically endangered

  
African Elephant, critically endangered

 
Cheetah, Africa, critically endangered

 

Staghorn coral, Caribbean and Bahamas coral reef, critically endangered

 

Only in this hoarded span will love  persevere.   

Whether you are pretty or not, I outlive you

bend down my strange face to yours 

Anne Sexton, "all my pretty ones"