Brielle Reeves, Calgary

 The Northern Flicker is a beautiful woodpecker with its distinctive black bib, speckles, and vibrant red cheeks. However, its beauty can be overshadowed by the annoyance it brings in a suburban environment. As soon as spring begins the Northern Flicker begins to drum to find a mate, and suburbia offers the perfect item to ensure its drum is heard far and wide, a chimney cap. While this is a wonderful example of animals adapting to how humans have changed their environment, the drumming of the Northern Flicker is sudden, loud, and distracting for the unfortunate soul whose house has been chosen to be drummed upon. I am rather amused that such a beautiful bird will happily bring suburban residents’ annoyance as it drums away on chimneys or drills holes into house sidings, especially since it is simply doing what it is instinctually hard-wired to do.

Brielle Reeves was born in 1998 in Chilliwack, British Columbia, though she now lives and works in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She graduated from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2021 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts as a Jewellery and Metals major. Through her beadwork practice, she discusses her experiences as an Indigenous and white individual. Her work has been shown in multiple group exhibitions during the extent of her school career