About Victoria Likes, Artist

With art, as in nature, the sky has no limit.

Some of the most precious hours of my life have been spent outside marveling at the beauty of our natural world. Being outdoors is both humbling and inspiring because Mother Nature is the greatest artist of all time. She is my church, my sanctuary and my solace. For all of her vastness, brute force, and breathtaking allure, nature remains fragile and fleeting. She is inseparable from us - and she reminds us that our time on earth is short.

 As a gardener and an artist, I am hopelessly in love with this place called earth.  There is so much to learn and take in:

• The magic of light, dancing on waves, dappling the forest floor.
• The way the sun lies lovingly across golden fields and mountain tops.
• The cacophony of color- sometimes rich, deep, and nuanced or ridiculously joyous.
• The complexity, complexity, complexity and then suddenly, the perfection of simplicity.
• And the symphony of shape and shadow - all of it waiting to be captured and remembered.

My Backyard Birds are a beautiful reminder that nature is magnificent and all living things depend upon us.

In the fall of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, I began my artist life.  I was inspired by birdwatching, and quickly logged over 100 species logged in my Bird Field Diary.  My first painting was a small Anna's Hummingbird.  But depicting these lovely creatures life-size somehow felt like a disservice to them. Because my greatest wish at that time was to make these small miracles more visible in our daily lives. As a result, now I paint all of my birds on oversized canvases.   

Big things, I alway thought, could not be missed.  But I was wrong.  Our natural world is in crisis.  Since 1970 we've lost more than a quarter of the world's bird population.  And the decline of these fair creatures is being echoed across the entire ecosystem of plants, insects, and wildlife.

My hope is that my work will help others stay connected to nature and become better caretakers. 

In dreams, birds represent freedom, hope, and a connection to the universe.  In ancient myths, they appear as gods or oracles.  For me, they represent hope and healing for our future.