What came first for Eugene’s Levi Whittier, who painstakingly documents the details of vultures, owls and eagles and other avians in his work: the art or the birds?
It was the art, pointing to a childhood with a ceramics-loving father in small-town Oakland, Oregon. But the birds weren’t long after that, with Whittier harness training chickens for fun at a young age. Soon, he started drawing them.
Now 33 years old and based in Eugene, he combines those two passions in his artwork, which is frequently commissioned by or donated to Eugene’s Cascades Raptor Center. He uses a range of mediums, including scratchboards, paint, digital art and printmaking…