The story behind the sturgeon (and other ink drawings)
My love for sturgeon dates back to my first time visiting the High Desert Museum on a family trip to Bend, OR. I was so fascinated with how big and ancient they looked… almost like a dinosaur!
I met my favorite sturgeon several years later when I visited the Bonneville Hatchery on a whim after hiking Multnomah Falls. I was in awe at how much Herman the Sturgeon had endured in his 70+ years of life. He was the star attraction at the Oregon State Fair for nearly 50 years, had been repeatedly stabbed by an unidentified assailant in 1969, and survived the Eagle Creek Fire of 2017 (myodfw.com).
Herman was the inspiration for a series of ink drawings I did as part of the annual Inktober daily ink drawing challenge in 2019. Here are a few of my other Inktober favorites:
