The Coastal Commission

Three adult and one juvenile Heerman's Gulls are layered together in a tight, overlapping composition, their heads and necks interlocking against a deep slate-blue background. Brushed linework picks out the streaked brown feathering of a younger bird at the center, contrasted with the clean white heads and vivid red-tipped bills of the more mature gulls around it. The title's wink toward a governing body reflects the crowded, faintly bureaucratic huddle the birds form, each looking a slightly different direction.