The Residents of Plum Island

Medium: Ink and graphite on Arches paper, mounted to birch panel, varnished

Dimensions: 12" x 12"

Long Island, New York

The Story:
For many years, wild rumors and conspiracy theories have focused on a small mass of land off the north fork of New York's Long Island. This land is known as Plum Island, and it is home to a high-security federal research facility.
Some have speculated that animal-human hybrids and other biological technologies are being developed inside the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, opened by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1954. There is talk of the research center shutting down, and many environmentalists are pushing hard to make the island a designated wildlife preserve, as it now serves as a home to harbor and gray seals, roseate terns, piping plovers, and other crucial species native to the area’s ecosystem. Due to the extreme security measures that were put in place to safeguard the work being done on the island, there was a lack of human impact on the land, and these animals among others have grown to use it as a central nesting and resting place.
It is said that at night, when there is a pull from the full moon, a change occurs in the animals that call this island their home; something causes a shift in them and makes them begin to express odd behaviors and abilities. Growth, flight, and other strange behaviors have been witnessed when the moon was just right over Plum Island, but it has never been proven. Some say that these particular animals were always this way, that they came from all different areas, drawn in by their collective oddities in an effort to find a community where they felt welcomed. It is said that they are not dangerous, and don't wish to cause the human’s any harm. They only hope that Plum Island will remain as it is, for humans made it this way and now it is an integral part of their ecosystem. They needed a place to call home, a safe haven. Plum Island became that haven, safe or not.