Albatross

Albatross by Ken Taylor

Standard: Edition of 75 (numbered)
6-Color screen print with all-metallic inks on 100lb cougar cover white paper

Variant: Edition of 25 (numbered)
6-Color Screen Print with all-metallic inks on 100lb cougar cover white paper

18" x 24"

Printed by Seizure Palace

About the artist

Melbourne based Illustrator & Designer Ken Taylor works primarily within the music industry and is predominantly well known for his striking rock posters. Ken started in Perth Western Australia doing posters and album artwork for local bands. In 2001 He moved to Melbourne and slowly started to create a name for himself within Melbourne's music scene. In 2006 he went out on his own and started to work full time on music based artwork.

Ken has designed posters and album artwork for many Australian bands including You Am I & The Beasts of Bourbon & Crowded House. Internationally he has designed artwork for bands such Queens of the Stone Age, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, Kings of Leon, Bob Dylan & The Rolling Stones.

Over the past few years he has become very well known for his limited edition silkscreened movie posters, working through MONDO with some of the worlds biggest movie licences. Ken has won the Desktop Create Award for Best illustration in both 2007 & 2009 and was a Guest Speaker at the 2009 AGIDEAS design conference, the 2011 Semi Permanent Creative Conference in both Melbourne and Perth and the 2012 Look Hear Conference in Newcastle. In 2012 he exhibited in Los Angles and then 2013 in Austin and was also part of SXSW Flatsock. Ken continues to work with bands both locally and internationally and is represented by Drawing Book.

About Albatrosses

An albatross inflight can be a spectacular sight. These giants of the sky have the longest wingspan of any bird reaching up to 11 feet (3.4m). The wandering albatross is the largest of some two dozen different species. Albatrosses use their impressive wingspans to surf the ocean winds and sometimes to coast for hours without rest or even a flap of their wings. They also float on the sea's surface, though the position makes them vulnerable to aquatic predators. Albatrosses drink  salt water, as do some other sea birds.

Long-lived birds, there has been documentation of albatrosses reaching 50 years of age. They are rarely seen on land and gather only to breed, at which time they form large colonies on remote islands. Mating pairs produce a single egg and take turns caring for it. Young albatrosses start to fly within three to ten months, depending on the species, but then leave the land behind for some five to ten years until they themselves reach sexual maturity. Some species appear to mate for life.  

Albatrosses feed on squid or schooling fish, but are familiar to mariners because they sometimes follow ships in hopes of handouts or garbage. Albatrosses have a unique position in maritime folklore and superstition, most notably evoked in  Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Longline fishing is the biggest human induced threat facing albatrosses and petrels. According to Bird Life International more then 300,000 seabirds are killed by longline fishing every year, including 100,000 albatrosses. 17 species of albatrosses that are already endangered are now threatened by extinction due to the significant number of deaths brought about by longline fishing.

Ingestion of plastic is another man-made problem, one faced by many seabirds.The amount of plastic in the seas has increased dramatically since the first record in the 1960s, coming from waste discarded by ships, offshore dumping, litter on beaches and waste washed to sea by rivers.