What was once a massive pepper tree at the entrance of the California Raptor Center—felled because of a storm in recent years—has been replaced by a statue of a majestic barn owl named “Pepper.” His wings elegantly stretch out and feet appear to perch on a branch.

Observing that there was no object to capture visitors’ attention at the entrance of the raptor center, volunteer Kritika Bala took it upon herself to design a statue that would greet visitors.

“I wanted something big and colorful that would just catch attention,” she said. 

Kritika, primarily a 2D artist, worked with her close friend and welder JoAnn Kenyon to translate her vision for the owl into a 3D sculpture. During the process of designing the statue, there was a lot of back and forth between them in combination of their expertise.

“We built the skeleton with JoAnn bending the rebar and me saying, ‘No, bigger here’, or ‘Smaller there’. When we started to cut out the pieces of metal for the wings, I cut out shapes with paper, and she cut the same shapes out with metal,” said Kritika. “It was a lot of back and forth between someone who has familiarity with the birds themselves and someone who has all the technical know-how of execution in 3D space.”

Kritika has been involved with the center as a volunteer since 2018. She immediately fell in love with the birds (especially Grasshopper, a Swainson’s hawk) and formed close bonds with the people she worked with. Her hope for the statue is that it will pique the attention of visitors to encourage them to explore the raptor center and help them to understand the love and care that goes into maintenance of the center.

“I hope that they can feel the love that I have for the center, the residents, and the people,” she said. “I want the visitors to feel that, and hopefully they are drawn in by it. If you’re undecided about coming inside, maybe this will convince you to do so.”

The statue also plays the important role of drawing light to the necessity of donations to continue center operations; the placard underneath the statue displays a QR code to a link for donations. CRC Director Dr. Michelle Hawkins summed up her appreciation for the statue: "This wonderful life-like statue is such an excellent addition to the CRC! Being placed at the front of our facility, it immediately greets all visitors as they enter the Center and draws attention to our mission and our needs.” 

Learn more about how to support the CRC’s operations.