Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and his daughter Irina Virganskaya attend the Free Your Mind Award Presentation at the Cinema For Peace charity dinner at the China Club on November 8, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images). BERLIN – NOVEMBER 08 2009

Mortuary workers walk past a Christmas tree as they remove the body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 from a nursing home in downtown Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, December 23, 2020. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev attends the Gorby 80 Gala at the Royal Albert Hall on March 30, 2011 in London, England. The concert is to celebrate the 80th birthday of the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Nationalist youths throw bottles at police officers after the annual Orange march on July 12, 2016 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The controversial Ardoyne interface is a flash point between the Catholic and Protestant communities with trouble flaring in the area frequently during the so called marching season. The Protestant Orange bands from the nearby area have been stopped from parading past the Catholic Ardoyne for the past three years. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

In this April 28, 2015 file photo, heads of tuna on a cart are carried by a fish dealer after the day's auction at Tsukiji Wholesale Market in Tokyo. In one of the biggest of Japan's many New Year holiday rituals, early on Tuesday, January 5, 2016, Tokyo's Tsukiji market will auction off with much fanfare a huge, glistening tuna, likely destined for one of the big sushi chains. If all goes as planned, it will be the last such auction at 80-year-old Tsukiji. (Photo by Shuji Kajiyama/AP Photo)

Frances Fowler leads the Bowie VFD Marching Thoroughbreds in the Bowie 4th of July Parade in Bowie, Md., on July 4, 1976. (Photo by James M. Thresher/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

A team from Woody's Ice Cream shop wrangle a large inflatable dinosaur down the street during the Independence Day Parade in Fairfax, Virginia July 4, 2015. Americans marched in star-spangled parades, ran relay races, gathered for fireworks shows and crowned a new world hot dog eating champion as they celebrated Independence Day in traditional style on Saturday. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Many people have seen feathers as decorative items before. Today, ostrich, peacock and bird of paradise feathers can be seen in haute couture and in the costumes of indigenous peoples. They can be colorful and spectacular in their own right, but how much more stunning might they be when used as canvases for artists, eager to demonstrate their talent for the unusual? Alaskan-born and -bred artist Julie Thompson is an astounding exponent of this incredible art form.