Aves

Years ago I cleaned my garage and when I pulled out from the wall an old rusty cabinet that I wanted to toss, I discovered the petrified remains of a bird--most likely a sparrow.  I have carefully preserved the preserved bird for just the right project.

Then I went rummaging in my own basement one day to find something to inspire me to make a project and I came across the plastic container with the poor old dead bird.  To use it, or not to use it, that is the question.

And the problem.  Being a found object artist can be challenging if you fall in love with the objects and never actually use them in any projects. 

So, I decided to use the bird in something.  Grabbing a canvas and some a page from an old scientific encyclopedia, I was off.

Turns out, birds are in the Aves class and the page I ripped out of the encyclopedia was that page.  Put on a 5" x 5" canvas, I was able to paint it up.  Then I went in search of one of my photographs and chose a tin type of a woman who could have had the nickname Little Bird.

 After that was painted up and attached to the canvas, I added the heat of the sun to represent the process that might have petrified the bird.  A row of trees represents the homes of birds. 

I still had some spatial issues with the piece so I extended the frame with some barn nails that could have been holding up my garage if it was old enough.

And so we have it.  The piece called Aves which proves once again, I am not a hoarder, I am not a hoarder, I am not...