True Adventures of an Art Addict: birds in art

Showing posts with label birds in art. Show all posts

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Put a Bird on It! (part 2)

Once again, I bring you further evidence that art can never be too full of birds. In my last post, we looked at the origin of birds in art, and some early examples as well as a few contemporary ones. These are all contemporary, spanning a wide range of styles, methods, and media.

Fred Tomaselli, Big Raven

I think his process is fascinating...

Fred Tomaselli, Work in Progress

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange suns rays and dares to claim the sky...

... But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing...

- Maya Angelou, excerpt from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

photographic work by British artist Lesley Bricknell

In order to see birds it is necessary to become part of the silence. - Robert Lynd

Jay, by Karl Martens

Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for thier departure.

-Stephen King, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A Story from Different Seasons

Beauty by Mo Crow (Mo Orkiszewski)

I realized that if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.
- Charles Lindbergh

Lindsey Carr, Garden

You have to believe in happiness,
Or happiness never comes ...
Ah, that's the reason a bird can sing -
On his darkest day he believes in Spring.

Douglas Malloch, You Have To Believe.

Be Still and Know, David Arms

I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven. - Emily Dickenson

Penny Hallas

Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.
- Langston Hughes

Joshua Yeldham, Prayer for Protection

Some artists make birds from metal...

Steampunk birds by Jim Mullan

Found object sculpture by Harriet Mead

Bird, Alexander Calder, 1952

...and other materials, like found objects...

assemblage artist Ron Pippin

... while some prefer paper...

Dream of Flying, Selkie Bindery (apparently no longer in business and has taken down its website))

Polly Verity, paper and wire bird

Even when a bird walks, one feels it has wings. - Antoine-Marin Lemierre

Elsa Mora

Matazo Kayama

There is nothing in which birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before. - Robert Lynd

Watch this amazing video to see proof beyond a shadow of a doubt of the grace and complete beautiousity of birds!

Some artists like to literally put a bird ON it.

On someone's head, perhaps...

Totem, Dominique Fortin

Migration, Andrey Remnev

Der Rabenkonig by Christian Schloe

...or on their shoulders and lap.

Frida Kahlo, Yo y mis pericos, 1941

A bird looks especially delightful on anything surrealistic, as you can see.

Maggie Taylor, But who Has Won?

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs. - Joseph Addison

Claire Brewster, We are on Our Way

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?
- Rose Kennady

And then, just when you think you've seen it all, there's the uniquely exquisite work of Chris Maynard, who actually cuts tiny bird compositions from feathers. How he does it is beyond me; I'd surely be pulling my hair out in frustration if I tried something like this. I'm pretty sure it's done by magic; I think you'll agree.

Peacock Attraction by Chris Maynard

Chris Maynard, Hummingbird

Macaw, Chris Maynard

According to the artist, "Feathers mark nature's pinnacle of achievement: the intersection of function and beauty." To find out more about Chris and his work, including where he gets the feathers, go here.

I love this piece, entitled, "I Wish I could Fly", but don't know who the artist is. If you do, please let me know; I would like to credit him/her. [ Update: The artist who made this piece contacted me; I'm happy to now be able to tell you that it was done by South African artist Nicolette Geldenhuys.] I wish I could fly, too- don't we all? I guess that's why humans are so enamored with these graceful, gravity-defying creatures. But unfortunately, we can't. So whenever you feel sad and blue, just do what I do...

... Put a bird on it!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Put a Bird on It! (part 1)

I recently read a comment (or was it a "tweet"?!) about the supposed "over-use" of bird images in art right now. I, for one, beg to differ- and so do Portlandia's Lisa and Bryce:

Ha! I love that!

Birds have been a favorite subject and symbol portrayed in art since the beginning of... well... art. In fact, what may well be the earliest rock pictograph ever incorporates a bird image.

According to archaeologist Robert Gunn, "...a rock painting that appears to be of a bird that went extinct about 40,000 years ago has been discovered in northern Australia. If confirmed, this would be the oldest rock art anywhere in the world..." (Robert Gunn, 40,000 Year Old Rock Art Site Depicts Extinct Bird, News Junkie Post.)

one of many identical stenciled birds at Djulirri Rock Shelter

Another prehistoric artist apparently took a page from Lisa and Bryce's book, using a stencil to "put a bird on it" all over the Djulirri Rock Shelter in northern Australia. (Prehistoric Rock Art Reveals Creator's Bird Obsession, Beta News, 2012.)

A stork or heron-like bird called the benu, an Egyptian bird thought to be the origin of the mythological phoenix.

Why have birds so captured our imaginations? Not so long ago, if you think about it, humans must have believed them to be magical beings, perhaps related to gods or spirits. No one could have comprehended their amazing and mysterious gift of flight; even a rudimentary knowledge of the underlying physics didn't exist until the 1600's. Their melodious songs and beautiful, sometimes brightly colored feathers would have only reinforced this perception.

In Hindu mythology, a half-bird half-human creature called Garuda carries Vishnu and his wife on his back.

Birds have always played an important part in the symbolism, myths, and folktales of many cultures. "Rising above the earth and soaring through the skies, birds have been symbols of power and freedom throughout the ages. In many myths and legends, birds link the human world to the divine or supernatural realms that lie beyond ordinary experience." For more information about the role of birds in mythology, go here.

Roman wall painting, about AD 70

John Burroughs (1837-1921) wrote, "The very idea of a bird is a symbol and a suggestion to the poet. A bird seems to be at the top of the scale, so vehement and intense his life... The beautiful vagabonds, endowed with every grace, masters of all climes, and knowing no bounds -- how many human aspirations are realised in their free, holiday-lives -- and how many suggestions to the poet in their flight and song!"

Ivory-billed Woodpecker by John James Audubon

When you think of art and birds, one of the first names to pop into your head might well be that of John James Audubon (1785-1851), a famous self-taught scientist and artist who spent 18 years of his life in an attempt to paint and describe all the birds of America, and discovering many unknown species along the way. The result was "The Birds of America", a collection of 435 prints of his naturalistic and extremely detailed life-sized paintings.

White Gyrfalcons by John James Audubon

I feel I would be remiss if I didn't mention Charles Darwin, particulary because of his use of bird drawings to illustrate and support his theory of natural selection. Darwin noted that the beaks of several species of finches living on the Galapogos Islands varied from island to island, but correlated to the type of food available to them on each island.

Darwin's drawing of the beak shapes of some finch species on the Galapogos Islands.

There are so many ways in which artists have 'put a bird on it' that I never grow tired of looking at them. I'm completely amazed and intrigued by the limitless variety of methods, media, and styles that have been used to portray birds. Here are a few examples:

Inuit artist Mayoreak Ashoona, Tuulirjuaq (Great Big Loon), stencil and stone cut

Ancient ibis painting copied by Howard Carter (discoverer of King Tut's tomb) from a tomb in Egypt.

Swiss artist Elfi Cella often includes birds in her brilliant mixed media paintings. If you're not familiar with her work, click on her name to check it out.

This untitled piece by Lynne Hoppe never fails to touch me... something about the mixture of emotions it evokes, which I can 't quite put into words...