Revisions

Heron Dance . mostly made in 2018 . completed in 2019

I hear from writers that they often find it helpful to let their writing sit for an hour, a day, or more. When they come back, they hope to see it afresh. Often they quickly realize what needs improvement and how to fix it. I do the same with this blog.

I also do it with my art. I struggled toward placing the 15 cutout cranes in this piece but was not satisfied. After three days I tried again. A few days later after a third try I was pleased.

The process is pleasing also. Sort of a discipline. I have to let go getting immediate results, delaying my gratification over completing each piece. The result is always better.

Tinder

Phoenix . female red-tail black cockatoo tail feather

You can use a bunch of dry fluffy feathers as a fire starter. This worked almost as well as paper in my wood stove on a cold January morning.

For most people, paper is easy to come by. But for me and say, a chicken farmer, feathers are a ready source. One caution: a lot of down feathers floating around as you light a fire could cause something like a slow explosion. I usually use paper.

Feather Color from Melanin

Sunbittern wing feather, about 6” long

The many colors in this feather are created from the protein-like substance melanin; the same chemical that colors human skin. Many families of birds, like ducks and pheasants create feather color using melanin. Their bodies do not have the ability to create the bright yellows and reds in the feathers that you see in parrots and some songbirds.

Feather color is a complex subject so the previous paragraph is a simplification partly to fit this blog and partly because I don’t know the full story. If you have additional or contradictory information and sources about these feather colors, I will add it to the blog.

Bird Dreams

Heron Dreams against a 2:30-in-the-afternoon sky, December 20

This time of year, the light fades as dark takes over in my northern quarter of the world. This piece has taken on a fantasy feel as I am less active outside now, dreaming of birds and imagining what the birds may be dreaming.

Thought Notes

Thought notes and result, Bushtit Nest Feather

I keep a composition book close to me. In it I scribble images of ideas for potential future pieces. The scribbles are kind of like a shopping list kept on the refrigerator to add to as the needs arise. They remind me of what I was thinking. It is all I need see in order to move forward with a piece.

Busy bushtits flock near my house with a tendency to occasionally squeeze together for a few seconds on a branch like fluffy ping-pong balls. Then they disperse, looking for tiny foods. These birds also squeeze together into hanging nests to hatch eggs and raise the babies until they are ready to fly.  

What the Bird Sees

Pluck . turkey tail feathers . 20” x 12”

When my friend first showed me his drone pictures from 150 feet above my house and fields , I marveled at the fresh perspective. From that, I have a better basis for imagining what a bird sees as it flies over the water looking for fish. For this image, I still had to use my imagination and stylize my mind’s image to fit in these two feathers.

Respecting Feathers

Kate MccGwire Patrick Scott

I want to respect the essence of each individual feather form in my art. That means I don’t trim the feathers or flatten them to a background. All my work is with single feathers, usually divorced from a feather’s overlapping arrangements on the bird.

 Two prominent artist do trim their feathers but seem to visually respect their overlapping aspect. One person is Patrick Scott (Navaho) whose fans can visually honor the overlapping tail arrangement of the birds whose feathers he uses.

 Another artist is Kate McGwire (from the UK) whose overlapping abstract feather sculptures still can be reminiscent of the nature of way feathers cover birds’ bodies.

Downward Movement of the Fall

Wait. What? turkey feather

Autumn in the woods, all movement is downward except for birds in flight. The big leafed maples shed their huge leaves which float to the earth, softly crashing through other branches and bushes. The deer hardly seem to notice. But for any quick upward movement, their heads jerk up, ears forward, nostrils quivering.

Slowness

Duck Soup . 12” x 19” . 2018

 My smartphone helps me keep pace in this sped-up world. I was flustered because it was almost dead and my airplane ticket was on it. Like me, the older it gets, the more often it needs recharging. My recent recharge venue was feeling and hearing the wind and watching ripples in the lake. From that source, came this invention.

Duck Stamp Contest

winner of the 2019-2010 duck stamp contest

USFWS Federal Duck Stamp

In mid September, I was one of five judges to select next year’s federal duck stamp. Every waterfowl hunter in the USA has to purchase a license and stamp in order to hunt. Purchasing the stamp raises money to reserve lands in conservation. It is how much of the nation’s wildlife refuges were purchased.

Each year the US Fish and Wildlife Service sponsors the only federal art contest to choose the image for the next year’s stamp. More information about the program is here. For the artist chosen, it can be a career-maker. The five judges included me, another artist, Brett Smith, an art educator, a biologist, and an award-winning conservationist. See all the entries here to know that we had a tough job deciding.

Round Raven, Finished

Raven Rounds . turkey feather . 21" x 15" . 2018

In my previous my blog two weeks ago, I was trying to resolve how to incorporate a round raven construct into something to bring the abstract more into the real. Here is my result. Something that makes it more real for me are the feathers incorporated into the paper background. In her small studio in Maine, Virginia Sarsfield makes paper from the feathers I send her from my geese.

Round Raven Concept

round raven design . peacock feather

This cut peacock feather is a bit abstract, a little more divorced from my real experience with the birds themselves. I enjoy making these kinds of designs but find it is difficult to incorporate them into larger pieces where I want the inspiration to arise more from my knowledge of, experience with, and respect for the birds themselves. The work of mine that I like the best tends to be simple silhouettes of birds in motion. So I am still trying to figure out how to incorporate this design into a larger piece. 

Transformed

Transformed . unfinished . 2018

Since I am surrounded by barn swallows, they are my main bird-inspired themes in the summer. Like stars, they have five points: the head, two wings, and two tails. Hence the inspiration for this piece.

Kestrel Problems

Kestrel Dilemna . unfinished

The 50+ swallows that nest in my barn have a problem: the local kestrel falcon has discovered their nestlings and flies in every day to try to eat them. The swallows protest and I come out from my studio. When the little falcon sees me, it flies away.  

I ask myself if it is best just to let this natural process proceed. My answer is that I am vested in watching these swallows breeding and want them to return every year. So I lightly intercede, chasing the kestrel off. It flies away to look for mice in the fields.

The natural red of this female red-tail black cockatoo tail feather seemed a good choice to kind of mimic the cinnamon-red of the kestrel’s tail.

Flight and Beauty

Peacock World . 6" x 4" . for museum's fundraiser event

I often think of feathers as being about flight. People who work with feathers primarily in fashion often view feathers as being about beauty. Certainly, they are about both and much more. The most talented of these people who work with feathers in fashion also show respect for the birds that provide them with their materials.

A recent article appeared in the New Yorker entitled The Eternal Seductive Beauty of Feathers. It was from the perspective of fashion designer Charles-Donatien. From his point of view in the article, “Feathers are about seduction. They are meant to attract.”

Feather Symbology

Around . 22" x 24" . 2018

Because birds fly and we cannot, they and their feathers often represent symbols of our yearnings. Among the many themes feathers may hold for us are:         

• Success and achievement;
• Transformation;
• Bridges between here and our goals, between earth and our heaven;
• Oversight, ability to see all things at once (like from on high—like where birds fly);
• Wisdom;
• Freedom from: pain, oppression, suffering, heaviness of life, death, failure, our limits.

These themes provide me more fodder for my art.

Diving Deep

Bait Circle . 15" x 21" . 2018

Staying near a Norwegian fjord in May, I sketched several carved feather ideas after watching fishing loons, grebes, and cormorants. This is one of the five pieces that resulted.

Just before diving, the bird expands with a deep breath. But it appears to deflate because at the same time, it compresses its feathers closer to its body.

Nelly and Me!

Acchh! Last month was only time in five years that I missed my two-week schedule of posting. The excuse is that I was traveling in Europe where I met some fascinating artists. Foremost is Nelly Saunier, the plumasier par excellence whom I have written about before. She attended school in France specifically to learn the skill of working with feathers. French even used specific words for each aspect of repurposing feathers into art and fashion.

www.instagram.com/nellysaunier; www.nelly-saunier.com/en/accueil/nelly

Piercing the Veil

Surface Distraction . turkey feathers . 14" x 24" . 2018

The passion to make this piece is in part from reading about Haida artist Bill Reid, and learning, about his and other cultures around the Pacific. These are people who live near the water and interact with it every day. 

Since all they could see was the surface of the water, they developed a feeling for existence that everything is covered by a membrane and what is on the other side of this membrane feeds them yet is hidden and a source of myth. For instance, I read that when a bear disappeared into its den and a fish is under the sea, they became bear and fish people with human qualities.

Anyway, drawing this heron while watching one at the lake, I saw only reflections in the water and wondered how well the bird could see below the surface.

Evolution of a Piece of Art

Ideas . 12" x 18" . 2018

A Capercaillie is a turkey-sized grouse from Sweden to Siberia. Recently, I have been fond of using their large, black tail feathers to depict ravens. I drew the original sketch with the lower wings and the tail as empty cutouts like the rest of the cutout birds on the lower part of the feather. It didn’t look right so I added back the lower wing and tail at an angle from the central shaft. Then placing the bird removed from the biggest cutout at the tip of feather made the piece seem unbalanced so I just put the tail of it in the upper right of the frame instead of the entire bird. This little change makes the entire piece read quite differently.