I prefer to use molted feathers that a bird sheds.  It’s kind of like recycling.  Nevertheless, sometimes people give me their pet bird that died.  Often, an owner who treasured their bird wants to see the feathers put to use when the bird dies – as sort of an  honor the bird. So I have learned to pluck and do a bit of taxidermy-type work.  It was distasteful at first, but now I see it as just part of life.  So here are the wings of four parakeets.  They curve in a beautiful angelic way, smaller than the palm of my hand.   

Painting on feathers

I strive in my art to honor feathers and the birds they came from.  Some talented people paint on them but it is not something I am drawn to do. That said, I came across a man’s work that impressed me.  Super Regalia.  He paints mostly to imitate feathers that are otherwise illegal to have—like hawks and eagles; or painted to look like rare and hard to find feathers like the tails of Red-tail Black Cockatoos.  These feathers caught my eye because it is hard to tell them apart from the real thing. He sells them and uses them in Native regalia—fans, bustles, and such.  

Feath, Feather, Feathest

I saw a cartoon in the New Yorker with three different pictures of Jupiter with a caption under each, “Jupit”, “Jupiter”, “Jupitest”.  Which got me to thinking about a piece entitled “Feath, Feather, Feathest”.   Once in a while an aviary bird dies in mid-molt, when its feathers are still growing and the owner gives me the dead bird.  This just happened with a Scarlet Macaw.  Its full grown feather would have been 20 inches or so long.  But this partly grown feath is just 7 inches.  When I take a full grown tail and cut some flying macaws out, it will become feathest.

Olympia Fall Arts Walk
October fifth, 5:- 10:pm  October sixth, 12 noon to 5:pm

Yoga Loft is a large, beautifully sparse space.  I am excited to show about feather shadowboxes there, more than I have ever hung at once. They go up Sunday night, October 1st.  Prints of my work will also be available for purchase.  See you there!

219 Legion Way--Near Capital Lake

The Birds in Art show in Wausau Wisconsin was spectacular, go if you can.  That town treats artists well and attracts talented and devoted artists who paint, sculpt, and in other ways visually honor birds. As you might imagine, people were interested in my work because they had never seen feathers used in the way I do.  I in turn, met many excellent artists and have new ideas for pieces that I can’t wait to begin. Robert Bateman is a Canadian artist who paints the natural world. He is starting an environmental education center in Victoria B.C. with a gallery that I hope to exhibit in one day—if I can successfully negotiate the legalities of importing and exporting the feathers contained in my works. 

I just returned from a week long artist business boot-camp in Port Townsend.  The program is called ‘EDGE Professional Development’ sponsored by Washington Artist’s Trust.  Fifteen of us were selected from around the state but only three of us were men.  I felt right at home having been far outnumbered by a lot of sisters. One benefit of this boot camp is to have the opportunity to collaborate on joint shows with some of these artists as well as work together creating artworks with feathers and other mediums.  For instance, Kara McGhee paints realistic birds sometimes using interesting lighting effects so a joint show makes sense.  Laurie Fronek 'draws' in 3-d wire sculpture and there may be an opportunity to collaborate on a 'wire-feather' piece.

Artist Trust offers support to artists in many ways: grants, professional development, opportunities like shows, connection with other artists, and fellowships and grants.  And not just visual artists like me but writers and performing artists.

Swallows in Flight #1

I love watching the barn swallows fly and will be sad when they leave in September.  I made this piece in their honor.  They make their home in my barn and I get to watch their young grow up although a local Merlin falcon has been having its way with a few.  The feathers in this piece are from the wing of a Lilac Breasted Roller.

The strikingly colored Lilac Breasted Rollers live in Sub-Sahara Africa.  Their form is close to barn swallows in silhouette—with the forked tail.   I started out drawing silhouettes of the Lilac Breasted Rollers in flight but ended up with swallow shapes since I am closer to these birds.  In the piece, I wanted to highlight the blues of the sky from where the swallows swoop, eat, socialize, catch airborne feathers for their nests, mate, drink from my sprinkler, and frolic.   The small size of the feathers and hence the cutouts was a challenge.