'Bird Brain'

Birds are an obsession that started from watching – but I’ve stayed focused on depicting them because of the energy I get back. They are so dramatic and extra that I can’t help but chuckle while I work. What began as enjoying birds for their own sake has become about chasing delight. Their expressions, their colors, and their dynamic existence suggest a literal and figurative lightness that inspires me.

“Bird brain”, since the early 1900s, has been used as an insult – a dig at a person’s intelligence.  The phrase came to being because it was assumed birds lacked intelligence.  But there is beauty to being a cuckoo or a boob.

I’ve romanticized the jester and the fool as archetypes, those who at first seem lost or confused but end up having wisdom. Who end up having a different perspective or an observation of value.  In Forrest Gump we have a loveable, askew character that unintentionally sees the world and learns life lessons we so easily overlook in our own lives.  We see it in Pippin, “a fool of a Took” who expresses curiosity and humility. And, D’OH, let’s not forget good ol’ Homer.