18.5”h x 8”w x 1”d

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It’s a Bird is the result of my funny little brain meditating on presence and absence, signs and signifiers. Every element of the piece insists that it is a bird – the feather, the picture of the egg, the poem fragment about a bird’s nest, and even the vintage metal printer’s letters that spell out the word “bird.” There are just a few whole birds present in the piece, but they are collaged in the background behind the central feather and nearly obscured by layers of paint. In short, it is a piece that insists on being bird and refuses to be a bird at the same time. The slippage between words and images and the things they represent, and the relationship between fragments and wholes is endlessly fascinating and all under the surface of this deceptively simple piece! 

Materials:  found feather; bird images from bird book; poem fragment; vintage metal printing press letters; altered jewelry with white beads; acrylic paints. In found box.