Artwork of the Week: Yes

Yes by Tiffany Bozic

acrylic on maple panel, 44 x14 in

$4,200 via archimedesgallery.com

We are flying home tomorrow after a week and a half stuffed full of life-affirming visits with friends and family in New York. Though I had a great time catching up with peeps that I hadn't seen since we moved to Durham last August, I am completely wrung out by this trip. It felt like all of my waking minutes were scheduled, and even so, I unfortunately did not get to meet up with every person I planned to. But that just means those precious few will be at the top of the MUST SEE list for next time. 

Right now I cannot wait to get back home to a space that is not full of NO! DON'T TOUCH THATs and to the saggy bed that is my own. Then we've got the new house to contend with! I'm overwhelmed that it's all happening so fast, but totally excited. 

You can see more of Tiffany Bozic's work on her website: tiffanybozic.com

- Cathleen 

Artist of the Week: Aimee Baldwin

Scarlet Ibis -- Eudocimus ruber 2011

Aimee Baldwin is the wonder woman responsible for these fine feathered friends. Sculpted from white pellet foam, paper clay, crepe paper, paint, wire, resin, and glass taxidermy eyes, every bird is individually hand-crafted and unique. She creates lovely framed botany specimens as well. You can read more about her construction technique and see photos of all of her work on her website vegantaxidermy.com, where no plants or animals are harmed in the making of her beautiful art. Brava!

Belted Kingfisher -- Megaceryle alcyon 2011

Detail of Acorn Woodpecker -- Melanerpes formicivorus 2010

Detail of Cedar Waxwing -- Bombycilla cedrorum 2010

- Cathleen


[All photos courtesy of the artist's website & Etsy shop]

Artwork of the Week: Budgie Overload

As much as I try and deny it, I love birds. I do! And this bright, beautiful bunch of budgies, all huddled together and jam-packed into the frame, makes me so so happy. I can't find the title for this illustration by Johanna Burai, but I did find her Tumblr page where she posts all of her latest work. Check out johannaburai.tumblr.com for even more hot bird action. 

- Cathleen

Artwork of the Week: Butterfly Wings

Bird in Flight, $39 via xpltx904 on Ebay

made with butterfly wings from Malawi Africa, framed 9 x 11"

Butterfly wing art, a popular motif in jewelry from the 1920s-1950s in England, can also be found in a lot of more recently made South American tourist items depicting tropical scenery and kaleidoscopic patterns on trays and other travel souvenirs. I prefer the bird and animal collages created from these gossamer fragments and mounted under glass. They remind me a lot of the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, known for his painted assemblages of fruits and vegetables that formed highly detailed portraits of people's faces. But in this case, I really love the representation of flying things made from other flying things. 

Some of the winged images I've included here are vintage and some are from today, but all of them, in my opinion, are pretty amazing. 

Two Parrots on a Branch, $24.95 via rubisco on Etsy

made with butterfly wings from Nigeria, framed 10.25 x 8"

Gazelle Antelope Goat Animal, $39.95 via udderlygoodstuff on Ebay

from Cameroon West Africa, framed 8.5 x 11"

The Parrot, $29 via xpltx904 on Ebay

made with eight different species of butterfly wing, framed 6 x 8"

Set of Two Parrots, $178.55 via michlilypoppy2010 on Ebay

framed 42 x 26 cm each

Birds, $45.99 via illkniterate on Etsy

vintage 1980s, framed 22.5 x 17.5"

- Cathleen 

The NESTING Series: Part Three: Bowerbirds

The third installment on the third week! I did it! This time I bring you good tidings of the great joy I found in researching the “nesting” practices of the beautiful Bowerbird! 

 

Bowerbirds, native to Australia and New Guinea, are my all-time favorite birds because of their elaborate mating rituals. All right, ya’ll. Hold onto your mice. (Mouses?) Because things are about to get steamy up in here.

First the male begins by building a “bower” which looks sort of like a short hallway/hut made of reeds and sticks. Sometimes he’ll even paint the walls of the bower with a mix of chewed up plant material and saliva that he applies to the surface with a leaf. Yeah, that’s right. This bird has got some mad regurgitating and smearing skillz. Then the male gathers things like stones, feathers, bits of plastic and tin foil, and fusses over arranging a colorful display around his bower while he waits for a lady friend to arrive. These carefully curated courtship “avenues” aren’t meant to be where they raise their young, however. Because the males are pretty plain in the feather department (unlike the flashy red male cardinals, for instance), the bower is intended to be the main attraction in enticing as many females over to his place as possible. The more experienced “lovers” tend to be older males who have been doing this sort of thing for a while, so their bachelor pads look nicer and more organized than the younger dudes down the block. Sometimes they’ll even steal things from their competition's collection, or even destroy their rival’s crib altogether. Man, that’s cold! I love the idea of the guy being the decorator in this scenario and the gal deciding which one she wants to get with based purely on how meticulously he lays out his wares. Once the lady decides this gentleman has got it goin’ on, she is lured across the threshold of his bower, and the mating can begin. Cue the Barry White music…

- Cathleen 

The NESTING Series: Part One

This is the first segment in what will be a regular miniseries on NESTS. I started writing a post covering all of the most interesting branches of this fascinating subject, and it quickly began morphing into a dissertation of epic proportions. I instead decided to break things up into several shorter bite-sized posts that will be presented every three weeks until my nesting knowledge is thoroughly exhausted. Right now I think I’ve got about 7 posts in me. Maybe 8. So get ready. 

Admittedly, I am obsessed with birds. I just counted and we have no less than 34 bird decorations perched on surfaces throughout the house. That number is rather shocking, actually. Especially considering I did a major thinning out of my collection after Micky and I first moved in together and he turned to me and said, “Wow. There really are a lot of birds in here.”

So now that you know I’m a bona fide bird lady, you can probably imagine my excitement over a review I read recently in the New York Times for a book called Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build by Peter Goodfellow.

According to my online research (I've already put this bad boy on my Christmas list), the book provides 300 detailed step-by-step illustrations of the nest-building process for over 100 species, breaking down the different kinds of nests by type: scrape, hole, platform, aquatic, mud, mound, cup or dome, and hanging nests. I was interested to learn that scrape nests, probably the variety that takes the least amount of effort to make, are not much more than a dimple in the ground, without any soft lining, and no real concern with protection from predators. Then, of course, there are the iconic cup-shaped nests that we all know and love:  

I’ve always been fascinated by birds like the Ruby-throated Hummingbird for the way they use gathered cobwebs as the glue that holds the tufts of dandelion and thistle down together in their nests: 

This haughty little fellow was photographed by the Delaware Nature Society

An insider's view found on Le Petit Cadeau

So not only are these lovely flights of fancy decked out in beautiful feathers with their own distinctive markings (there’s something startlingly beautiful about a pigeon when you see that flash of iridescent feathers as they swivel their necks, am I right, folks?), but amazingly each species is also an ingenious designer and constructor of a perfect, unique home to keep their burgeoning young safe and warm.

Next up in the NESTING series: BEEEEES!

- Cathleen