Bird Songs

This post, Bird Songs, describes my delight in working with bird images, why they are particularly interesting and their historic and cultural significance. My work using bird images has melded human and bird characteristics as a way to indicate our closeness to, reliance on, and affinity for, these creatures. They are the most familiar and ubiquitous, but at the same time the most mysterious and incomprehensible of our companions here on this planet. How can Hummingbirds, weighing about 0.1 of an once, fly 4000 miles? How smart are crows? What do bird songs mean?

The first piece I did using a melded bird/human figure was called The Three Graces, in the form of a lino-block print.

Birds and Myth

This print suggests that the similarities between humans and birds are greater than the differences. It questions the anthropocentric view that beauty resides in human females but not in other species such as birds. It refers to the myths of every culture in which birds & humans transform into each other. 

Human/animal figures are characteristic of myths in every culture in the world and create a recognizable common thread among cultural traditions.  Human/animal myths originated at a time when humans were more highly attuned to other species and all cultures include stories about animals that take on human characteristics to pierce the human/animal divide. In prints, drawings, paintings and sculptures this work reconnected with the wisdom of ancestors who understood the inter-relatedness of all forms of life and the need to protect all species and ecosystems. This print explored the inter-connections between humans and bird species.

I am interested in the human/animal fusion images in that they stem from an earlier period of human development when people regarded the natural world as benign.  The earth and its many & diverse forms of life were seen as benevolent as long as humans stayed in tune with its forces. In earlier religions  the animal or animal-headed gods/goddesses are symbolic expressions of a deep spiritual understanding. For instance, when an animal was depicted in Ancient Egypt, it represented a particular function/attribute in its purest form. When an animal-headed figure is depicted, it conveyed that particular function/attribute in the human being.

In addition to understanding the inherent connection and identification with other forms of life, earlier forms of religion recognized the importance of a balance between male & female energies.

Balance between Male & Female

J. J. Bachofen (1861) postulated that the historical patriarchates were a comparatively recent development, having replaced an earlier state of primeval matriarchy, and postulated a matriarchal society and chthonic mystery cults as the second of four stages of the historical development of religion. The first stage he characterized as a paleolithic hunter-and-gatherer society practicing a polyamorous and communistic lifestyle. The second stage is a matriarchal “lunar” stage of agriculture with an early form of Demeter the dominant deity. This was followed by a stage of emerging patriarchy, finally succeeded by the stage of patriarchy and the appearance of civilization in classical antiquity. In the later Abrahamic monotheistic religions, God is the Father, dominant, powerful, fatherly & masculine. This theory has its adherents and detractors, but it is a compelling and useful idea to explain the imbalances & conflicts between natural/human and male/female in current societies.

Many believe the anthropocentrism of the Abrahamic monotheistic religions is the underlying reason why humanity dominates and sees the need to “develop” most of the Earth for human habitat at the expense of all other species. The Book of Genesis states, “ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” This belief that human beings have special status in nature, based on unique capacities, provides the rationale for unlimited human expansion and resource use on a finite planet. That is why earlier concepts of the relationship between humans and the natural world are important to understand so that, as artists, we can re-brand the human species in a more earth-friendly format.

This is an area I explored for over 25 years, for instance, in this drawing called “Flying Dreams” from 2003.

Birds & the Divine

The Early Egyptians

In early Egyptian mythology, Nekhbet was an early local goddess who became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron deities for all of Ancient Egypt. She was seen as a goddess who had chosen to adopt the city, and consequently depicted as the Egyptian white vulture, a creature that the Egyptians thought only existed as females (not knowing that the males are identical). They were presumed to be reproducing via parthenogenesis.

In art, Nekhbet was depicted as the white vulture (representing purification), always seen on the front of pharaoh’s double crown. Nekhbet usually was depicted hovering, with her wings spread above the royal image, clutching a shen symbol (representing infinity, all, or everything), frequently in both of her claws. As patron of the pharaoh, she was sometimes seen to be the mother of the divine aspect of the pharaoh, and it was in this capacity that she was Mother of Mothers.

In some late texts of the Book of the Dead, Nekhbet is referred to as Father of Fathers, Mother of Mothers, who hath existed from the Beginning, and is Creatrix of this World.

Another example is the Ba that is represented as a human-headed bird, which is the opposite of the normal depiction of gods/goddesses as human bodies with animal heads-in other words, as the divine aspect of the terrestrial. The Ba is depicted as a stork. The stork is known for its migrating and homing instinct, and is also known worldwide as the bird who carries newborn babies to their new families. The stork returns to its own nest with consistent precision-hence a migratory bird is the perfect choice to represent the soul.

Birds in the Bible

There are early reference to the stork in the Biblical Old Testament books written between 1450-1410 B.C. These early references categorize this bird as such a sacred bird that it should not be killed, though there are other interpretations that the stork is an unclean animal and should therefore not be eaten.

The following dictionary topics are from the M.G. Easton Illustrated Bible Dictionary:

Stork

Heb. hasidah, meaning “kindness,” indicating thus the character of the bird, which is noted for its affection for its young. It is in the list of birds forbidden to be eaten by the Levitical law.

( Leviticus 11:19 ; Deuteronomy 14:18 ). Two species are found in Palestine, the white, which are dispersed in pairs over the whole country; and the black, which live in marshy places and in great flocks. They migrate to Palestine periodically (about the 22nd of March). Jeremiah alludes to this ( Jeremiah 8:7 ). At the appointed time they return with unerring sagacity to their old haunts, and re-occupy their old nests. “There is a well-authenticated account of the devotion of a stork which, at the burning of the town of Delft, after repeated and unsuccessful attempts to carry off her young, chose rather to remain and perish with them than leave them to their fate. Well might the Romans call it the pia avis!”

In Job 39:13 The object of this somewhat obscure verse seems to be to point out a contrast between the stork, as distinguished for her affection for her young, and the ostrich, as distinguished for her indifference.

( Zechariah 5:9 ) alludes to the beauty and power of the stork’s wings. He wrote, “Then lifted I up my eyes, and looked and, behold, there came out two woman, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork…” (Zech 5:9).

Other Early References

The Bestiaries, is a collection of manuscripts written between the 8th or 9th and 15th centuries. It also touched on the stork among other birds. Pliny, Aristotle, Indian, Hebrew, and Egyptian animal myths all contributed to this book’s insights.

In the Bestiaries, Storks are best known for having a strong responsibility to their young, and pull out their own feathers in order to keep them warm. This self-sacrifice shows the mothers put their children’s needs above their own comfort. This book also says, “their enemies are snakes”. Serpents are obviously associated with evilness and corruption and the large beaks of storks often kill these “evil thoughts or evil brothers”. Some of the reasoning behind the stork’s high status is connected to the fact that its main enemy, snakes, represents wickedness. Also, the stork migrated to Asia, which “signifies heavenly things”, people travelling to Asia were thought to “aim for higher things”, just like the stork.

The Bestiaries also described the supernatural power of the Caladrius, a bird which can tell if a sick man will die, and can cure disease. “The caladrius is an all-white bird that lives in the king’s house. If it looks into the face of a sick man, it means that he will live, but if the caladrius looks away, the sick man will die of his illness. To cure the sick man, the caladrius looks at him, and drawing the sickness into itself, flies up toward the sun, where the disease is burned up and destroyed…The caladrius represents Christ, who is pure white without a trace of blackness of sin“.

The Chinese also referred to the stork in their ancient folklore. They believed the stork had the ability to bring people up to the heavens. In their ancient legends they believed, “A young flute-player and wandering minstrel who carries a basket laden with fruit. His soul-searching songs caused a stork to snatch him away to the heavens”. In this instance the stork has the power to bring this man to heaven for his enjoyable songs. The Chinese depiction of the stork went along with other views and proclaimed the bird as a messenger of God.

Storkwomen

I’d been drawn to stork-like images, without knowing of their spiritual significance for decades. I would have used a stork for “The Singer” except that I was worried that a long beak in the air on a sculpture would be too delicate & get damaged.

About the same time as I did the Three Graces, over 25 years ago, I did the oil on canvas painting below, also called the Three Graces. These were interpretations of the famous oil painting by Italian painter Raphael who in turn was inspired by a ruined Roman marble statue in Siena.

I was interested in using this celebrated image of female grace & beauty and applying it to another species. Like the earlier print, the painting questions the emphasis placed on human beauty and invites appreciation of grace & beauty in other species.  The melding of human & bird again suggests our interdependence.

Later, I explored the stork image in a painting called StorkWoman Waits.  This painting began in a life-painting session at Basic Inquiry Studio at Main & Georgia in Vancouver.  I often re-paint canvases to incorporate whatever ideas I am currently working with. On the left is the painting as it began in 1995 – a terrible painting by any standard.  I took the figure from the studio setting & set her on a beach. But as discussed in other blogs, it is difficult to work with the human female figure without the problem of Kitch. The human female has been done to death in drawings, paintings, photos, sculptures& films such that in the 21st Century any depiction is stereotypical. So I experimented with applying the human/animal theme.

At first, a stork’s head was substituted for the woman’s, (this iteration was not documented). Then the image made into a sculpture study, imagining how it would look as a sculpture in concrete, installed on a beach.  The sculpture would be entirely composed of flat planes so that it could either be fabricated out of welded steel or hand-built in concrete.For this, and other sculpture studies, I experimented with a restricted palette – using only Alizarin Crimson, Viridian Green & white.

The semi-naturalistic landscape setting didn’t work, so the whole painting became a sculpture study.  In other words, the restricted palette and planar surfaces were applyied to the entire canvas.  The idea was a world carved in stone – as though sculpted out of the side of a mountain. It may yet be re-worked again in the future.

In keeping with the interest in characteristics that previous civilizations attributed to animals in myths, this painting, originally called StorkWoman Waits, was re-named Nekhbet. The name of a painting tends to evolve with my understanding of what they are trying to say.

This study could fabricated in 3D, ideally at a much larger scale – about 3 m high, in concrete.  It would be an interesting experiment to use integral pigments to attain similar colour values to those in the study.

Flying Man

The human/bird fusion myths described above tend to characterize these figures as female and they are on the whole benign entities.  The exception would be the Harpies.

In Greek mythology, a harpy (“snatcher”) was one of the winged spirits best known for constantly stealing all food from Phineas.  Hesiod calls them two “lovely-haired” creatures, and pottery art depicting the harpies featured beautiful women with wings. Harpies as ugly winged bird-women are a late development, due to a confusion with the Sirens. Roman and Byzantine writers detailed their ugliness. This transition of animal/human mythical creatures from beautiful and benign to wicked and ugly over time is a common theme that emerges in an investigation of animal-human figures.

The Flying Man

The Flying Man theme relates to the human desire to move unhindered through space like a bird.It relates to our own inevitable transformation to the non-human plane and asks if it is worthwhile to be earthbound by worldly concerns and neglect one’s spiritual development. It is about self-propulsion and the freedom inherent in leaving the internal combustion engine behind. We are not meant to be always weighted down by tons of motorized steel, rubber and plastic.

There have been many iterations of the Flying Man image. The first was a set of drawings that were studies for a sculpture to be fabricated with a steel body and copper wings.

Flying Man is partly a self-portrait.  In my younger days, I frequently experienced flying dreams in which, if I just put myself in the right frame of mind and concentrated fully, I enjoyed exhilarating flights at dizzying heights.  With the advent of kids, mortgage etc., the dreams stopped.  Flying Man asks if it is worthwhile to be earthbound by embracing weighty responsibilities and neglecting one’s astral self.  Up, up and away!

Next Flying Man appeared as a small maquette for a larger work in steel & copper.

This figure would have had a stainless steel torso, arms and legs with copper bird’s wings and tail.  The copper would be allowed to develop verdigris so that the feathered areas turn watery blue-green over time. The bird/human figure would be cut from sheet metal and assembled along the lines of balsa wood glider construction.  The sculpture would be roughly 12′ long, 3′ high and 10′ wide.  The wings would be built up in two layers from sections of feathers cut from copper sheet.  The tail would also be constructed from copper. The completed stainless steel and copper figure would be bolted into a steel  pole.

While the flying man maqette above was never created in steel and copper, a small mild steel version was fabricated in 2014. Here is the original drawing for it and here is the final version in steel:

Variations on this idea included a concept for  a flock of flying figures supported on a tree-like structure about 20′ high, for which I have no drawings of maquettes. Called Flying Folks, the idea entailed many flying half-human/half bird figures in a variety of attitudes and with varying combinations of bird/human attributes.  There might be 40-50 of these figures with stainless steel bodies and verdigris’d copper bird’s wings and tails tooled to create a quilled effect.  The flying figures could be mechanized so that they turn and/or tilt simultaneously or in a choreographed sequence.  As they moved, they would catch and reflect the light like a flock of birds.  Another possibility was for the flock of Flying Folk to be suspended in a cloud-like formation from overhead supports.

The other configuration I came up with for Flying Man was to make him interactive and kinetic using a bicycle as in the following drawing.

A human empowered sculpture, driven by a bicycle, would give a strong message about sustainable travel and would be a celebration of the bicycle as the most efficient, non-polluting machine ever invented for transportation.  The connection between the bicycle and the flying figure also evokes the freedom and fun of riding a bike that builds strength and a sense of self-reliance for the rider.  The kinetic elements in Flights of Fancy are the two wings of the flying figure suspended on a pole that are driven up and down in a flying motion by the bicycle mounted at the base of the pole.  The sculpture would invite and require interaction and engagement with the public to be activated. It would have made a wonderful piece.

The artwork on birds shown above has only touched on the possibilities of these divine creatures There is still much to be explored in further bird songs.