Flight Patterns

   Have I mentioned I love birds?

I spend countless hours watching them feed and fly. I can’t help but feel they are more elevated than us humans.  Let’s face it, they figured out how to go from land dwelling to flying!

This painting comes from my countless hours thinking about what it must be like to fly, to soar, to catch the wind and feel the sun.  What is it like to hone in on a specific location and then depart & elevate yourself until that location is merely a spec.  Would it allow you to always keep a balanced perspective? From way up high, all the things us humans occupy our time with would seem so trivial and insignificant compared to its whole.

I often wonder what birds observations of humans are?  What must they think about these creatures so preoccupied with that which no one can see?  What is it like to fly overhead and see trees and water and grass, but also to see buildings, landfills, crops that they would never eat because there’s poison on them, smoke stacks, highways with moving cars, cruise ships, all the things that do not belong in the landscape.  What would that be like?

What is it like to know it is time to leave and then in some magical way, you take form with all who are like you, no pushing, no shoving, no cheating, no martyr-dome.  You fly. With a common destination, you take to the sky, you know your place in the group and you work as one to get there.

Hmm. Humans may find birds simple little creatures but man, I find them spiritual.

Oh by the way, The green little bird in the corner, that’s me.  I love the Ugly Duckling who never feels like it is with its own.  It’s always wondering why it doesn’t fit in, only to find out it was never supposed to.  It’s not a duck.  The more I open my eyes, the more I see these ugly ducklings.  They are my flock, even if we must fly alone among the others.