Our Daily Bird 64: Opus 23 by Dustin O'Halloran

Opus 23 by Dustin O'Halloran, animated by Marco Morandi. Thank you to Jett for sharing this on Twitter.

Our Daily Bird 61: David Wierzbicki

David and Goliath, by David Wierzbicki.

It's no secret that we have a soft spot for calendars here at the Hedge Society. One of my all-time favourites was illustrated by David Wierzbicki for Wycliffe Canada several years ago; it was quirky and thoughtful and exactly the kind of calendar you don't mind hanging out with for an entire year. David and I bumped into each other on Twitter and I knew I'd have to share his work with you.

 I asked David to write a little something about himself:

As for us; me and my family (wife Amy and daughter Sophia) just moved to Entwistle, Alberta to help pastor at a church and I am hoping to see my experience as an artist and co-curator define my role as a pastor. I want to create space for expression and artistry in our worship and our community life.

You can see more of his work here, and follow him on Twitter here.

Our Daily Bird 58: Put a Bird on It!

One of my favourite art blogs, My Love For You, recently shared this little morsel from the new television show Portlandia. (If you've spent any time at all browsing Etsy, you will understand.)

Income tax season is coming right up, so make sure to visit the Hedge Society next week when I post my tutorial on chickadee appliqués to brighten up your return! You'll make a Revenue Canada employee smile.

Our Daily Bird 56: TV on the Radio

Tv on the Radio "Me-I" from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

You can find TV on the Radio's website here.

The Snowflake Cutter's Omnibus

Keely's rainbow avalanche, cut from magazine pagesI mentioned that I'd been cutting paper snowflakes on Twitter the other day, and it accidentally snowballed into something good.  

(I should have posted a pun warning before starting this post, right?)

Keeley started finding and sharing links to tutorials for all sorts of paper snowflakes, and then she went ahead and wrote up a blog post of her own.  She cut the beauties you see above from magazine pages, which takes frugal to free and throws in a golden ticket to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory just for the fun of it.

If you'd like to indulge in an afternoon of cutting your own avalanche, here are some great how-to's:

• how to cut a six-pointed snowflake
• ...and how to make it look 'lacy'
• how to cut the elusive five-pointed snowflake
• how to make a three-dimensional snowflake
• how to make a caribou or maple leaf snowflake (if you need more Canadiana in your Christmas)
• how to make Star Wars snowflakes, (if you need more Darth in your Christmas)

Of course, the great fun of making paper snowflakes is sometimes just the diving-in-and-seeing-what-happens, in which case no tutorials are necessary.  

Thank you, Keeley, for sharing and making and being such a good sport.  

Now: go get your scissors.  Don't run.

Out My Window 2: Paper Snowflakes

I have a black, hardcover journal from the days before my son got his autism diagnosis.  It's where I'd write what he'd eaten that day, how many tantrums, how much head-on-hardwood banging, how few hours of sleep.  Words that came and words that went away for good.  It is pocked with asterisks and exclamations and mostly question marks; a scabby scrawl bumping over rippled pages.

I can barely open the thing now for fear of the sorrow that will leak out.  

I know, though, that tucked inside is a folded paper snowflake.  It was the last one I cut that December, the one that made me draw an astonished breath at order and beauty perfectly manifest on a sheet of cheap computer paper.  It was effortless, and it was a promise.  Even I could see that.

I'm ashamed to admit that Christmas gets a little harder every year for me. I have a hard time shaking off the year's accumulation of injustice and disappointment, even though I believe those things are not the end of the story.  Advent requires some deliberate measures, and now I have a strategy:  I defiantly make paper snowflakes, as a reminder to myself that random cuts unfold into effortless beauty.

At least on paper.

*****

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), 1867)

Our Daily Bird 51: Laurel Roth

Biodiversity Reclamation Suits for Urban Pigeons: Carolina Parakeet (detail) 2009 crocheted yarn, hand carved pigeon mannequin, walnut stand 8 x 9 x 13 inches 

Biodiversity Reclamation Suits for Urban Pigeons: Carolina Parakeet 2009 crocheted yarn, hand carved pigeon mannequin, walnut stand 8 x 9 x 13 inches

Laurel Roth has crocheted a series of Biodiversity Reclamation Suits for Urban Pigeons.  This is what she has to say about her work:

Fascinated with women’s traditional use of fiber-craft to provide safety and comfort, I have been crocheting small suits for urban pigeons that disguise them as extinct birds, thereby (visually) re-creating biodiversity and soothing environmental fears.

And now I insist that you go see the rest of this series, because I like you a lot.

Our Daily Bird 49: The Ostrich

A little papery puppetry for you today:

The Ostrich from Lucas Zanotto on Vimeo.

Lucas Zanotto also has a Flickr set on the making of The Ostrich. 

Our Daily Bird 46: Emily of Texas

Birds of Pretty and Nice

appx 13 1/2 x 5 1/2" acrylic on woodappx. 15" x 6 1/4" acrylic on woodEmily of Texas lives in Texas, naturally, with her collection of Mammoth Jackstock donkeys and other assorted animals.  

There's a great little interview with Emily about her donkeys, far west Texas, and artmaking here: http://www.theequinest.com/horse-artist-interview-emily-of-texas/ 

You can follow Emily of Texas on Twitter: http://twitter.com/emilyoftexas

Our Daily Bird 45: Dimitris Taxis

Cover illustration by Dimitris Taxis for Lifo Magazine, 09-09-10.

Our Daily Bird 41: Whipper, the Mutant Parakeet

Our Daily Bird 38: The Intelligence of Crows

This afternoon I left a bag of groceries outside in the snow to make some space for them in the freezer.  I came upstairs to an odd sound - was the cat outside, scratching at the door?  No.  It was an enormous crow, or maybe even a raven, pecking at the frozen chicken.  Erg.

The upside of that encounter was that it reminded me of this TED talk by Joshua Klein, on the intelligence of crows.  He's developed a vending machine for crows that explores the possibility of changing our mutual relationship for the better.  In his own words: 

A decade ago a friend told me it’d be impossible to get crows to do anything useful, and that killing them all off would be better. Finally, I did something about it to prove him wrong.

Synanthropes are animals that live near humans, and they’re an unusual type of species of which crows are an unusually smart example. The crowbox is a means of creating a mutually beneficial relationship with them – instead of trying to destroy them.

 Oh, and one last thing - Joshua Klein is on Twitter: @joshuaklein.

Our Daily Bird 36: The Falcon

The Falcon from The Shamptonian Institute on Vimeo.

The Falcon is a stop-motion film composed entirely of macro-photographed hardware pieces from disassembled vintage/antique cameras.  Visit thefalcon.tv for the full story/synopsis. 

From The Shamptonian Institute, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that also "actively engages in the archival preservation of cultural media and ephemera".  You can find them on Twitter: @shamptonian

Our Daily Bird 35: Patricia Waller

Bird in the Hand: Yarn, cotton wool, wire; crochet, length 20 in.; 2006

Patricia Waller lives and works in Berlin, crocheting her funny and provocative version of the world.  You should take a peek at her other work (as long as you don't faint at the sight of crocheted blood).

Our Daily Bird 34: Anna Lee Keefer

Italianate

the brown birds of coffee utopia

7"x 9" metal mosaic- metal and nails on panel

Candyball

sweet and sharp

8″x 12″ metal mosaic- metal and nails on panelYou can see more of Anna Lee Keefer's work at her website (go often; there's lots of mind-tickling art to see and she updates regularly).  You can also get acquainted on Twitter: @annaleekeefer.

Apparently I Support Interspecies Relationships

Here's one from the fruityfantastica archives:

This Christmas, we finally faced the dilemma that has become a rite of passage for thinking parents everywhere: to Barbie or not to Barbie. Our girl is not a true Girly-girl, and so we've had a pretty easy job of it these last eight years.

at soul-sucking department store:

"Hey mommy, what's down the next aisle?"  

(telltale pink glow searing my peripheral vision)  

 "Wow, look at this! Over here! Pretend bacon!"

at home:

"Did you know that Amber has 27 Barbies?"

"Whoa, that's a lot of Barbies. It must be a big job for her to clean them up all the time.  So if there was a fight between a Bengal tiger and a Komodo dragon, who would win?"

Our girl is both easily distracted and a good sport, and that has served us well for many years. But we are also not unreasonable parents, so when she recently started trying to make Barbies out of toilet paper rolls and dressing them in Kleenex, we decided that the time had come to end our unspoken boycott. What's the harm, really? She's eight and a half - surely past the most impressionable stage, and likely to outgrow the whole thing soon enough.

So we got the least skanky Barbies we could find, and a little house setup that I have to grudgingly admit is kind of cool (a foldup toilet!). And we held our breath.

I guess my objections to Ms. B follow the usual lines - unrealistic body issues, limited gender roles, the way plastic crap begets more plastic crap. But it's also more general than that. I think it's the way that toys like this somehow pasteurize natural kid weirdness:

It's Saturday morning, and Barbie has the
whole day to do whatever she wants! Should she...

1. join her friends at the mall for a shopping spree
2. surf the 'net, then have some friends over for pizza and a movie
3. star in a rock video
4. start a goat farm with Eggy and Roundy, then save a zebra that fell in the collapsible toilet

We just keep on praying that our girl will keep on choosing option #4, or some reasonable facsimile, over and over for the rest of her life.

So the other day she came up to me with Semi-Skanky Barbie (not that we call her that out loud! no!) and a little stuffed bear she has had for most of her life. His attire resembles the A&W Root Bear but he has no known corporate affiliation. And she said this:

"Mom, I've decided that these two aren't married anymore. Now they're in high school. But they still love each other." 

I love this unpasteurized girl.

Our Daily Bird 31: How a Bird Becomes a Ghost

Jeff Hamada of Booooooom designed this nifty t-shirt for Crownfarmer last year: