Studies of Birds

‘Throughout much of Art history, the bird was painted as a symbol of the the ‘message-bearer’, an intermediary between the spiritual realm of heaven and the gross material realm of the Earth.  Many mythological archetypes that appear throughout Art History depict this symbolism, and these archetypes naturally have representational qualities of birds such as wings  [ex. Greek god ‘Hermes’ or the ‘angels’ of Judaeo-Christian-Islamic religion]  birds heads [see Egyptian gods ‘Horus’, ‘Thoth’,  and ‘Ra’ as well as ‘Karuna’ in the Indo-Tibetan religions] and bird/human shape shifting powers [Crow in Native American myth]. In Indo-European religion, the behavior of birds was long used for the purposes of divination by the use of augers. In Norse mythology, the power to understand the language of the birds was a sign of great wisdom.

In any case, in all their wonderful multiplicity of forms and vibrancy of colors, not to mention their fascinating behavior and oftentimes sublime song, makes the subject of birds a worthy lifelong study for me…’

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