Birds +

Birds in squares plus one (or more) elements.

I've been thinking about shapes and what they might be beyond a graphic element in the bird drawings. Is a curved shape a solid like a planet, or a membrane filled with air like the surface of a balloon?  Is a dark triangle the absence of light--a shadow, a solid wall, or an empty space, a void? What is the relationship of a bird in a square to a shape, beyond line, pattern and texture?

What happens when a foreign element-- an object, event, relationship, or even a thought or a change in a way of thinking-- inserts itself into the neat little squares we set up as our lives? What is our perception of and relationship to an uninvited, unknown, and unexplored presence? Aren't we at least a little bit curious? Just a few of the questions that have been on my mind lately....

Contour drawings after pictures of birds in
"Birds of the World as Painted by Nineteenth Century Artists"
by Hiroshi Aramata