In the quest for personal security, hope, and community the bird's nest has become a metaphor for my life.  Birds build nests with the best intention for sheltering and protecting their young.  They are constructed with the utmost skill and instinct that the parent has to bestow on their offspring.  Bird nests are ultimately imperfect and fragile, though, even when well constructed, and are always vulnerable to prey by other animals and environmental conditions.

 

The effort and industry that goes into building a nest, particularly the community nest building by orioles, swallows, and weavers which occurs in some regions in the world fascinates me.

 

I use scientific photographs and observational sketches of the nests to create my own hybrid forms.  The ritual of building nest forms in oil on canvas or charcoal on paper is an exercise in both the physical creation of layers in paint and charcoal and the conceptual building of a protected space.  I either place the forms into a difficult narrative situation, such as a winter storm, or make very focused studies of them, and in doing so, the metaphor is perpetuated.