What would it be like to be a bird?
Mixed media drawing on tracing paper, 2020
After the lockdown began in earnest, I was in my house on Peaks Island in Casco Bay, Maine. Not having spent a concentrated time on the comings and goings of birds in the past, they became my lifeline to the outside I had no access to. From one day to the next, in March, April, and May, my view outside was given over to the birds, the unencumbered life beyond my window. Their comings and goings became the opposite of my uncertainty, focusing my attention away from fear. I fed them endlessly, experimented with feeders, seeds, and suet, bought binoculars, and wondered what it would be like to be a bird. Hours became days, then weeks. I started each day by drawing a self-portrait with my eyes closed while listening to the birds coming and going, moving the pencil across the paper. One day, it seemed obvious to incorporate my collaborators. Each day, a bird was drawn into my blind drawn face—these strangers on my face without a mask.
