Paintings/Sculptures
The compositions of Avian Oracle I, II, and III began with an abstraction considering the activity of gaping in starlings. Gaping refers to when starlings open their beaks underground when searching for food and exploring the world. In the circular forms within this work, the form of a beak wide open merges with human forms such as the eye and plays with changing levels of light and darkness. In this work, there is a desire to see the starling up close and evoke a sense of touch. Almost every oracle from the series contains hand needled felting in its center and all of the circle figures are surrounded by black velvet.
A recent study published in Science Magazine speaks to the devastating loss of 3 billion birds since 1970, so, the oracle missing it’s center is meant to refer to this vanishing. I was interested in the oracle as a figure that represents a being you would consult when trying to determine the future and the thought here was to turn to the loss of birds for guidance.