Yesterday my morning on our porch included delightful, unexpected interruptions.

A batch of new birds, tiny wren-like splashes of activity – were in the branches of the ligustrum that’s right up next to the porch screen. I could hear the whisper of their movements. I could see them only briefly. They flew in, they hopped about, and they were gone.

There had been a brief rain before sunrise. Their movements created a short-lived waterfall of collected water from leaves down onto the branches below them.

I wonder sometimes why I enjoy birds so much. Aside from the obvious reasons (Birdsong. Color. Flashes of movement. The way they tilt their heads) I think they spark in me the sense of pretend I had when I was a child.

I enjoyed pretending I was the little animal and that I lived in the tree. I wondered what it would be like. I enjoyed imagining the transformations – how what appears as a small twig to me from my human perspective would be a much larger object to a little bird. How big a berry would seem!

I enjoyed the idea of being hidden.

So, here I am, all grown up and with a studio and time to create, still enjoying the world of birds.

When I screen printed this tree in parts, it allowed me to mix it up a little. All the parts don’t fit together just neatly. And I blended black with luscious phthalo blue.

This is part of the pretend experience. A tree and some birds are recognizable forms, but I have not created them to be realistic – not like a photograph, or an Audubon illustration.

This environment is not scary, but it is complex. There are a lot of parts. This helps to emphasize that the birds are little. Little innocents in a complex world.

I realize as I write this evening that I may be drawn to this kind of image tonight as a way to escape the reality of what’s coming this week. I am dreading our midterm elections. I will do the right grownup things. I have followed issues and candidates, I have given to the ones I support, and I will support the process as a designated poll watcher. I voted. This environment, however actually is scary. Scary and complex.

So, if your emotional life is in any way in the same place, I invite you to enter the world of the small creatures, hop about largely hidden by branches and twigs and – for a short while – live in pretend.

This blog post did not go quite where I expected. But I guess this is what was inside waiting to be written. Thanks for reading.

The collage depicted in this post is “Where We have Been All Along.” It’s on my website. For more information, click HERE.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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