THE BACKYARD BIRD CHRONICLES

In 2016, racism against Asians became more blatant.  I needed to find calm and resilience.  I turned to the refuge I found  as a child: nature, a place of wonderment and the freedom that comes with play and imagination. 

When I was a child, I wanted to be an artist but was discouraged from trying.  At age 65, I finally returned to drawing and took nature journaling lessons with the renowned naturalist artist and educator John Muir Laws. 

The birds looked at me whenever I looked at them. I puzzled over their behavior. Do they have emotions?  How smart are they?  What is trust to a bird?    

I recorded dramas happening in my yard in cartoon-like sketches.  Each observation took me deeper into questions about what birds must  do to survive. Birds also happen to be hilarious much of the time.

To draw portraits of the birds.  I had to feel the life within and see what the bird was seeing, feeling, and planning as its next move. I imagined what it thought about me.   I thought about survival.

To sketch birds, I did not have to be an expert on birds or art.  I could be naive, open, letting the curiosity I had as a child take me deeper into the world of birds and imagination.  Over five years,  I filled a dozen sketchbooks and nine journals.