Birds and Bees

No this is not about the talk (we have with our children).

I am blessed – my property is filled with birds and bees. We can learn so much from them.

For many years I had two birds’ nests under my deck by the outside of my woodshop before I converted it to the gallery. Now the shop is going to the bottom of my property. I was outside carving with my chainsaw one day and saw the birds taking turns sitting on the nest. Not wanting to bother them I held off with the loud chainsaw and did something quieter. A month later another set of birds were in the other nest, and I really had to get the work done. Well, that did not seem to bother them at all, and much to my surprise they just kept sitting there.  But the fun part was on its way. After the eggs were hatched I would watch both mother and father taking turns finding worms and feeding the baby birds as they were chirping up a storm.  Boy are they noisy and hungry!

My point is how utterly attentive both male and female birds are to their young.  Parenthood seems to be second nature to them. I wish that were true for all humans.

One of the blessings this spring is that we can hear the birds and bees, we can see them, and they have fresh air to breath. This “time out” is good for our planet and we must figure out a way to not go back to the way it was. It is obvious to me that Mother Nature is really fed up with Humans and our deliberate misuse of our planet.

We cannot win; we can only live in harmony with nature.

Artists have always painted, sculpted and created gorgeous works of art about nature, birds and bees specifically. Today we bring you many different interpretations of artists depictions of  these wonderful  Aves and Insecta (Latin names) for their inspiration.

Marcie Wolf-Hubbard uses Encaustic as her medium, Suzy Scarborough- collage, paint, and a very unusual technique in putting it all together. Barbara Kobylinska uses found objects, Kristine Mays, Donna M. McCullough, David Bacharach, and David Hubbard fabricate metal. Stephen Hansen uses paper mache and design cast for his pieces.
Larry Ringgold finds driftwood and uses a multitude of pieces to form his animals. And I use domestic and exotic hardwoods by lamenting and carving to put together my sculpture.

What ever the media we all glorify the majesty of our planet.