Hey Little Bird            

November 8, 2007

Yeah. That's right. It's a Tom Waits song.  Can't remember the title but the song went through my head the whole time I worked on this painting.  Maybe it is just Hey Little Bird.  Anyway it brought me great peace as I worked, meditating on the scenario of being away from home then suddenly hearing that my house was on fire with my children in it.  Reminds me of the recurring nightmare I had about finding my children starving and abandoned in the closet of my childhood bedroom.  Why would I find comfort in terror, tragedy and despair?  Because it's not happening to me? Is that why horror and destruction is so popular in Media, Film, News, etc.?  People enjoy it because it's not happening to them?  No.  I work like this because there in comfort in the familiar.  Not only for me but for generations in my family.  Peace is the place within, where I can go no matter what is going on around me: gunfire, gang rape, holocaust, inquisition, loathing, disgust.  Home sweet home.  Alas, there is no logic here.  I find most comfort in the wisdom of the art spirit voice that speaks to me from each and every work.  What did the Red Wing Blackbird have to say?

  1. 9/23/2007
  2. Intention: Relax. Ground and Center, Connect with Source. Create and Yes, Breathe!
  3. Witness: I guess I have traveled past the dancing fire deer to find the soon to be red wing blackbird perched on a branch far away from the house in the background.  Not yet what I had envisioned but I see her as bigger than the house in this perspective.  Eh, Little Bird?
  4. RWB: Yea, yeah I know you're gonna tell me to fly away home, my house is on fire, and my children are alone.  your own perpetual bad dream. Give yourself a break. The house is in the distance, not here, not now. Give your work to the Here & Now.  The distance will mend itself.
  5. I: Wow you're a cool, wise bird.
  6. RWB: I didn't get here on a turnip truck, Boffo.
  7. I: I guess not.
  8.  
  9. 9/25/2007
  10. Witness: Red Wing Blackbird, you know what's going to happen next don't you?
  11. RWB: Yes, I do. But It not my fault
  12. I: I know, I know.
  13.  
  14. 9/26/2007
  15. Intention:  Relax. Ground and Center, Connect with Source.  Take the time, get it all done.
  16. Witness: Redwing Blackbird, you are the Anarchist's national bird, and now here you sit in my painting, housed in a Rowan tree.  You must have some kinda magic.
  17. RWB: All kinds of magic, but I can't undo the fire.  You knew I was coming, being the painter, you have some choice in the matter.  What gives?
  18. I: I don't know.  I guess scenes that are too happy and peaceful just irritate me.  Life is full of surprises.  Everything is blooming and rotting at the same time.  It's the balance of it all.
  19. RWB: Sounds goods to me.  Be sure and paint some Rowan Berries in this tree.
  20. I: My plan exactly.
  21. RWB: And then please let the people run out of their burning house.
  22. I: Oh, ok.
  23.  
  24. 9/30/2007
  25. Intention: Relax. Ground and Center, Connect with Source.  I paint, therefore I am.
  26. Witness:  Ok Red Wing Blackbird, you've got more berries than you can shake a stick at.
  27. RWB: I don't shake sticks.
  28. I: You know what I mean.
  29. RWB: Well I guess I do shake a branch when I fly away home, which is what they say I should do if there are children alone there.
  30. I: It's just a nursery rhyme.  Enjoy the berries! You asked for them, you got 'em.  I'll take care of the burning house, maybe it's empty. Anyway, you're a bird, what would you do with a people house?
  31. RWB: Build nest in the eaves of course.
  32. I: Oh yeah, you birds manage in all kinds of adversities don't you?
  33. RWB: Gotta do what we gotta do.
  34. I: And so do I.

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