(leaving the) Nest #4

(leaving the) Nest #4, 2015, Charcoal, acrylic, spray paint on paper, 22”x30”. $500.

“One minute, they won’t get out of your bed, the next, they’re not calling you back.”–Bobby Cannavale

Roots and wings. Feathering the nest. All metaphors for home and family. The first an aspiration for parenting which serves as a gentle reminder. The very same toddlers we couldn’t get out of our beds are now young adults who may need gentle promptings to call or visit. An inevitable evolving of growth and change and one that can tug at our heart strings none the less. The second came to mind when I recently had the opportunity to put my finger in a small hummingbird nest that a friend had found. So soft and downy, a lovely home for Hummingbird babies long gone.

I created this drawing several years ago from shadows cast from a welded nest sculpture I created at a weeklong Marshall Bridge workshop with Stan Smokler. The rusted steel foraged, twisted, and heated to form a nest atop a pillar of found railings long ago abandoned.

Entangled ethereal shadows that convey the beautiful and impermanence of our lives.