I went a bit loopy during the first lockdown. When the blackbirds started to whistle back boundaries became kind of fuzzy and I started to read things into the drawings the birds were making. Even reading that sentence back sounds nuts! Experimenting with bird and wind drawing made me feel very connected to nature though, so there was a big benefit to it all, even if it didn’t fit in with social norms.
This time round I’m thinking of the experiment as a conversation. Every day I wash dishes and look out at my beautiful apple tree. It is a Red Falstaff, bought from Bristol Permaculture 18 years ago and it produces beautiful big apples, the type the wicked witch used to poison the princess.
I look out at the apple tree but what does the apple tree look out at? What does it think? And more importantly, what does it have to say about it.
This is the essence of the drawing machine experiments for lockdown 2. I’m attempting to record different conversations between the birds, the wind and the trees.
Week 1 “What the apple tree saw” is recorded in india ink.
Week 2 “Sparrows in the Elder tree” is recorded in archival fine liner.
The Tiny Art Gallery Manual
a book to help you run your own small gallery kindle and in print