FLIGHT HICCUP original mixed media wall art

Early studies in motion picture has always seized my fascination. I remember learning about Eadward Muybridge’s late 1800s work capturing and projecting hundreds of images of something everyday taking place – a horse running, a man walking, a bird in flight – and how this allowed him to break down every millisecond of its action into unique parts. The bend of a knee, the lift of a foot, the upward and downward flap of a wing, each occurring so subtly we might never see it with our distracted minds and searching eyes, if it were not slowed down.

When I set out to create this image of a flock of birds aloft, overlapping, on their way someplace incredibly important, it hadn’t occurred to me out of the gate just how much is happening in one millisecond of a flock’s movement. Although it appears they are moving together, in sync, in unison, each bird, at any moment, is doing something slightly different from another. Wing slightly more outstretched, beak just a little more dipped than its neighbor. And yet, the effect is still one of cohesion and symphony.

Cutting out and painting each of these characters and arranging them in the one-moment-in-time allowed me to relive some fond memories of digging through old textbooks explaining motion pictures. I hope they will bring fond memories to you as your eyes find new details with each viewing, a little slowing down in busy times to appreciate the nuance that surrounds us always.