FOLK FAUNA (HUMMINGBIRD) STUDIO SERIES original mixed media wall art

The hummingbird provides endless inspiration for me. Despite my many encounters with them – in the wild, or in the small jungle that is my backyard garden (a playground, I will admit, we have intentionally built to entice these beings to visit) – I am always astounded to greet one, to watch it flit about, to behold how easeful they look in flight. Their speed amazes, their size is simultaneously adorable and awe-inspiring, and the way their feathers shift and change color from every angle provides me great artistic energy.

In this piece, a new version of my Folk Fauna mixed media/found object animal series, I wanted to explore gradation in color – teals, greys, indigo, tangerine – each layered to create the appearance of feathers. While I was at first stumped about what to use to form his beak, a fortunate/unfortunate incident working on another piece in the shop offered an apt solution: and by this, I mean enthusiastically tightening a bolt and thoroughly destroying a wrench. You’ll see half of this wrench in the hummingbird’s face and beak, an all-around perfect use for a broken tool, I think.

This is the first of my Folk Fauna pieces I’ve mounted on wood panel (the same used in my paper collages) and added a frame.