Monday
May152006
Why I am Painting Birds
Monday, May 15, 2006 at 11:01PM Birds (etc)
Attar, an ancient Persian, wrote a famous epic titled, "The Conference of the Birds." In this story, thousands of Birds from all over the world travel for several years, over valleys and mountains, in order to meet the King. Along the way, many die and just thirty Birds arrive at the final destination, only to catch a slight glimpse of the King. At the journey’s end, they are forced to look within themselves and realize and admit their faults and failures. Humbled, they finally see the face of the King, who turns out to be merely a reflection of themselves.
Attar, an ancient Persian, wrote a famous epic titled, "The Conference of the Birds." In this story, thousands of Birds from all over the world travel for several years, over valleys and mountains, in order to meet the King. Along the way, many die and just thirty Birds arrive at the final destination, only to catch a slight glimpse of the King. At the journey’s end, they are forced to look within themselves and realize and admit their faults and failures. Humbled, they finally see the face of the King, who turns out to be merely a reflection of themselves.
The Bird is an important magical symbol in almost every culture. Many traditions believe that the soul perceives itself as a winged being. The wing is seen to be the most divine among corporeal things, and when the soul is fully winged, it is said to soar upwards and thus becomes the ruler of the universe. Thus, the Bird, in many traditions, comes to represent the Image of the Self and the idea that in order to find oneself, one must take flight and ultimately return back to ones original starting place.
My current paintings of BIRDS like the Persian tale, documeny my own poetic journey towards self-expansion and my artistic “flight” towards a better understanding of myself and this complicated world we live in. Initially the Bird represented a way to express a lightness about life that I coveted: a way to comment about the joy and passion I experience as I paint.
The paintings evolved into poetic portraits with Birds signifying qualities we all share and long for as human beings in this amazing life on earth. Flight...sustenance...family...perseverance…splendor…. Birds embody an ineffable essence of what we recognize but cannot name.
Birds (etc) is an exhibition about the beauty, the mystery and the mythology of Birds as well as their kinship to humanity. The multi-layered, colorful textured paintings in this collection describe both the physical beauty of Birds as well as their underlying sublime nature that has continued to amaze people throughout the ages.
The paintings evolved into poetic portraits with Birds signifying qualities we all share and long for as human beings in this amazing life on earth. Flight...sustenance...family...perseverance…splendor…. Birds embody an ineffable essence of what we recognize but cannot name.
Birds (etc) is an exhibition about the beauty, the mystery and the mythology of Birds as well as their kinship to humanity. The multi-layered, colorful textured paintings in this collection describe both the physical beauty of Birds as well as their underlying sublime nature that has continued to amaze people throughout the ages.
cynthia schildhauer
March, 2006
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