Spring is here and when I walk outside, the song birds are in full throttle! It’s such a joy to hear them and watch them. I have a couple of feeder areas and love seeing who comes!  We have a category in our Marketplace for “Birds and Wings” which includes insects, bats, angels and anything else that has wings. It’s a fun category to explore.

I have six parakeets and a finch who are caged in a room. I can hear them all day. Sometimes I feel sad for them, that they are not outside, flying freely, but they were all born in captivity and would not survive. They sound really happy…  Are they? This quote rings true to me:

“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that’s all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.”

― Stephen King, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

 

Here are three favorites from our members:

Encaustic and oil of a falcon by Linnea Pergola.

Linnea is an amazing and versatile artist. This piece uses an interesting technique where she paints with oils on an encaustic background (mixture of bees wax and parafin).  She is especially known for her riotous travel paintings, colorful mélanges of scenes from her travels. She is also a lover of horses and many of her works feature this magnificent creatures. Linnea is using our cart to sell her work.  You can also visit her website to see more. 

Details on The Falcon

“Wings are of many kinds. Butterfly’s wings, vulture’s wings, eagle-wings, spread wings of white swans, dragonfly’s serene wings, wings of albatross, lovely wings of humming birds, tiny wings of a fly or a bumble-bee-wings; and when they fly, they fly their best according to their ability of flying. We should not underestimate the size of those heavenly wings.”
― Munia Khan

Amazon Ecology Woven Cardinal

Cardinals are not native to the Amazon, but I have a lot of them in my yard and this little guy catches their eager expression so well!  It was hand woven with natural chambira palm fiber by talented artisans from CACE partner villages in the Maranon, Ampiyacu, Tahuayo, and Ucayali Rivers.  Amazon Ecology is a wonderful program with craft production as one part of their overall goals. They have a whole bunch of woven creatures on their site, originally intended as ornaments. I think they would also look great hanging on a car mirror or get several to make a mobile!

See all of their woven palm creatures here.

“. . . Like ashes of gold in a cinnamon-flame,
My youthful desires have been burnt with the years–
And tonight in the chilling sunset-wind
A cicada, singing, weighs on my heart.”
― Haoran Meng

CiCiCicadaaaaah by Doughty Designs

For some reason, this little art quilt by Eileen Doughty captured my attention. I like the composition, the colors, textures and that face.  We have cicadas in late summer who scream their hearts out….  OK, I know that it’s their wings, not voices, making the clamor, but still…

Eileen is an innovator, constantly exploring new techniques. She is known for her machine embroidered sculptures, a fascinating technique! She is using our cart for her sales, so if you would like to purchase Cicada, you can see the details here.  And, look at the rest of her shop on Artizan Made to see what else she has listed. Visit her website to learn more about her and to see more work.

Birds and Wings from our Marketplace

This is a random selection from this category. Visit Birds and Wings to see more.