Dinosaurs, Chicken Talk, and "Hearabouts"
Thank you Speranza for all that information about the chicken. It gives me more
depth to add in the manifestation of the oily art. It is funny to me that with
all my exposure to exotic animals and dog breeds, that I have never lived in
the presence of a real live chicken. This fact has made painting them more of a
two dimensional mission, and as such, a challenge.
Oops. This is not completely true. My Father saw one of the paintings of a
chicken face recently on the easel and told me a story about myself, this newly
inspired chicken painter. It would seem we were visiting an Aunt's farm in Ohio
and I went out into the yard to play. Meanwhile a big rooster saw me and
started his brutal attack on my little person. Fortunately my Grandmother saw
this and ran to my rescue, grabbed the big bird and promptly ended the attack,
and ended the life of this huge feathered beast with just a quick twist or two.
Since that time, I have not spent time with living chickens. Perhaps some deep
trauma exists within that has drawn me to paint them, as well as David's
conversations with them. Hard to know. What makes us feel the flames of
creation? That though is an entirely different subject, perhaps to be tackled
at another time. :)
There have been times when David in "Hereabouts" refers to his chickens as
little dinosaurs, (seemingly when they are behaving badly). In fact, I had to
Google his implication and found that only recently the scientific community
discovered that indeed, some dinosaurs had feathers and also the unique
wishbone necessary to acknowledge their descendancy. "The Yixian Formation also
yielded Sinosauropteryx, the first physical evidence of a feathered dinosaur.
(IVPP, Beijing)
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaurs-living-descendants-69657706/
True that, David and all, they are descendants of dinosaurs. Delighted. It
would be far too impractical to paint a true to life 11 foot oil painting, but
it would be fun to see a six foot chicken, yes? I seek "funny". ;)
Glad to be aboard, now and again,
Sherrie- the chicken painter, aka lionpainter of
Wake Forest, NC
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of
the world." --John Muir
