Artist’s statement about drawing and birds’ nests

Seymour Remenick, my mentor and friend, helped me to understand that all that is surprising already exists in Nature. I have found this to be true. This is why I look no further than a bird’s nest.  Like all things in Nature, the nest is a synthesis of opposites: simplicity within complexity, strength within fragility. The nest is a spontaneous creation; It is practical; It is eternally inventive in its use of materials. No two are alike. They are an inspiration to all who observe them.

However, It is the meaning of nests that resonates most with me. The cycle of life is within them. They speak to our most deeply held aspirations. They are sanctuary in an often forbidding world. I frequently think of how we are all nesting in our arts, gathering twigs, winter leaves, husks, strings, plastic straws….how we are all weaving strands to poems, threads for stories, colors for music, pure notes for our various expressions.

I cannot help hearing Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen ways of looking at a Blackbird”

I do not know which to prefer,

The Beauty of Inflections

Or the Beauty of innuendoes,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.