The birds.. are the keepers of our secrets

Sitting listening to the birds just moments after the solar eclipse, I realise how they have been my theme for this week. Do you ever have weeks where an object, a word or an idea keeps coming to you, asking to be considered? Well birds have approached me this week. 

Just to be clear, I am no ornithologist. I can just about identify a pigeon, a magpie and an owl. I am intrigued by the idea of birds though - the freedom, the notion of caging, the ability to fly anywhere but staying local. I have just finished a fabulous book called The Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzeman. It carries themes of loneliness, chosen isolation, redemption, it's pretty intense! But it also tells the story of an artist who had a very poignant experience in his formative years involving a caged bird and a woman he loved. Throughout his entire career as an artist, this bird featured somewhere in every painting. It made me wonder, if I were an artist, what would appear in every painting of mine?

Walking through the woods earlier this week, I was listening to the different calls passing back and forth like an elaborate game that only the birds knew the rules of. I may of course be mistaken but, give one or two pitch variations, each bird seemed to be making the same sound pattern repeatedly. They sounded to my untrained ear as though they were only able to 'say' one thing over and over. Despite what seemed to be an overwhelming limitation, they were incredibly enthusiastic in producing their given phrase over and over. Now, don't take me for a fool, I know there are probably readers out there screaming at me that these calls are a multi-coloured canvas of mating, filial and location signals. But at the end of the day, the sound is pretty much the same. It made me think, if I were a bird, what would my given phrase be? And would I be able to give that phrase renewed excitement every day? 

What on earth would I be happy to paint and say for the rest of my days?