Brave Birds

White Maude

Description

In Brave Birds, cut-paper artist and writer Maude White presents an entirely new collection of sixty-five stunning cut-paper birds. As a source of inspiration, each bird is paired with an original message of kindness and strength associated with its particular traits to encourage bravery and perseverance. Inside, you'll find birds for experiencing Joy, Creativity, Patience, Kindness, Resilience, Communication, Strength, Awareness, Action, and Transformation, and each composition reflects thousands of intricate cuts, lending an astounding level of texture to these delicate and ethereal birds. Appealing to any bird lover or collector of bird art, Brave Birds is a beautiful resource for those wishing to practice a life of kindness and empathy.

Sujets

• Assertiveness

Informations

• Publié par: ABRAMS BOOKS
• Date de parution: 10 avril 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781683352396
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

BRAVE

BIRDS

Inspiration on the Wing

Maude White

abrams image, new york
TABLE OF CONTENTS

preface

Birds I ve Been

5

1.

birds for joy

The Jacana

1 3

The Bowerbird

1 4

The Gray Catbird

1 7

The Skylark

1 8

The Swan

2 1

The Macaw

2 2

The Great Crested Grebe

2 5

2 .

birds for creativity

The Kakapo

2 9

The Nuthatch

3 0

The Hammerhead

3 3

The Red Crossbill

3 4

The Cormorant

3 7

The Bluebird

3 8

3 .

birds for patience

The Great Blue Heron

4 3

The Hen

4 4

The Resplendent Quetzal

4 7

The Carolina Parakeet

4 8

The Scrub Jay

5 1

The Hoopoe

5 2

4 .

birds for kindness

The Crane

5 7

The Oilbird

5 8

The Magpie

6 1

The Duck

6 2

The Tern

6 5

The Mountain Quail

6 6

5 .

birds for resilience

The Seagull

7 1

The Hermit Thrush

7 2

The Pileated Woodpecker

7 5

The Pigeon

7 6

The Whippoorwill

7 9

The Bar-tailed Godwit

8 0
6.

birds for communication

The Black-capped Chickadee

8 5

The Nightingale

8 6

The Flamingo

8 9

The Starling

9 0

The New Caledonian Crow

9 3

The Superb Lyrebird

9 4

7.

birds for strength

The Kiwi

9 9

The Ostrich

1 0 0

The Toucan

1 0 3

The Kingfisher

1 0 4

The Wandering Albatross

1 0 7

The Secretarybird

1 0 8

The Laughing Owl

1 1 1

8 .

birds for awareness

The Eagle

1 1 5

The Puffin

1 1 6

The Bittern

1 1 9

The Swift

1 2 0

The Bananaquit

1 2 3

The Great Horned Owl

1 2 4

The Woodcock

1 2 7

9 .

birds for action

The Hawk

1 3 1

The Killdeer

1 3 2

The Swallow

1 3 5

The Kestrel

1 3 6

The Kagu

1 3 9

The Mousebird

1 4 0

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker

1 4 3

10.

birds for transformation

The American Robin

1 4 7

The Hummingbird

1 4 8

The Emperor Penguin

1 5 1

The Marbled Murrelet

1 5 2

The Cardinal

1 5 5

The Snow Goose

1 5 6

The Bearded Vulture

1 5 9

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1 6 0

BIRDS I VE BEEN

I have loved many birds in my life.

Loved the abstract notion and existence of birds

as much as the physical, tangible birds themselves. Often, the sight or sound of a bird

has given me both bravery and hope.

My love for birds has not always been particular. There are birds I have loved

without knowing their names and birds I have loved for the beauty of their song alone.

Sometimes, all I have needed from a bird has been the flicker of its body, the connection

through sight with a creature unbounded by the physical earth. I have always felt that

looking upward instills hope in those of us tethered to the ground.

At other times, I have gained strength and encouragement from a specific bird,

finding it out in the world, in literature, and ultimately in my own body, as I recognized

those same instincts and skills that I so loved and admired within the bird.

I am a language person, a word person. Words hold power, both alone and

together. In its simplest definition, a bird is an egg-laying, feathered vertebrate. But as

happens so often with language over time,

bird

has also come to refer to both a human

female and a human of either sex possessing peculiar or interesting characteristics.

The usage of the word

bird

to refer to a woman dates from the beginning of

the twentieth century. Independent of that most recent appropriation, there is an older,

Middle English word

burde

that originated in the 1300s to refer to a young female.

That this old, forgotten word has been resurrected in usage and meaning in our present

world both fascinates and moves me.

Unfortunately, this current habit of referring to a woman as a bird grants little

respect to the woman in question. The term implies overfamiliarity and dismissiveness.

This surprises me. After all, birds possess beauty, strength, intelligence, and a wild and

powerful will to survive. They connect us to the sky and the water, realms that we, as

humans, cannot ourselves easily traverse. Birds evolved from dinosaurs! How can one

not feel awe and respect?

5
As with the word

bird

, I am strongly drawn to the word

brave

. By definition,

bravery is generally defined as having or showing courage.

I believe the word

bravery

should be used more often. In today s language, the

word seems to refer to the absence of fear or to physical or dramatic acts of heroism,

making

bravery

, as a concept and a personal experience, impossible for many of us to

ever truly embrace or believe we have achieved. But I believe that myriad small, everyday

acts require bravery and strength and should be honored, celebrated, and appreciated.

The

Brave Birds

idea grew from my wish to claim and reclaim our current cul-

tural definitions of both

bird

and

bravery

. My love for birds knows no constraint. It is a

welcoming, hungry passion that requires neither understanding nor complicity from the

birds themselves. My identification with birds and my reference to us all as brave birds

arises from the hope that we human birds might someday be able to apply to ourselves

the same selfless admiration and love that we feel for literal birds out in the wild and in

the abstract. I want us, as human birds, to be able to feel passion and understanding for

ourselves. I want us to love and experience the simple wonder of

our

existence, just as

we love without judgment the existence of the physical birds we see and hear out in the

world each day. In this way, I believe that we are all brave birds.

Early in 2014, I was attacked. As I healed and recovered, I began drawing and

cutting a great blue heron. During that time I was afraid to leave my home. I was afraid

of the darkness. I was afraid of my own memory and my lack of memory.

As I carefully drew and then cut each feather on the great blue heron, as I

studied and moved around my giant bird creation, I began to feel as if the heron I was

creating was simultaneously becoming a part of my body, investing me with those qual-

ities I admired and loved so much. To this day, I cannot see a great blue heron without

feeling a surge of love and gratefulness. During my recovery, that heron was my friend,

my doctor, and I held his essence in my body as I healed. He was my bird, my concept

of safety and strength.

Five months later I was mugged. The mugging occurred in the daytime, and

soon I found myself falling not only back into my fear of the darkness, but experiencing

new fears of the daylight world as well.

BRAVE BIRDS

6
Again, I turned my knife to cutting a bird. This time, I began work on a girl

and a crow. In the piece the crow was emerging from the woman s face. I wanted this

crow to symbolize the dark and vengeful bird that I wished could come forth to confront

any mugger approaching any seemingly defenseless woman. I wanted this wild, ruthless,

and savage bird to inhabit my shrinking, hesitant body. I wanted this bird to help me

do what I had been unable to: defend myself. The crow was my symbol, my protective

confidante. The crow gave me the strength and the courage to leave my home again.

P R E F A C E

7
I have been many birds in my life. I have been a hummingbird, flying backward

into the past. I have been a barn swallow, quick and sure in decision and strength. I have

been a great blue heron, patient and still in recovery from pain and fear. I have been a

crow, observant and watchful as I questioned decisions and hesitated on great brinks.

Birds, like humans, are many things. They are ruthless. They are collaborative. They are

deceitful. They are loyal. They give gifts. They mourn. Some birds solve problems, some

think analogously, some create new, recursive speech patterns, and some craft tools.

As I cut the brave birds collected in this book, I found myself learning more

about each kind of bird. I began to ask myself, what can this bird teach me? What

strength and self-assurance can I gain by recognizing within myself those survival

strategies that I admire so much in this bird? I began to apply aspects of bird behavior,

strength, and power to my own life, and this has given me comfort and strength and

helped me through some very difficult and confusing times.

BRAVE BIRDS

8
There is a great deal about birds that I do not know. I have found myself

wondering, can we love something that we do not understand? Do we have the right

to experience love for something we do not understand? The answer is a resounding yes .

I realize that in some respects, our love can only be heightened by our lack

of knowledge. We can love the potentiality of birds, love the great, swooning idea of

discovering

knowledge just as much as we love the concrete knowledge we possess now.

I do not know whether birds have moral codes of behavior. I do not know

whether they experience grief or happiness. I do not need to know the answers to

these questions. My love is not contingent on moral affinity. Just so, I do not need to

understand myself or my fellow human birds to recognize that we are all valid beings

and we are all worthy of an attempt to be understood and respected.

Birds have taught me many things. Most importantly, they have taught me that

love grows. They have taught me that if we allow ourselves to love without judgment

or expectation, our love will expand and keep expanding. We can find ourselves loving

beyond our own understanding, beyond our own safe borders. And love is never the

wrong decision.

I believe that we are all connected, that there are ties that bind all creatures and

creations together. Because of this, I believe that all actions, all kindnesses and comforts

can have an impact beyond our understanding. I h