Courtship
Courting behavior takes on many dimensions; from boys pulling my hair when I was ten ..my mother said it was because they liked me–but it still hurt…..to girls putting on lipstick and mascara.
Bird behavior is also interesting.
We have four nesting pairs of cardinals that seem to return every year to our yard. They begin to whistle at about 4_30 in the morning–still very dark outside–perhaps awake by the driving by of the newspaper delivery. Throughout the day they whistle—is it…look at me because I’m the best there is? or is it ,..look at me. I have the best wife and that proves I am the best? or is it…this is MY place—go away?
I’ll never know what those birds are thinking but sometimes I get a glimpse of a baby cardinal sitting outside my sewing room window.
Last year or maybe the year before, I captured three grackles sitting on a railing at Cat-Tail Marsh all displaying their evident worthiness as a mate to all the flying by females who did not seem to be impressed.
I’ve used that image several times and now it is on a donation piece for SAQA’s spotlight auction at their annual conference.
Sometimes I use the opportunity of a donation piece to try something different. This piece uses tiny scraps of an intricately and accurately pieced quilt top from the forties—I used the rest of it to make a jacket and other backgrounds; a machine appliqued bird with some hand-embroidery.
In some ways it is not much of a departure but using birds as a subject matter instead of people is.
Sylvia Weir Art 