The first of these is from the “Why gild the lily?” department. I guess that since this isn’t totally covered with shells and glitter it’s kind of tame by our local standard, but I still think that, for such a wee little thing, the frame is a bit overmuch.
Maybe I’m wrong here? The overall effect is oddly ironic and maybe a little self-absorbed. Like a hipster. Only smaller and avian. Let’s take a closer look.
At this resolution, we can actually see that, like the majestic marble statues of ancient Greece, this little guy was originally brightly colored and festive, but time wore away his gaudy paint to reduce him to a stately, timeless grandeur. Or maybe he was just sucking on a lemon SqueezyIce after trying to rinse a hard day at the slaughterhouse out of his feathers. That’s a grin that says, to me, “Pass me another one of them there tasty OtterPops, I’ve just sent 50 head of cattle to the Good Shepherd.”
Some of you will catch the fact error in that last sentence. There is no lemon-flavored otterpop. In which case, what was the bird eating?
Onward!
Why I titled this picture “Savers South Lamar Peacock” is totally beyond me. It’s obviously a blue-tufted titmouse.
Check that, it’s probably another budgie.
I’ll give a LOT of credit to the person that framed this. It’s got an element of clever to it. The lace against the matboard says “See, here, we cleverly juxtapose the simplistic and the ornate, in a manner not entirely unreminiscent of the stylings of the later Rococo artist, Eernst Van-Der-Whööl-Shockley in his ‘Doiley’ period, but with a surly cardinal.” And you’d be RIGHT. The blue-black border around the red matting offsets the sullen red-and-black of the bird. And the half-revealed backing board at the top of the piece…well, that’s probably just basic “who gives a damn.” But the overall effect? Striking.
“I have no feet, yet I must perch.”
We have eaten one too many of those strange berries, which hang more like pearls on a thin chain than any sort of fruit I’ve seen. Maybe this particular cardinal only eats idealized berries. That’s why he’s so damned fat.
The title placard at the bottom is for the really, really dim.
Pointy bird, o pointy pointy from Goodwill on 2222. Peacock from the Savers on South Lamar.
2 Responses to “Odd birds”
These two birds represent happy and grumpy and now I will be on a quest for the other five dwarves in thrift art form. I love a project as silly as that!
Go forth! Thrift junk is at least a cheap hobby :)