Thursday, February 16, 2012

Nests for Humans


Just recently finished this illustration for Ranger Rick magazine to accompany instructions on nest building. That sounds like such a fun idea; I think I will try it this spring. There's an amazing artist, Patrick Dougherty, whose work is shown below, who does installations that are essentially large scale nests. I'm currently reading Survival of the Beautiful by David Rothenberg, which  also includes a discussion with Patrick about what he has learned from the bowerbird.  The male bowerbird goes to extremes to create his art, and actually paints the structures as well as traveling many miles to find just the right decorating accents... but I will save that story for another post. The book is fascinating reading; I highly recommend it.
 
Patrick Dougherty

2 comments:

Jim Paillot said...

Debbie, amazingly beautiful artwork. Hey, I have seen Dougherty's work -- it is incredible. I wonder if he has assistants because some of his pieces look so work intensive.

Debbie Palen said...

thanks! Yes; he does have assistants. It would be a labor of love I would think.