I have become quite birdlike over the last two days. While photographing bird nests in trees on 4th Ave with my son, we came across a chicken wire basket sitting on a post. Both of us at the same time said, "it would make a great birds nest". So today we went to the park and built a bird nest with the basket. It was such a fun and fulfilling experience. My husband and son ran around Ambleside Park collecting twigs and I arranged them into a nest. I didn't realize how much I had studied the construction of nests until I built one from twigs. My visual memory bank allowed me to structure it in a very similar fashion to the birds.
I just love it. I hope that the curators that see my nest series next week love it too. It is truly a mobile home. It is really big with the longest twig being 36". The chicken wire basket that it began with is hardly visible.
My son is working on a nest series in photos. He hopes to suspend photos on a wire in a gallery not frame them in frames. The suspension creating a visual duplication of the suspension of the nests in the trees.
Here are images of my nest building and photos of nests by Trint Thomas.
