This is one of my favorite pieces. Creating it was cathartic as I realized, once again, the power of fierce love. It is based upon the true story that I mention in my blog ... the story of a family that was suddenly thrown into despair when the mother fell from a rooftop and became paralyzed from the waist down. With three young sons, she fell into depression and sadness after coming home from the hospital in a wheelchair. One day, her middle boy discovered a fledgling magpie lying in the road. He brought it home and the family raised it with loving care. The bird brought the family great joy, lifting them out of sadness and despair. It lived with them for three years which were lovingly photographed by the father and later turned into a documentary published by the BBC.
In fact, some of the photos in the documentary were inspiration for my blackbird art. They speak to me of the unexpected and unconditional love that some of us are lucky enough to have in life.
"Just imagine the boy wanting to fly like his best friend, the blackbird. And imagine the bird teaching him, but with a safety net to catch him should he fall. That's a love story."
Painting
On a large canvas, I painted a midsummer's day blue sky and let it dry while I moved to my watercolor drawing board. There I painted the boy leaping into the air with his arms outstretched as if trying to fly like his friend, the bird, on heavy BFK Rives watercolor paper.
After the watercolor was completely dry, I carefully tore the paper surrounding the boy and the bird out from the rest of the sheet of paper. Watercolor paper tears roughly, leaving beautiful textural edges. I use this technique frequently to achieve a lifting of the torn edges and resulting shadow beneath.
Stitching
Do you remember leaping into the air as a child from a diving board or trampoline and feeling the kinetic energy in your fingertips reaching out into the sky? I clearly remember that sensation. That is what I was trying to create with the stitching lines from the boy's fingertips to the edge of the canvas.
The stitching was done with black artificial sinew. Lastly, I sewed on the crocheted netting with embroidery thread, stretching it tightly to span the length of the boy's flight.
Note: The above photo came out darker than the actual painting, but I wanted to show the torn paper shadowing in the closeup.