‎4 the Birds - Nature Haiku

‎4 the Birds - Nature Haiku

Birds whistle bright tunes
greeting dawns awakening
fly away too soon
...
Gambel Quail mom leads
dashing bush to bush quickly
chicks all in a line

Kingfisher dives strong
swiftly strikes its catch splashing
dripping wings fly high

Red tailed hawk on high
circling flowing wind tunnel
sharp eyes are watching

Wings constant motion
carries hummingbird to find
nectar filled blossum

Roadrunner wrestling
coils of rattlesnake winding
dodging poison strike

Great blue heron perch
high over flowing river
watching waiting dive

Bird of arid home
nests in cactus saguaro
prickly spines protect

Cactus Wren

Kayak meanders
the rivers way exploring
eagle soars above

Willow Flycatcher
migrate to / fro Mexico
fitzbew, fitzbew, whit

Tweet, chirp, whistle, scream
twitter, croak, caw, warble, bark
chortle, peep, laugh, cheep

High desert visit
Nests of twigs grass pine
Tanagers arrive in spring

Little bird sings big
songs of joy and flirtation
not for long alone

Heron perches high
in tall trees over river
where fish swim and hide

Kingfisher dives swift
spearing shy silver shadows
disappears on high

Nectar sweet flowing
red blossums nodding with breeze
hummingbird sipping

Cactus wren alights
on prickly pear at sunrise
watching for insects

Desert dawn rising
roadrunner skimming desert
fine dust cloud follows

EARTH DAY & 4 THE BIRDS APPROACHETH...

Yep this weekend is the manmade Earth Day for Earth, got any plans??? I will be in Camp Verde at the Cliff Castle Casino at our SolarWorks Both selling solar. Now is Earth Day and Casino an oxymoron???

Then Sunday at the Sedona Performing Arts Center doing the same thing with a group of 'greenies' promoting environmental awareness and education and featuring the screening of 'AVATAR' haven't found my braided head dress yet so may not go with the blue tights and paint either... we'll see.

And next weekend is the birding festival, just posted abour 16 Bird Haiku for the Haiku Tree at Nature Gallery.  Speaking of which we can still use some folks to help out for that weekend 26th thru 29th making mud pies/sculpture and other natural works of art or displaying art about nature... Come on out and introduce yourself at DeadHorse Ranch State Park.  The Nature Gallery will be right by the aviary!

or you can get more info at my website at www.WendyHarford.com/calendar

NATURE GALLERY 2012 For The Birds

April 26th thru 29th at Dead Horse Ranch State Park, Cottonwood, Arizona. at Verde Birding & Nature Festival
Join us in creating a sand painted 'Thunderbird Mandela' or reating  'Banner Art' about birds along this Desert Riparian Habitat, or how about adding to our chicken wire 'Weaving Wall', create your own pictograph/grafiti on the Earth Plaster wall using burnt sticks and ground earth pigments, pounding yucca leaf brushes, feather art or display a piece of your own Art 'For The Birds'!

Here are some pix of the September NATURE GALLERY at Verde River Days - same location:

'STONE EAGLE' PAPIER MACHE & EARTH PLASTER SCULPTURE

'STONE EAGLE' is a life size open wing span eagle with an Arizona Trout in its talons. Made of recycled newsprint/papier mache to be finished with a coat of

local dirt, flour and water 'Earth Plaster and powder

Earth/Mineral Pigment.

FEATHER ART & JEWELRY

Another way to have fun with Nature Medium is collecting your chicken or other bird feathers. You can buy package feathers for making fishing lures, or google and find them online, but its a real treasure to find both edible, useable eggs and beautiful feathers in your own back yard!

Here are some samples of my TV/Movie Therapy & Creative Play Day pieces of Feather Art - For The Birds

I use recycled copper wire from used/damaged electric cords, colored fibers, ribbon, recycled beads and objects to mix and match for some wonderful hair pieces and objects.  Old barrettes and head bands with feathers attached by winding copper wire around it, a drop of fabric glue to finish.

Egg Tempera



Big Roo & Lady Friend 'Courtship' Egg T on Metal Tub Bottom

This is so fun and rewarding, of course it does need one of those not so earth friendly finish coats to protect, or behind glass in protected environment.

• Get 2 or 3 live hens - no really, they are part of the rewarding process (well OK not a must but FRESH eggs are!) and the feathers for jewelry are great too!
• Get out a small and clean glass jar
• Gently crack an egg and seperate white from egg (any good cook can show you how) by rocking the egg back and forth, very gently, between broken shell. DONT BREAK THE YOLK.
• Gently place the seperated whole yolk onto a dry cloth and roll it around gently to get any white off
• Have a sharp pointy knife at hand. Now pick up the yolk gently between your fingers (yes this is doable I do it all the time)
• Holding the plump round golden yolk over the jar, gently polk it with the knife and let it drain into the jar DONT DROP THE YOLK SACK IN!
• Add an equal amount of filtered/sterile water (keeps longer) and about 4 drops of white vinegar per yolk.
• I store this medium in my fridge (though I have been told it won't store well) it lasts about a week - and egg yolks do get stinky when they go off...
• When you are ready for paint, the best thing you can do is have several small glass bottles or old plastic film cases (remember them0
• Put about a 1/2 tsp of mineral or earth pigment into the bottom and start adding drops of the egg medium until you have the consistency you desire (not too thick or it may crack as it drys)
• Now paint away on just about any prepared surface and enjoy the intensity of color and textures you can get with nature's mediums

Andy Goldsworthy

Check out these works of 'Nature Art' by some of the best and let me know what you think?

http://www.morning-earth.org/artistnaturalists/an_goldsworthy.html  my personal favorite!
http://www.natureartists.com/ 

• Can you share other 'Nature Artists / Art' if so who and where?
• Are you an Artists?
• What is your main medium?
• Have you worked with 'Earth Plaster'
• Do you have any suggestions on earth friendly mediums to share? Please do!

My thoughts?  Sometimes we think we do art for nature but what we use to create the art is a destructor of Nature: mined pigments, chemical processing and finish, smeltering, casting, mining, firing/energy loss...