Lark & Key Gallery’s 15th anniversary exhibit is called Avian and it’s all things birds. I am so happy to be part of this gallery and to be in their 15th year anniversary exhibit. The painting I sent to be included in this show is a mixed media piece on canvas of a Mockingbird. When I first blogged about it, I included a poem called The Mockingbird by Mary Oliver and I’ll put it in again because I love it so much!
All summer
the mockingbird
in his pearl-gray coat
and his white-windowed sings
flies
from the hedge to the top of the pine
and begins to sing, but it’s neither
lilting nor lovely,
for he is the thief of other sound–
whistles and truck brakes and dry hinges
plus all the songs
of other birds in his neighborhood;
mimicking and elaborating,
he sings with humor and bravado,
so I have to wait a long time
for the softer voice of his own life
to come through. He begins
by giving up all his usual flutter
and settling down on the pine’s forelock
then looking around
as though to make sure he’s alone;
then he slaps each wing against his breast,
where his heart is,
and copying nothing, begins
easing into it
as though it was not half so easy
as rollicking,
as though his subject now
was his true self,
which of course was as dark and secret
as anyone else’s,
and it was too hard–
perhaps you understand–
to speak or to sing it
to anything or anyon
but the sky.
Avian runs from February 1st through March 31st. Exhibit can be viewed online. Locals to the Charlotte, NC area, can make appointments to view in person.