Birds Of A Feather
2010 - 8"x10" Acrylic, graphite, charcoal, paper, on wood panel.
Finished with three coats of Krylon Kamar Varnish #1312
(Private Collection - New Jersey)

August 21, 2010

Birds of a feather flock together
And so will pigs and swine.
Rats and mice will have their choice
And so will I have mine.

This painting was created for an upcoming exhibit called "The Nursey Rhyme Project", opening October 23, 2010 at the Outsider Art Gallery in Frenchtown, New Jersey. The exhibit will feature artwork from 24 artists with portions of art sales going to the Arts Council of Princeton, which provides free arts education for at-risk youth. Artwork from the exhibit will also be included in a book.

I often use the Brooklyn Rail newspaper as collage material and create poetry from the newspaper text. I did a variation on that with this painting. From the Brooklyn Rail website, I searched their database for all the words in the nursery rhyme and then included sections of those articles in the painting. If you look at the photo below, you will see the circled words. After I completed the painting and referenced "Birds of A Feather", I realized there was an error. It's supposed to be "...so will pigs" and my painting has "....so do pigs".