Birds have always held a
fascination with me. Their speed, dexterity, songs, colours and beauty are nature’s art. The prim and proper Victorian era was punctuated with punk style steam power and fantastic inventions, which started the computer age, steam age and industrial age. By
combining the bold, greasy, grungy steam powered objects with the soft, light, colourful feathered bodies of birds, I cross over between the natural world and the
manmade world. By capturing them in digital images and paintings, I feel a sense of freedom.
Photographing birds in flight and using their outline as a starting point, I create birds with knives and swords for feathers, leather straps for chest plates and armour for their head. I
anthropomorphise the birds by adding shoes, hats or clothing. A high resolution scan is taken of the ‘steam-punked’ outline and imported into Photoshop. I create colourful backgrounds using photos of textures, art and natural surfaces.
My images are meant to intrigue, amuse and mystify people. By using bright colour palettes, I intend to attract the viewer,
and the bird’s ‘human’ accoutrements
hold the attention of the viewer and create a
sense of fun. By
blending backgrounds and textures
from a bygone era, the birds seem to belong to a world of their own.
