About the Work:

During the Covid lockdown of 2021 I was part of a writing group, one of the monthly challenges was to write a piece about an animal or bird, I chose a starling. I chose to write a poem. The poem written in the shape of a murmuration can be seen below.

The painting was created later that year and its method of making was inspired by Max Ernst’s painting “The Kiss”, a painting I love, Ernst sometimes used string or cord, throwing them onto the canvas to create random shapes for his paintings and from those random shapes he would create a painting.

“Embrace” has a similar randomness to the shapes within; while researching starlings and murmuration, I found a video of a murmuration on YouTube and froze it at three points to capture different outline of the same murmuration. These were then superimposed on top of each other to form the shapes from which the painting grew. 

In the final drawing, there was the impression of a child being cradled, reminiscent of the Kath Kollwitz drawing of a mother and dead child. I wanted something more general and so preferred to imagine a seed embrace by the landscape.

Reflecting how as a species this planet provides a habitable environment for us, which despite natural disasters provided a place in which we can thrive.

 Today however we seem intent on making that survival more difficult with our actions and this planet provides enough food for everyone could provide shelter for everyone to live reasonably well but we seem unable to manage this. I am aware it is a complex issue but when the resources are there sometimes, I wish we, (and that includes myself), could do better.

                                                                      The Starling   

                                                                  A  vagrant ….  hellion …. No.

                                       Reconsider your dreams,  .. think again,  .. look again     

                                             see the colours and shapes that I bring to being.

      Iridescent hues of lilacs, greens and blue, all concealed within dull expectation.               

                                                             Patterns, … born in the evolution of flight

            feather upon feather, layer upon layer, marking me out for that which I am.

            And as evening implicates heaven and earth, we, in common purpose wait,

                                         Row upon row, upon wire, upon tree,                       

                                                  to savour the act of communion … eager,

                                                                                          Waiting for the bold one.

                                                                                      Stay a while, watch us take flight,

                                                                                                See .. and hear,

                                           tens upon hundreds upon thousands of murmuring wings

                                                   create a spectacle to which those within are blind,

                             unaware of the singular wonder they bring to life at days end,

                                As shape begets shape, layer, upon layer, upon layer.

                  Like the starling,

   I see not the whole of which I am part,

                             but imagine it, I can; conceive of it and relish it I can,

                        and with the hunger of famine I do,

                    that for me is the joy …. in being this man.

                                                                                                   Malcolm J Tait