I’ve been staring at the spine of Audubon’s Birds of America (Popular Edition, 1950) on my shelf for the past few weeks, and now that the weather has warmed and the warblers and grebes and other migratory birds are either returning or passing through, it seems a fitting time to do a Three Things on our feathered friends. I have for you this week a John Martin painting, a photograph by Manuel Presti (which won him the 2005 Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, and which you may recognize from Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky album cover), and, of course, an Audubon.
I thought about pulling out a poem or excerpt featuring fowl, but I’ve decided I’d rather hear your picks instead. What are your favorite bird-related pieces?
John Martin, Assuaging of the Waters, 1840. Oil on canvas. Church of Scotland General Assembly, Edinburgh.
Manuel Presti, Sky Chase, 2005. Photograph. Taken in Rome, Italy.
John James Audubon, Little Blue Heron, Plate 23. From Audubon’s Birds of America. Popular Edition. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1950.
And here’s a bonus thing, because let’s face it: birds can be sinister, sometimes, too. (Disclaimer: if birds frighten you, you probably shouldn’t click.)
OK, I admit, I’m really just looking for an excuse to tell you about this book I have: Remo Bufano’s Book of Puppetry, edited and compiled by Arthur Richmond in 1950. I know next to nothing about the world of puppetry, but according to the preface, Mr. Bufano was a high-profile puppeteer who also wrote how-to books, before succumbing to a “tragic death.” Those two little words were enough to make me throw down the book and run to the nearest Google machine to learn the details of this tragedy, but alas, while certainly tragic (as I suppose most deaths are), the story had none of the mystery and intrigue I was hoping for. (Before you look it up for yourself, write your own version. I promise you it will be more exciting.)
But back to the book: it’s peppered with illustrations (by Mr. Bufano himself). And with captions like “Manipulation of Puppets” and “Positions of Control,” I couldn’t help but imagine slightly sinister undertones (which is probably why my brain went all detective at the word “death”).
And so I bring you Three Things, Puppet Edition. We have possibly creepy puppets, which in a not-so-roundabout-way reminded me of the always superb Anatomy of a Murder title sequence by Saul Bass, and a Francesco Gattoni photograph to close.
Richmond, Arthur., ed. Remo Bufano’s Book of Puppetry. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1950.
Anatomy of a Murder. Dir. Otto Preminger. Columbia Pictures, 1959. Title design by Saul Bass.
Photograph by Francesco Gattoni (Florence, Italy 1996). Image © Francesco Gattoni.
