Title

A Brief Moment in Song 21

Creator

Kristen Cooney, Ursinus CollegeFollow

Preview

Student Exhibition Year

2021

Description

One of a series of 49 abstract watercolor on paper panels, each representing a different species of bird encountered by the artist in southeastern Pennsylvania. This panel represents the Blue Jay. Presented as part of the 2021 Annual Student Exhibit in the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College.

Dimensions

8 x 5 inches

Artist Statement

A Brief Moment in Song is a data visualization project depicting watercolor abstractions of 49 North American bird species. Each card represents a species that the artist has encountered thus far in her 2021 exploration of the Southeastern Pennsylvanian outdoors. It is a tribute to the number of complex factors that make such encounters possible, both by the hands of human related systems and the natural history of the birds themselves. Every species has a unique combination of colors, each indicating different behaviors, migration patterns, preferred habitat, and other notable features. Some colors even note the aspects of manmade systems that humans use to better understand a species, such as conservation status. The mixture of vibrant and pastel colors employed serve as evidence to why the artist cherishes such moments with wildlife--for the bird’s song, just like a human lifespan, is beautiful but merely ephemeral in the grand scheme of planet Earth’s existence.

Rights Statement

Copyright of the underlying work is held by the artist. The digital image presented here is for educational purposes only and is not for commercial use.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.