Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2009SYR09
Purchase Details
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
A Crowd of Crows Fly
poster information
Description
A crowd of crows fly
in the winter sky, searching
for shelter in snow
I wrote this haiku in response to a newspaper article about open war on crows in Auburn.I was troubled by the idea of shooting crows randomly. There should be a better way of dealing with these creatures.
As a bird lover I have always been stunned by the powerful presence crows bring in nature. No wonder so many visual and verbal artists use the common crow as a muse.
I could visualize crowds of crows in the severe winter sky of Central New York. Where will they rest?
I wanted to create an image primarily in black and white because, with winter and snow and crows, these are the primary colors. So I looked at a lot of Japanese ink paintings—sumi. I took that for inspiration and decided to work in charcoal, which I don't usually use.
I did a charcoal drawing, then inverted it in Photoshop, so it was like a negative. The black became white and the white became black. I wanted the background to be dark, like a night sky. Then I added some color to give it a bit more depth.
Usually I work more realistically and tighter. I tried to make my piece in a way that I hadn't done before. It was interesting to work outside my comfort zone.