Bird Watchers # 2 Mixed media on paper 2016

This work was part of the "Vivificatur" exhibition held in 2016 and is included in the catalog: "Vivificatur" ISBN 978-989-608-190-4

One day as I drove along the road that surrounded the dunes of Crismina near the westernmost point of Europe, I glimpsed in the distance what seemed to me to be a group of people lying on a dune, motionless and fixing something in the distance like hunters who patiently awaited the right moment to catch prey. I stopped ahead and tried to figure out what was going on since the idea of ​​having hunters in this area was impossible. As I approached I began to realize that the intruder was me there because these people did not use any kind of weapon but just a few binoculars. It was at that moment that I realized that there was an activity that consisted of doing nothing and just stand and wait to see birds that stopped by. Like many other people I also had my experiences in this field. I particularly recall a fabulous moment that happened next to a small lake in the area where we have a cottage, while I dried in the sun after a magnificent bath, I watched a long flight of a colorful bird above the water mirror. It is difficult to describe the harmony that the situation conveyed, the elegance of the movements seemed an elaborate choreography and not something spontaneous.

One of my favorite writers, Jonathan Frenzen, states: "I'm spending the second half of my life as a bird-watcher." And in an interview with National Geographic magazine explains his reasons:

"But the real turning point came in Central Park [in New York City] during the spring migration. Some relatives who are bird-watchers took me out. I thought I knew the park, but there, right in the middle of crowds of people, was a bird I'd never seen before. My relatives pointed it out and said, "That is a veery." This lovely cinnamon-toned thrush was only there probably for the day. To see it there so unexpectedly opened my eyes to a different dimension of the world."