HOME
COVER STORY
CALENDAR
SHOWTIMES
DINING GUIDE

NEWS
MUSIC
FILM
BOOKS
THEATRE
ART

CLASSIFIEDS
PERSONALS

CONTACT
FEEDBACK
ADVERTISE

The Words of Birds

The chirping of birds signifying the arrival of spring means more than nicer weather for local artist Rena Burns; they are the sounds from which she draws the inspiration for her artwork and an important metaphor for her life.
Burns is one the youngest members of St. Catharines’ CRAM art gallery, and her latest exhibit entitled In Calling explores the birdsongs of warblers as a means of connecting birds to humans. The installation consists of six drawings and mixed media pieces that reflect her experiences growing up in the ravines and feeding birds in her backyard each spring.
“My family has always been into bird watching, my parents especially. So birds are more of an intuitive thing for my work. Some people use birds to represent flight and that sort of thing, whereas the concept for my work lies mostly within their behaviours,” said Burns. “I think that my connection with birds is a result of me being raised to pay attention to those things in nature I suppose. I’ve always lived my life with awareness for things that are going on around me and birds are more a metaphor for my own growth and change, as a means for myself to connect to the world around me.”
Collection is a theme that is evident in much of Burns’ work, and In Calling looks at the nesting processes of birds as they collect materials each spring. The drawings in the exhibit are created on natural objects such as the leaves of silver dollar plants, one of Burns’ materials that she has collected over time.
“Every spring, it’s just habitual that my family and I put out bits of string for the birds to collect. One of my works in the exhibition has the string pinned into the drawings as well. It’s about that behaviour of myself offering the string, so I am contributing something to their existence,” she said. “I find myself just instinctually collecting things, like the silver dollars used in the exhibit which are things that I collected along the way and eventually just decided to use in my work.”

Page 1/...Page 2

    
Email Story
    
Print Story

.......................

previous art stories...

ONE CHIAM - Moon (12”)

Mains Don

Celebrating 33 Years of Art, Tobey C. Anderson