In 2019, Dianne Ayres and I collaborated on an artwork, Letters of Transit: Bird Passports. We made a limited edition of ten copies (one may still be available), but recently also made a "guide" which is a kind of facsimile of the pages of text with photos of the project: Letters of Transit: A Reader's Guide, that you can get for $20 on Lulu.com. (The title is a wink, of course, to the film Casablanca.)
During the Arts & Crafts era, embroiderers made bags for myriad items; the bags brought attention and beauty to everyday items. Our bag, which opens into a nest, binds together letterpress printed passports and handprinted wooden eggs, a reminder that each bird is an individual being with its own life path, and a symbol of our responsibility to the environment and to creatures other than ourselves.
And now, the video! Both of us read from the project, and I've added birdsongs as well. Gather up your breadcrumbs and a sip of water (or cup of tea) and settle in: it's a nearly ten-minute long exploration and features seven birds: Osprey, Mallard, Green Heron, Black Oystercatcher, American Coot, White-tailed Kite, and Anna's Hummingbird.
Letters of Transit: Bird Passports
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