I have been putting out food for the local Anna's hummingbirds for several years, and for whatever reason every year the birds disappear from my backyard from about March to June. They are a nonmigratory species so this is a head scratcher as they definitely migrate from my yard. In June, usually a male is sighted first, and by fall I tend to see two males and two females. It's May, still the absent season, so to keep the birds with me, and thinking about a call for "pollinator" quilts, I've drawn and created stencils of the hummingbirds and my sage bush. Four females and one male are depicted here. A first iteration of the hummingbird quilt did not capture my feeling for them. This one does.
A Charm
19.75"w x 22"h
Hand painted and stenciled linen; embroidery; seed beads
Details:
And the back:
The title was taking a while to hear in my head, so I checked on the collective noun for hummingbirds to nudge me along: a charm, a shimmer, a bouquet. Those seem right. Their beauty conceals the fact that they are actually solitary and aggressive creatures, each working independently to sustain themselves and the plants around them. And us.
*
Comments