Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

From the archives come these images of faux-birds made at the Falls of the Ohio.  In an earlier post, I had mentioned suspending my birds from waste fishing line to try to create the illusion of a flying bird.  Here are images from one day’s experiment when the wind was blowing a bit more than usual.  I also used a piece of aluminum wire and fashioned eyehooks and s-hooks to do the hanging.  In most of them, the fishing line is really obvious and to my mind…kind of funny in a no-tech sort of way.

I call this one the “Flying Kingfisher”.  It’s made from Styrofoam, driftwood, coal, and plastic.  The wings are fragments from the lids of minnow buckets used to carry live bait.  The next bird is a Chickadee or something!

This “Flying Styro-chickadee” was made with my son, Adam’s help.  It now flies from the dining room’s chandelier in a small flock of other birds.

As a boy, I made many plastic model airplanes that are out of fashion now.  You know…the ones where you had to read the instructions and carefully glue the pieces together.  The Styro-birds have the same feel to me as when I made those plastic models.  I bet I made at least one kit representing just about every type of aircraft flown in both the world wars.  I also remember painting them to look as authentic as possible.   These birds, however, are as is and made from junk I collected along the Ohio River.