"there’s a bluebird in my heart
that wants to get out but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going to let anybody see you.
there’s a bluebird in my heart
that wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders and the grocery clerks
never know that
he’s in there.
there’s a bluebird in my heart
that wants to get out but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there’s a bluebird in my heart
that wants to get out
but I’m too clever, I only let him out at night sometimes
when everybody’s asleep.
I say, I know that you’re there, so don’t be sad.
then I put him back,
but he’s singing a little in there,
I haven’t quite let him die
and we sleep together like that
with our secret pact
and it’s nice enough to make a man weep,
but I don’t
weep, do you?"
-Bluebird, a poem by Charles Bukowski
So I've been keeping a new body of work sort of hidden because I am still experimenting 😉. I've been taking my work in more of a mixed media direction and I'm excited by it!
The title of this new piece is Acknowledgement, and it's inspired by the poem, Bluebird, I encountered recently by Charles Bukowski. For me, Bluebird is about the secret, vulnerable and beautiful parts of the self that we hide. I'm going to do a series of bluebirds that are about acknowledging those parts of ourselves and caring for them and allowing them to be seen.
I hope my art and his poem inspire you to acknowledge the Bluebird in your heart and let him or her out to fly and sing!🐦💙🐦💙🐦💙
This little guy will be up for viewing and for sale at the Cincinnati Learning Collaborative gallery on Woodburn in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati July 2nd-26th.