Q: To start, can you talk a little bit about the behind the scenes process? How did you put this altogether(programs, printing, medium)? Was it intended to be for a few friends, mass publication, or somewhere in between?

A:First I want to say that I love making little books like this. Its really nice having a collection or a theme, and being able to reproduce it in some way and share it with other people.

This book came into existence as a result of an itch to make a zine over the last few months. I had been drawing feathers at the time and it seemed like a perfect match. The original drawings are ink and watercolor. I scanned them into photoshop before printing and copying them. I have a funny method that involves cutting out little rectangles of paper, numbering them and taping them back together to get the printer layout. The final product is 4 in x 5 in, saddle stitched, 36 pages long with 31 full color drawings – to be exact.

When I was putting this book together I guessed the audience would be pretty small, but the beauty of the reproduction process is that that fact can change.

Q: What attracted you to feathers in the first place?

A:I’ve always been a bit of a naturalist, observing and investigating interesting things. Feathers are no exception. Their beauty and complexity is inspiring.

Q: Are the renderings in Feather Collection from real or imaginary feathers? (I would assume that you imagined them because some of them are really strange, but nature sometimes fools you)

A:Most of these drawings are based at least in some part on a real feather. The colors veer much further from the truth than the forms do. Some of the original references are more obvious than others, like the peacock and hawk feathers. Some of the drawings look completely made up, but are actually just absolutely wild evolutionary adaptations, like as the King of Saxony Bird-of-Paradise head plumage. There are just a couple that are totally imagined.

Q: It brings to mind Audobon’s “Birds of America”, do you consider this to be both a scientific and artistic collection?

A: I’d say this book is a bit of an abstract field guide – with a purpose other than identification. A lot of the feathers are drawn with reference to real feathers I’ve observed during my walks around town. City birds – pigeons, sea gulls, crows, sparrows – are such a part of everyday experiences for people in urban areas. The drawings are not meant to be a reference to a real thing, per say, but to call to attention the observation of urban wildlife that is part of our lives.

Q: What are others projects of yours focus on the collecting process?

A: I find much of my work involves a collection process, whether its things found in nature or images or ideas. I often do work that has a lot of little parts to make up a greater whole. I just finished a project of a collection of teeth.

Posted by: matt o. under Show and Tell