Series Statement
Two lesbian monk parrots helped me understand grief.
Jodi is a green monk parrot who came to live at a wildlife sanctuary after being abandoned by a string of owners. Monk parrots mate for life and the separation caused her to be vicious and to pluck almost all of her feathers out. It wasn’t until a wild blue monk parrot was rescued for a broken wing and paired in Jodi’s sanctuary that the two bonded. Jodi became happy. Her feathers grew back. The two fell in love.
Monk Parrots is an ongoing series where these highly intellectual and social creatures serve as allegories for the human experience: loss, redemption and feeling alien within your own community. Delicate slivers of paper become scenes of escaped pets thousands of miles from their indigenous habitats perched throughout suburban Long Island landscapes. This work also questions the ascribed labels of “wildlife” versus “domesticated” and “human society” versus “the wild”.
When contending these two ideas the final message of my work is hopeful - life adapts and survives in ever-changing environments.
