Art and Biology
John James Audubon was a great artist who created life-sized, highly detailed books of birds. His hand-colored lithographs used vivid colors, and that have stood the test. Additionally, I found the greatest attribute in him to be that he was a failed businessman who never gave up. To see Audubon's birds, it is necessary to touch them.5 And they were. So colorful and life-like. Audubon's negative space, however, has its coherent presence. Within the dimensions of the container-page, the inconvertible expanse of "empty" space- this much real space—is almost as salient as the dimensions of the bird that shares it. Slices of real space, in other words, were delivered to Audubon's subscribers along with the birds. Although some did have backgrounds that added depth, they, in my opinion, didn’t need them; they stood alone and were stunning. But always, for Audubon, the actual size of the bird, with all its tactile and indexical implications, takes priority. Each bird was life-sized, and Audubon eventually developed techniques of composition and coloration that significantly increased the vivacity of his productions.
His pinned-up bird bodies were arranged into poses that, according to the habits of movement Audubon had carefully observed. avoided the stiff artificiality of drawings from stuffed specimens. (Natural language philosophy's emphasis on the transparency of gesture also informed his focus on habitual posture.) The brilliant colors of Audubon's drawings were created using a range of innovative multimedia techniques that blended gouache, watercolor, and graphite.6 A common period admonition against speculation was the phrase "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Audubon's birds are emphatically birds in the hand.7 I first heard this phrase when the famous African American Hip-Hop artist said it in one of his rap songs.
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