Hummingbird Box exists in dialogue with the Dutch artist Carel Fabritius's 1654 trompe l’oeil  painting of a goldfinch on a chain.  I am attracted to the tension between the flight of a bird and the restraints of captivity. 

Like lots of bird-lovers, I feed ruby throated hummingbirds every spring and summer and have felt the thrill of having one land on my hand to feed.  They are aerial artists: the idea of one tethered is both fascinating and distressing.  Early colonists in the United States attempted to keep hummingbirds, often without success, as pets, unaware of their need for insect protein in addition to nectar. 

As strictly “New World” birds, they fascinated eighteenth and nineteenth century European collectors, and many of them were stuffed and sent abroad as decoration.  I can feel that temptation of owning a small flying jewel and also the tragedy of undoing its life and freedom. 

The box, something I often include in my work, evokes for me preservation and containing.  In this piece, I want to offer a fantasy of capture that is only that— fantastic.  All that has been captured for examination in this box are paint and graphite.