he was gifted with the invisible music

invisible birds research

à la recherche des oiseaux invisibles
by the 19th century french ornithologist m von toufes-moles

***

the beginnings of a bird section now visible on invisiblebirds.org
a growing list of artists pursuing birds,
specifically in painting, photography, music, literature, poetry and film,
compiled by gossamer & arthur de eriomém

often coupled with land, to express the idea of the whole surface of the earth

riccardo morandi
construction photo of bridge over lake maracaibo, venezuela
from - the concrete architecture of riccardo morandi by giorgio boaga & benito boni - praeger - 1966

univers du western - the furies

anthony mann - the furies - 1950
(landscape photography)

cinematography by victor milner *


(number 8 of 500 detailing westerns)

and then everything receded from him (invisible birds)

and the sound of the wind died away and then like the murmur of a lullaby or pealing bells rose up again from the depths of ravines and tips of fir trees and a faint reddishness climbed into the deep blue and small clouds drifted by on silver wings and all the mountain peaks, sharp and firm, glinted and gleamed far across the countryside, he would feel something tearing at his chest, he would stand there gasping, body bent forward, eyes and mouth opened wide, he was convinced he should draw the storm into himself, contain everything within himself, he stretched out and lay over the earth, he burrowed into the universe, it was a pleasure that gave him pain; or he would remain still and lay his head upon the moss and half-close his eyes and then everything receded from him, the earth beneath him, it became as tiny as a wandering star and dipped into a rushing stream whose clear waters flowed beneath him

georg büchner - lenz - 1839 (posthumously)

8.8.8

to langston, one of the finest friends a fellow could have

edrnia plmnei

los angeles, time, castration, infidelity, darkness, humour, violence, poland, rabbits, prostitution, mercenaries, glistening eyes, alleys, distant melodies, death, penderecki, nonsense, trainsounds, scratching, surface sounds, evil, 47, hollywood & vine, blurring, afterimages, liminality

rounds

richard serra - out-of-round VII - 1999
(paintstick on hiromi paper)
from richard serra: drawings, work comes out of work
kunsthaus bregenz - 2008

he was almost forgotten, in fact, within a few years of his death

lake lugano - 1885 + two details
from edward lear as a landscape draughtsman by philip hofer
the belknap press of harvard university - 1967

invisible birds (mocking bird)

it is where the great magnolia shoots up its majestic trunk, crowned with evergreen leaves, and decorated with a thousand beautiful flowers, that perfume the air around; where the forests and fields are adorned with blossoms of every hue; where the golden orange ornaments with gardens and groves; where bignonias of various kinds interlace their climbing stems around the white-flowered stuartia, and mounting still higher, cover the summits of the lofty trees around, accompanied with innumerable vines, that here and there festoon the dense foliage of the magnificent woods, lending to the vernal breeze a slight portion of the perfume of their clustered flowers, where a genial warmth seldom forsakes the atmosphere; where berries and fruits of all descriptions are met with at every step;- in a word, kind reader, it is where nature seems to have paused, as when passed over the earth, and opening her stores, to have strewed with unsparing hand the diversified seeds from which have sprung all the beautiful and splendid forms which i should in vain attempt to describe, that the mocking bird should have fixed its abode, there only that its wondrous song should be heard.

the mocking bird - turdus polyglottus - john james audobon - writings and drawings - the library of america - 1999

(images by johannes von vogelbaum, of tree light, tree sounds and murmurs from the perspective of a small invisible bird)