Thursday 21 December 2017

Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation



I knew birds were not trivial. They were constantly chirping, and what they were saying, or what I heard them say, was Stand up. Look around. Be in the world.
Birds Art Life is a hipstery memoir – Toronto-based writer Kyo Maclear drops the names of arthouse movies and indie musicians that I've never heard of (in the acknowledgements, Maclear even thanks a Jason Logan for the “street-harvested pigments” she used in the pen and ink sketches for this book; and if that ain't hipster, I don't know what is) – and the overall effect didn't do a whole lot for me: I didn't find her story to be either mind-openingly unique or relatably universal. On the other hand, I did find Maclear to be likeable, interesting, and unpretentious. This is a fine read, but didn't open my eyes to anything new; I wouldn't widely recommend it, but am also not warning against it.
If I am guilty of hiding among tinier people in a tinier parallel world, it is because I am searching for other models of artistic success. The small is a figure of alternative possibility, proof that no matter how much the market tries to force consensus, there will always be those making art where the market isn't looking.
In the beginning, Maclear explains that as the only child of divorced immigrant parents, she has had to become the caregiver for her aging father – and with the added demands of a husband, two children, and a writing career, she felt herself becoming “wordless” with “anticipatory grief”. After experiencing a feeling of wanderlust – a desire to roam and free up her “creative and contemplative” mind once again – Maclear found herself drawn to the story of a local musician who takes pictures of birds around Toronto; thought perhaps her own happiness could be bird-shaped. After making contact with him (curiously, Maclear only and always refers to the man as “the musician” in the book, but thanks him by name in the acknowledgements), he agrees to let her follow him on his bird walks for a year. This book is the story of these birds walks and what species they find together, along with Maclear's family history, some sketches and photos of birds, some current events, research that includes lists of famous people and how they relate to her points, and some meditations on the nature of art and creativity. Mostly, it's about the birds.
Most of us don't have time for the malady of stillness. Life is too short for longueurs. The idea of sitting for hours on end, on rocks or bits of log, in the cold, for a bird, is the definition of lunacy and silliness.

And yet –
Maclear writes that when she was working on this project, she often described it to friends as a “sketchbook”, and that feels like an apt description for the finished product: it's a multimedia assemblage; a collage. And ultimately, by looking for birds, she refound her voice.
The birds tell me not to worry, that the worries that sometimes overwhelm me are little in the grand scheme of things. They tell me it's all right to be belittled by the bigness of the world. There are some belittlements and diminishments that make you stronger, kinder.
I thought that the writing was polished and the thoughts interesting, but it still didn't add up to all that much. Birds Art Life reminded me of Unearthed – another slow-simmer Toronto-set memoir – when I wanted something deeper like H is for Hawk or Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Still, not a waste of my time.



*Won by Life on the Ground Floor. All of these books are worthy finalists, and I learned a lot, but my favourite would be Tomboy Survival Guide as the best written/most eye-opening.
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