Chickadee Pickup Sticks . 23 x 23 inches . Crowned Crane wing feathers
I think of the pleasure I felt playing Pickup Sticks as a child, how the sticks were interconnected and we tried to find ways of disconnecting them one at a time without affecting the rest. When I observe birds, I think about how science works by trying to isolate specific aspects of birds to study. When we separate one thing from everything else, remarkable knowledge can be obtained. But science usually forgets that the sticks are intertwined for complex reasons. I might think I know a chickadee because I know a few things about them, but really? There is so much complexity to how they exist in a huge pile of sticky relations: to each other, to their food, to the sun and moon, to plants and bugs, time and sound, to weather, and on and on. So many interrelations that I end up in awe, not needing to know it all but instead feeling a contentedness at the wonder of existence.