A Woman ahead of the Times

This surgery shortened week is devoted to cheerful passions and preoccupations. For me, birds belong in the former category, graffiti in the latter.

So when I saw this article in last week’s NYT I had to grin – been there, done that, as today’s photographs will confirm. Here is the link to the NYT, click on the picture.

The article is about a fabulous project: painting and spray painting the hundreds of bird illustration by John James Audubon, a pioneering ornithologist, onto surfaces where they can be admired daily. The bird murals are spread across Harlem and Washington Heights, and number so far between 70 and 80 (of an intended 314…) – many more than when I visited in March 2016 trying to scout them out without a serious map.

Audubon was an extraordinary man. His life reads like an adventure novel written by someone like Jules Verne, Daphne du Maurier or Alexandre Dumas, tropical islands, slave mistresses and nursemaids, escape from the Napoleonic Wars, travel with Native American tribes, changing names and nationality, included. He traveled more in his time, on horseback and sailboats across the continents and between them, than most people I know in our own century. He was into birds from the get go and throughout his life which had twists and turns he pursued knowledge about them and painted them all. Reading about him, even on Wikipedia, makes you dizzy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon

The National Audubon Society was founded in honor of this adventurer, naturalist and artist in 1896, with President Roosevelt creating the first national wildlife refuge in 1903. Here is an overview of the history – (including the bit of proper Boston ladies trying to get women to boycott wearing hats with feathers as to protect the birds….)