January is a Bird: Bringing Birds & Art Together

By Autumn Sharp

One Heart
by Li-Young Lee 

Look at the birds. Even flying
is born

out of nothing. The first sky
is inside you, open

at either end of day.

The work of wings
was always freedom, fastening
one heart to every falling thing.





Did you see the stunning chalk paintings that graced the sidewalks in front of our Nature Shop earlier this month…and the poems that accompanied them? As part of Tucson Audubon’s initiative to foster a richer engagement with the arts, we collaborated with local poet and founder of Urban Poetry Pollinators, Elizabeth Salper, for a public arts event themed: “January is a Bird.” Community members gathered to chalk birds and bird poems all around our own pollinator garden at the Nature Shop.

Art has a way of inspiring us to see things in a new way. Even mundane things, like sidewalks, can become a venue for something beautiful, interesting, or thought provoking, when we invite creativity into our urban spaces and our daily lives. Art is also an effective communicator, able to cut across barriers to deliver a message straight to our hearts.

Much like when we watch birds, we experience the magnificence of a painting, or can be moved by a few words carefully strung together, directly—without having to think about it. And direct experience is often the most transformative. One of Tucson Audubon’s goals in 2020 is to bring more birds directly into more people’s lives in every possible way. This month’s chalk art and bird poems were just the beginning of this year’s efforts to inspire people to enjoy and protect birds through the arts.

We had perfect weather and were lucky enough to have several local artists join in and share their skillful and inspiring talent, as well as their passion for Southeast Arizona’s diverse birdlife and the work of wings.

Autumn Sharp is the Communications & Development Manager for Tucson Audubon. Autumn’s first childhood memories are of exploring the Puerto Rican rainforests, where her love for the natural world began and has since shaped her entire life. She earned her Master of Science in Ethnobotany investigating the interrelationships between plants and people around the globe. She enjoys exploring Tucson with her young daughter who already recognizes birdsong and says, “birrrd.”