Birds of a Feather Art Project
Faith, Democracy, and Nature
April is Takahē Awareness Month
The Unified Red Zipper Tie
Free from ARTifICE
XLifeYZ
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🌿 Three Grazing Takahē in the Rocky Mountain Grass. Paint was added outside the Alberta Legislature on April Fool's Day and inside Edmonton City Hall on Good Friday. April is Takahē Awareness Month in New Zealand. Tribute painting to Chicago's Virgil Abloh, 2019, Figures of Speech, Unified, Red Zipper Tie began with two Cree brothers adding paint inside the infamous BLM Pekiwewin homeless encampment.
Three takahē wander the Rocky Mountain grass as if they’ve slipped through a seam in the world—ancient, blue‑green, and unhurried. In Māori folklore, the takahē were once thought to be messengers from the deep valleys, birds who carried the memory of the land itself. When they vanished, people believed they had simply stepped into the mist to rest. But the takahē returned—quietly, stubbornly, beautifully—reminding us that some stories refuse to end. Left Stage Exit Right
Iran’s Fire & Rain, Canada’s Oil & Water
2026-04-08: Cover Art: Mozza Cheese Pizza, versus the Simmering but very Explosive Cheddar Broccoli Soup. Ten years ago, I was already deep into my Fire and Rain social art project. By then, I had completed several paintings responding to Alberta’s wildfires and floods. The project eventually grew into a 25‑painting collection that I carried into Edmonton’s public squares through 160 outdoor art shows — my way of practicing creative free press in public space. A decade later, Sir Winston Churchill Square remains a place where people gather to speak, pray, and protest. In November 2016, Edmontonians set up a Prayer Camp in Solidarity with Standing Rock, pitching tents and keeping a fire burning in support of the Water Protectors resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Today, First Nations communities once again filled the square — rallying in protest against the Alberta Government, rising separatist sentiment, and what they described as ongoing failures to honour treaty obligations. The issues change, but the square continues to hold the stories they, the First Nations bring to it.
