Ferrisburgh – The Vermont Bird Artist
Written by Staff on October 24, 2023
Ferrisburgh – The Vermont Bird Artist. By Liam Sweeny.
When it comes to the question, “what is art?” I’m a universalist. Everything that can possibly be determined as art, that’s how I call it. Money is small lithographs. A brick is shaped. An old house’s plumbing – well, that really is a work of art, and so help ye if that work be impressionism. But everything is art, and consequently, nothing is art. Not even being philosophical here. Some things have to be art, and some things have to not be, no matter how universalist I am.
Take the case of Ferrisburgh, a kestrel. Type of bird. His home? The Vermont Institute of Natural Sciences in Quechee. He, like many artists, grew up rough as an illegal pet. So they fed him crappy food, and as a result, in poor health, he broke a bone. A flying bone.
He was a flight ambassador for the museum, but, grounded, he pursued another vocation; that of artist.
The museum people use mealworms and paint to get Ferrisburgh to run across canvases, leaving colored footprints. So yes, he is an artist.
But is he? Or is he the tragic product of an uncaring world and the illegal pet business? I think it might be possible for Ferrisburgh’s work to be art even if he’s just out there scrounging mealworms. In order to be a true artist, Ferrisburgh would need a beret, a well and finely trimmed beard, a clove cigarette habit, and a fancy coat. Lacking all these things, Ferrisburgh might just be a bird having fun.
I will fall back on the whole process, mealworms to footprints, is art. But they don’t make clove cigarettes that small, so my point is moot. You know what? Let’s give Ferrisburgh a Master of Fine Arts degree. Let’s get his work in the seven or eight New York galleries that give artists their capital ‘A’s. See if anyone there can tell the difference. If Andy Warhol was alive today, he’s probably let a bird crash on his couch, right?
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