KAZAAN VIVEIROS

I had this vintage stenographer’s pad filled with shorthand—I think it had been my mother’s. I have no idea where she got it. I started painting on its pages. These Bird Notes pieces are the result. I’m calling the series Bird Notes in part because they’re paintings based on birds made quite literally on top of someone’s handwritten notes. I like the idea of the notes as a metaphor for the musical notes of songbirds that fill the air each spring. The curly shapes of shorthand become the whistling trills of a Carolina wren or the trailing deedeedee of a chickadee’s call. I challenged myself to find a balance between representation and abstraction—to pare down to the core the elements of birds, the instantly recognizable features by which each species can be identified. The egg shape seemed a natural choice as the beginning. The small size of each piece invited grouping them, forming my own little flock.