RUSTLE OF THE MORNING STARS

The title Rustle of the Morning Stars comes from Vadim Zeland’s Reality Transurfing. It refers to the still, small voice of intuition, something easily missed beneath the noise of the thinking mind.

The sculpture is composed of the primary wing feathers of a Golden Eagle. I was drawn to the subtle gradient within the wing. Each feather is distinctly different from the next, yet together they form a continuum. That idea lights me up. I think of humans in much the same way: infinitely varied, but existing along one continuum.

I made this piece one feather at a time while my dog, Bijou, was recovering from a spinal injury. Her recovery brought my attention completely into the present moment. Each day I watched closely for the smallest change, an incremental movement returning to one of her legs. Something almost imperceptible could become the great joy of the day.

In retrospect, that experience feels inseparable from the sculpture. Both asked me to pay attention to subtle differences, to notice what was changing, and to listen for what might otherwise be missed.

Rustle of the Morning Stars became, for me, a meditation on attention, intuition, and the beauty found in the space between sameness and difference.

Golden Eagle primary wing feathers
Reference image: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Feather Atlas