Feather suppliers, tree ring counters, artists

History reveals itself in the natural. Rocks and trees that stand while generations pass give up details of change, while the smaller more transitory things pass by briefly, blooming their beauty and then fading away. Birds, people, flowers, these speak then are silent. Relics remain, though, whether a piece of great literature written ages ago with a feather quill pen, a yellowed sketch of something long gone, or even a small plucked feather hung around the neck. Feather suppliers and mimics of nature's bounty feed the creative need to capture what will inevitably pass. So, the Victorian lady of the house makes a pheasant feather arrangement, or feather art, for her parlor; the Renaissance master paints a young woman in reverie. They are hopeful gestures toward saving something of what can really only be temporal.

Dance is the art of engaging life's movement in form. The ballerina in a strung marabou skirt extends her arm, the Las Vegas showgirl flips her feather boa, fashion runway models move creative design down a style show corridor:
they all move to capture the essence of what sifts around and within them. Whether they mimic the flight of a crow or the falling of a feather, providers of sculpture in motion, save something of what must always pass.

Beauty is bountiful. So much in life, its light, fragrance, form, impresses the human spirit. A single pheasant feather, golden or blue, captures the sun in its sheen, brushes the fingers, floats to the floor. So much beauty in a single feather. Boa fashion, clothing styles, trends in art, these all reflect the dual nature of chameleon beauty and human response. Feather decorations of the peacock eye feather or turkey feather, duck feathers and goose feathers, even these are humble responses to beauty.

Children come to us ready to respond. From the time a child is born, it receives and then seeks to elicit response through its sounds and movement. The smallest pheasant feather glimmering on a table may bring a unique reaction in a child, whether an utterance of sound or a move to grab the enchanting thing with its dimpled hand. And that's just a pheasant feather. Arrangement and cacophony, color and light, these flood the human senses from birth and response is unavoidable.