Caged Humming Birds after Ernst Haeckel 1

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‘Caged Humming Birds after Ernst Haeckel 1 ‘ is a beautiful original mixed media piece of art on canvas by contemporary artist Gayle Storey.

Gayle Storey produced this amazing piece using oil paint, wet transfer & Miyuki Seed beads.

“My current work is founded on the works of Ernst Haeckel, via the permission and collaboration with Diane M. Rielinger Co-Director MBLWHOI Library, MA USA. I have been able to emit a dialogue between the lapsed historical work of Haeckel and my own contemporary genre. Expression and simulation resonate within my work, to create powerful collaborations, decadent and stunning images, extending the perimeters of Fine Art.  It is a paradox between the past and present. The use of fragile broken marks upon the surface creates a parallel between the morphic resonance of a bird’s spirit and the fragility of life. Cloned images of Ernst’s works are embedded and encased with opulent oil paints. The fluidity of line and gestural marks are captured onto the surfaces of the canvas. Ornate beaded embellishments are carefully placed upon the canvas, gilding the work to a level of richness.”-Gayle Storey

On initial review of “Caged Humming Birds, After Ernst Haeckel” the image depicts a utopia of beauty, but on greater reflection the corresponding signifiers are intricacies of social structures, functioning and boundaries. Gayle Storey’s images of the birds are cloned and yet still create differences.  Placed within alternative settings, the birds evoke emotive dialogues, which denote scenes of life and the passing of time. The vibrant colours represent a link to the past opulence and deity. The beaded roses over the canvas are used to represent the sovereignty of English heritage and a rhetorical ambiguous imperialism salute to historical barbarism, that British heritage is founded upon. This ornate line of opulence represents humanities spirit of reality, keeping the viewer very much in the realm of the observer and detached from entering into the central void of blue and the boundary between the present and the future, in parallel with Gayle Stroey’s own beliefs, and spiritual connection to the now and future promise of a heaven. The beading acts as a visual cage or net around the canvas, trapping in the birds and ultimately the viewer from the ascension into heaven or utopia.