The Bird Cage

acrylic and pen on canvas, 2007

'The Bird Cage' as you may have seen is actually part of my painting 'The Haunted House.' My inspiration behind it came from when I was very young.I used to chase butterflies in my backyard and when I was about eight I came up with the idea of keeping butterflies as pets like birds. I don't recall if I ever acted on this but we had a butterfly trapped in my brother's room one time, and the thought occured to me that we could keep them flying around indoors just as outdoors, if we provide the flying space. Another source of inspiration was the butterfly conservatory in Cambridge, Ontario which I visited when I was little. We enclosed the butterfly and other butterflies in my brother's room to make 'our own conservatory.' We even provided pieces of fruit in his room to watch them suck on the fruit. Ofcourse, we knew we weren't professional and let them go after a few hours. We would try to keep as many butterflies in the room at once to make it as much like a real conservatory as possible. The concept just stayed in my mind because of how visually intriguing I found the concept of the colourful creature in an elegant iron birdcage. In the painting, the cage is iron and fancy because meant for a larger bird like a parrot and also to add a 19th century gothic style. The large play hoops are suggestive of the cage being meant for a parrot or large exotic bird. I did this to promote or exalt the idea of keeping butterflies and also to increase visual intrigue in the piece. The iron is white to give it a ghostly appeal which contributes to the entire otherworldy feel of 'The Haunted House.'