The American painter Robert Henri had wisely said, "Paint the flying spirit of the bird rather than its feathers". While this is good advice when trying to capture a live bird, it's a different story when painting a dead one. In this instance it’s all about the realism, the intimacy of deep, reverential observation of detail. This comes in the stillness of death, where in life there would be only a fleeting impression. It is the beautiful and tragic ephemerality of life that makes this melancholic image, based on a photograph by my friend, author Christy Ann Conlin, so poignant for me.