Neurotica

This piece is inspired by a bit of folklore told to me this past spring. It is apparantly sometimes said that if birds build nests with your hair, you will go crazy. This bit of information really stuck with me at the time because I was supposed to be giving my boyfriend a haircut shortly and I was suggesting we do it out on the balcony so that the birds could build nests with the cuttings. After hearing the superstition though, I figured better safe than sorry and cut his hair in the kitchen instead.

As with many interesting ideas or bits of folklore, I really wanted to try my hand at capturing this one in a piece of my art and this is what I came up with. I decided to have the birds build a nest in Neurotica's hair instead of merely with it, as I felt it would be more interesting visually. I also decided to wind some of the twigs around her arm to make it seem more like this whole process was becoming a part of her and taking her over... body as well... not just mind. Finally, I picked sparrows for the birds. Sparrows are said to exist in the place between here and the Beyond, and are sometimes thought to be guides for souls crossing barriers, so they seemed an appropriate choice. Also, ever since seeing The Birds, sparrows kind of give me the creeps anyway. Stock used to create this piece comes from ~Odessa11stock for Neurotica and additional stock is from sxc.

Details for this piece can be viewed here for those interested.