Owls
By Masha Lifshin (06/12/09 19:13:21)
29 April 2009. Harder Stadium.
I'm at the studios under Harder stadium around twilight, walking around the East bleachers to the loading zone driveway door. A bird, a small one that looked like seabird, was on the field. We noticed each other. As I began to turn the key and open the studio door the bird suddenly began to call, piercingly and repeatedly. At that moment, I somehow instantly leaned my head back to look upwards. An owl was winging its way over the field towards the pillar of the stadium lights. He perched high, high above me and we looked at each other. A minute or two passed until he flew away, magnificently. The small sea bird finally stopped calling the alarm.

I have always known the owls are up high around Harder because I have been finding their pellets since I started working in those studios last Fall. I have used the pellets in a digital artwork, http://www.mashalifshin.com/owl/owl.html Lately, I have started incorporating the pellets into object-making.

7 May 2009. Sedgwick Reserve watering trough.
Again, it's twilight and Lisa, Michael, Nathan, Hannah, and I are perched a ways up on the slope above one of the watering troughs at Sedgwick. We hear occasional hooting from the trees to our left. Suddenly an owl swoops away over our heads. A minute later, another one does the same. I think they had the heart-shaped faces of barn owls.

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