Morning Mr Magpie

Magpies are my favorite city birds. With pitch black and clean white feathers they conceal their beauty and reveal it in the sun light – the feathers of iridescent blue, from ultra-marine to Prussian. That’s why I decided to start my Krletke series with magpies. So this painting is actually a sketch for a diorama. I realized that I am more comfortable of doing sketch on canvas (like I usually do, then I paint over it), so I just did that and in the end I have finished painting that I will use as a basis for a diorama. Like ukiyo-e painter doing a view for a print. As a painting it is a part of my Japanesque series of paintings, therefore it is named after a song, in this case Morning Mr Magpie by Radiohead from The King of Limbs album. I really like this song and the lyrics of it. I imagine Thom Yorke coming upon magpie and magpie raps at him: “You got some nerve coming here, you stole it all, give it back”. Yorke replies: “Good morning, Mr Magpie, how are we today?” To what magpie says:”Now you’ve stolen all the magic, I turn my back, walk away.” Next part I interpreted as Yorke´s inner voice: “You know you should but you don’t” as you know you should leave but you don´t, you are interested in what is going on. So in the next reply to “good morning” we have this answer from magpie: “Now you’ve stolen all the magic and took my melody.” So magpies’ mistrust is because people stole their good voice (and I found out later their good name). You have to understand at this point I didn´t know anything about British lore related to magpies. In Bosnia it is considered that crows and magpies collect shinny objects, especially magpies, and it is even used as a plot for The Magpie Strategy (1987) movie that indirectly is speaking about Yugoslavia coming apart. As I am ambivalent about myths and lore and it is not in my interest to promote them, I decided to just continue my ignorant admiration for this beautiful bird. If the light is right and if the birds allowed it, I will always spend a few moments to admire their beauty.  And now I have preserved that beauty in Krletke.

The name for Krletke diorama is Good Evening Mrs Magpie (Modeselektor remix), IDM version of the song that I like to dance to in my studio when I do some magic and I acknowledge it by a little dance- a magpie dance.

Related artwork – Good Evening Mrs Magpie (Modeselektor remix)

pS. The text is the same for both artworks.

Technique: acrylic on canvas

Size: 35 x 51 cm

Year: May 2020

Availability: In Private Collection


Japanesque

 

Paintings done in Japanese style. Mostly variations and fusions of famous Ukiyo-e prints, global pop culture & sakura.