My favorite book is Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. Magical realism is by far my favorite literary device, and this book is just overflowing with it. I recently started reading it again.
My favorite character in this book is a parrot that talks as a human would--he is clever and witty, and truly is a central character. If I were a character in a book, I'd want to be him. So I researched parrots, and what I found made me smile! This is actually one of my long-time favorites:
By Clarence Edward Zuelch. I really liked the nondescript face/beak of the pastel by Zuelch; I've noticed in other photos and artworks of parrots that the beak and eyes always seem to turn out menacing and grotesque. It's no judgment of the artist, but parrots don't have faces that are easy to paint. It seems leaving them nondescript is the only way for them not to look strange or cartoony.
I love this painting (that I can't seem to find an artist name for other than the one in the link, kristen byers? can't seem to tell if that's just the person who blogged about it). It's electric! Exploding with energy, I just can't stop looking at it. There is so much movement in the lines.
One more. This one is adorable, but not cutesy--with the parrot all fuzzled and nestled in its own feathers (artist Nkolika Anyabolu):
I just love it when animals do adorable things without meaning to. It's something humans find more challenging (the unintentional part, that is). Well, and humans are generally less fuzzy than animals, which automatically means animals win.
So I hope you enjoyed these random parrots! They are great works of art!
