I am currently out of town this weekend, deciding to go on a trip to visit a couple of friends over in Philly and in Jersey, but wanted to keep the usual post times going. I had hoped to start working on my post last night, to avoid issues, but of course I did not. So tonight's going to be a little short and might not be as in depth but should be a little bit of cheer for you.
One thing that I've come to notice about the stickers I find is that there really aren't a lot of cute or cheerful ones out there. For the most part a lot of them are looking to make a big statement or to create a unique image to share with the community. Obviously nothing wrong with that, graffiti in general has the lofty goal of expressing the rebellious ideas of the outsider. But it does always surprise me when I come across stickers that are, well happy. A recent example I shared was obviously the owl from a couple of posts ago. With it's simple design and it's cheerful disposition, it was certainly a pleasant find and interesting to analyze. Tonight's sticker is another one that may have deeper meaning for the artist but comes across as a happy image. I can't say I've really put much thought into the symbolism of birds, other than the obvious ones. They are either a scary annoyance, I'm looking at you pigeons, or a happy signal to me that spring is finally making an appearance. But birds have played a significant role in cultures around the world and the bluebird certainly has an interesting role. While tonight's sticker really isn't of a specific bird, more just the general idea of what birds look like, I decided to focus on the bluebird since it's coloring is a large part of this image. For many Native American tribes the bluebird was an important spirit of nature, often symbolizing the arrival of spring or driving darker spirits away with their songs. In Russian folklore the bluebird was generally a sign of hope and in Lorraine folklore it was a bird of happiness. This final idea has managed to stick with the bluebird over the many years. There was a play called The Blue Bird from the beginning of the 20th century where two children go on a journey to find the blue bird of happiness. Then there is a song from the 30s called the "Bluebird of Happiness". This idiom and association with happiness can also be found in the Wizard of Oz, "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Daa", Sesame Street, and apparently even the Beatle's Yellow Submarine movie. (Granted this list comes from the Wikipedia article so it may be a stretch.) And I think tonight's sticker continues to provide that outlook of happiness.
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Maggie Ondrey
An amateur photographer and writer capturing a small portion of the city. Archives
August 2017
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