Teacup Crows at Dusk

"From a low three-quarter angle the gaunt, wilted oak anchors a deserted cobblestone courtyard that slowly dissolves into a foggy marsh, the edge of a dilapidated city leaking rusted signs and half-submerged debris into the mist. In the left foreground an antique streetlamp—at first mute—begins to release an arcing stream of porcelain teacups that drift like brittle moons toward the reeds, and with a surreal, disquieting clarity each cup cradles a tiny living black crow that stares outward; a single larger crow perched on one teacup near the oak becomes the scene’s focal point while half-buried piano keys form a cracked white ribbon leading the eye into the marsh. Painted as a mixed-media collage of oil strokes and watercolor washes with paper-cut edges and grainy film noise, muted slates, deep greens and umbers punctuated by cold blue highlights bend slightly in proportion, the shallow focus blurring the upper frame into soft negative space as a rim of distant twilight cuts through thick fog, leaving the whole image eerie, melancholic and quietly macabre."

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