A flock of crows is a murder, a flock of owls is a parliament, and a flock of ravens is an unkindness, but artist Ty Meier doesn’t like that so he called this artwork ‘A Kindness of Ravens.’ and there are many more like it.
In unstructured times like airplane travel or while waiting for appointments, Ty draws in a zentangled way rhythmic waves of ravens, rabbits, mice, sparrows, or opossums and intersperses them with flowers or lightning bugs, or eyeballs. It’s his go-to doodle and sometimes he wishes he could do no other things. “Kindness of Ravens” is a genuinely stream-of-consciousness artwork with as much or as little meaning as dreams.
There are two kinds of symbology: The kind the artist intends to communicate and the kind that the viewer subconsciously pulls out of the artwork; both are valid. Ravens have an enormous range of symbology. The big jet-black and beautiful birds are harbingers, messengers, and tricksters. They manage to be rumpled and disheveled one moment and then sleek and focused the next. They’re associated with death and prophecy. They intelligently navigate darkness and we desire them as friends or familiars while they coyly keep their distance, mocking. What this means to people is as varied as people are.
Meier scratches critters in waves while in meetings, airport bars or while on vacation waiting for everyone else to wake up. He is drawn into his timeless doodling and is startled when someone interrupts his reverie.
This is a 8”x10” print mounted to an artboard, hand-textured with glossy acrylic medium and lacquered by Ty.
