Artist Profile: Bird

From a young age, Bird had a true talent for conjuring up whimsical and magical works of art. We learned more about her, and when her creative career took flight in this week’s Artist Profile.

Who are you?

I’m Bird! I’m a Traverse City native. I’m back after being gone for about a decade. I have been a professional artist for probably four years.

When did you get started in art?

I’ve always been artistic and creative. I was a doodler as a kid and I got in trouble for it a lot. It was the natural thing, even though I tried doing some other things before I ended up here. So, I went to Northern Michigan University, I started out as a graphic design major, thinking I would eventually go into set design, or transfer colleges, but I just didn’t love it. And, I fell into illustration and that was the major for me. I minored in creative writing as well.

What is your favorite medium? 

I’m primarily a watercolor artist, though I do dabble in collage, graphite, ink, colored pencil, but watercolor is one that I keep coming back to over and over again, it’s challenging. It makes you kind of collaborate with it. So I think that’s what draws me.

What inspires you?

Nature is probably my biggest inspiration, local wildlife, local plants that’s super interesting to me. I’m also really interested in the occult, world religions and spiritualitie,s and how the human mind works.

What do you hope people get from your work?

I hope people learn something, maybe about nature or mythology, or maybe just about themselves and kind of what’s going on internally with them. A moment of peace and introspection.

You can find some of Bird’s work . She’s also on .

for more info about the book that Bird illustrated, ‘An Inch of Whiskey’ by John Scheibe.