Flights of fancy: Draw a Bird Day winging its way to you

Tucked between April Fools' Day and the deadline for U.S. citizens to file their federal income taxes, Friday could be just another day in Arkansas -- or it could be Draw a Bird Day.

Anyone could celebrate Draw a Bird Day. Just draw a bird. Any kind of bird.

The drawing doesn't have to be excellent, although it could be.

It's not an official holiday, but Draw a Bird Day has been observed here and there around the globe, including in Arkansas.

How did Draw a Bird Day get started? Documentation is sketchy (see accompanying story). Although the day is well represented online in calendars of novelty observances and a few Pinterest and Flickr collections, most websites refer to the same two sources: dabday.com and its associated Facebook page, "Draw a Bird Day."

Different sites repeat slightly different accounts, but all claim a historical origin that goes something like this:

In the early 1940s in London, a 7-year-old girl named Dorie Cooper visited her uncle in a military hospital where he was confined to a ward with many other injured veterans. The uncle had lost a leg by stepping on a landmine, and he was depressed.

Dorie tried to cheer him up by talking to him, but when that didn't work, the intuitive child asked her uncle to draw a picture of a bird. He agreed. When he had finished the sketch, the little girl laughed and teased her uncle by telling him what a terrible drawing it was. Nevertheless she wanted to keep the drawing to decorate her room at home.

The uncle was heartened by Dorie's blatant honesty, and so began his mental recovery. He promised to draw a better bird for her if she would return to visit again. His dreary days of rehabilitation were then filled with his attempts to draw birds.

He was soon joined by other patients on the ward as well as nurses and doctors who gave their drawings to Dorie when she came to visit or used them to adorn the rooms and hallways throughout the hospital. Dorie also brought bird pictures she drew to show the wounded soldiers.

Three years later, Dorie was killed in a car wreck. At her funeral, mourners, including soldiers, medical staff and their family members, covered her casket and grave with drawings of birds.

Since that time, so the story goes, young Dorie and her uncle have inspired the unofficial establishment of April 8, said to be Dorie's birthday, as a time to celebrate the bond between those who are injured and those who wish them well by the drawing of birds.

Whether based in fact or fancy, wherever the day is observed, it's not about great artistry or precise representation of a bird species.

The choice of April 8 is serendipitous. In April, birds are in migration and there are more species around and easily observed than in midsummer and winter. As a general rule, birds sing more in early spring than at other times of the year.

According to dabday.com, no longer is it just "Draw" a Bird Day. Now it is also "Paint a Bird," "Watercolor a Bird" or even "McDraw a Bird."

Images are not only decoration for the walls of infirmaries and residences, they also are posted on Facebook and put in digital albums for the whole world to see and enjoy.

Art teachers have used the attention drawn by the day to suggest subject matter for beginning painters, to inspire them to better efforts and to be unashamed of shortcomings in their work. Nature lovers have adopted the day as an opportunity to share with others an appreciation for the wide variety and beauty in avian life, from pigeons and parrots to peacocks.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Draw a Bird Day has drawn a few observers in Arkansas.

Kitty Harvill, an artist with Arkansas and Brazilian roots, cited Draw a Bird Day in a demonstration March 1 at a meeting of the Arkansas Pastel Society in Little Rock. She repeated the story of Dorie and her uncle and suggested that artistry practiced in the spirit of the day could benefit the objectives of a new group she and her husband, Christoph Hrdina, have founded, Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature.

Members of the group are artists who collect photos of endangered species from biologists around the world and use them as the basis for artworks (more information is at bit.ly/1UMvHcM). Harvill has painted many images of exotic and threatened birds.

Don Johnson, a retired pharmacist who paints with watercolors and occasionally facilitates painting classes, attended Harvill's demonstration and was intrigued by the Draw a Bird Day account, which he hadn't heard before. He has repeated the story often, and it inspired him to paint birds simply to share with others who enjoy them.

In Maumelle on Tuesday, the Maumelle Community Center's Maumelle Senior Wellness Center, 550 Edgewood Drive, will host an art class by volunteer Barbara Soden. Soden plans to explain the history of Draw a Bird Day and then assist senior citizens in drawing or painting birds. Basic art supplies will be available, but participants could bring their own. The session is free to members of the Wellness Center.

At Lakeside Intermediate School in Hot Springs, Kinsey Smedley told her third-graders about Draw a Bird Day on March 18, the day before spring break. After they heard about Dorie Cooper, each student drew a picture of a bird for a grandparent, elderly friend or someone they knew who might be troubled, sick or sad.

They promised to deliver their drawings and paintings to their intended recipients or to a nearby nursing home.

Smedley often uses what she sees as children's natural interest in birds as a vehicle to teach literacy, science and critical thinking. She sees Draw a Bird Day as an opportunity to teach the use of creative talents as a way to show compassion for others.

"You are the first of my students to draw a bird like this," she told the children, "but each year from now on I will have my classes do this on this special holiday."

Jerry Butler writes regularly about Arkansas birds and the people who enjoy them. He welcomes comments and stories at [email protected].

ActiveStyle on 04/04/2016