Human life, rapturous, devouring, halting, ominous, ambiguous, Man's myths formed by fear and fantasy, sustaining him over the millennia, charting the subconscious with spiritual symbols. Birds, feathered and insulated, free in flight, swift in action, endowed with intelligence and fertility powers. Birds, haunting our visions, the most persistent of our heraldic symbols. In painting and sculpture, Egyptian art filled with a bird cosmos. In graphic art, Goy's "Proverbios", Manet's  "The Raven," to name only two. In literature, Aristophanes, "The Birds" and T.H. White's "Bestiary" survey the aviary of our dreams. The commitment of the printmaker, his calligraphic statements stunning in their lithographic clarity, saying, "know thyself, birdman, and magnify thy spirit."

Donald H. Karshan
Author, collector, and President of The Museum of Graphic Art, New York.