Dani Ives - On Petrichor

Stories in Birdsong is a collection of new work by Dani Ives, featuring starling murmurations rendered in needle felted wool paintings, alongside a companion series of gouache paintings. The fiber works are built up layer by layer from loose wool, giving each flock a soft, textured depth, while the gouache pieces capture the shifting shapes with opaque precision. 

Each piece illustrates a single moment in a murmuration, a shape that exists for only a split second before the flock moves on. Meanwhile, that same split second is happening everywhere else, full of other stories. And so, within each title is an invitation to ponder: what else is true for this exact moment?

Original art and design by Dani Ives, all copyrights reserved.

On Petrichor: The soil is crispy in the drought, holding its breath since June. When the rain finally comes, you smell it first. Trapped aerosols and a bacterial compound called geosmin release into the air and make a scent that humans have named petrichor. According to the Smithsonian, you are 200,000 times better at detecting rained-on ground than a shark is at finding blood. What a superpower!

Size: 16"x20"

Material: Fiber