Blackbird Speaking
Inspiration comes in many forms and from the unlikeliest of places. For Associate Professor Andrew Ortiz, the inspiration for his recent Semana de Cultura exhibit, Blackbird Speaking, sprang from a 鈥渃onversation鈥� with a murder of crows perched on telephone wires. 鈥淭hey complained loudly at me, so I, being strongly influenced by magical realism and the belief that they were speaking to me, answered back,鈥� says the award-winning photographer. 鈥淭he birds seemed to complain louder. I stopped and 鈥榮poke鈥� with them more, and they in turn answered me.鈥� Though they didn鈥檛 understand each other, the conversation stayed with Ortiz for years. Over time, it came to mean something more symbolic. 鈥淚鈥檓 interested in the idea of visually conveying the frustration of struggling to communicate. In these images, the blackbirds represent me and are juxtaposed against symbols that metaphorically describe obstacles to communication.鈥�