Birds of Paradise

Shortly after the diamond heist, we hid out in apartment 17C. The sign said “luxury” and the cockroaches agreed. On a nice day, we’d drink martinis and watch the people at the pool. A large bird of paradise framed the view from the balcony, blooming almost neon.

Birds of paradise flourish in overly manicured concrete places with shitty landlords and grimey fixtures, and so they stand as a reminder that nothing, nothing can ever take what’s beautiful away from you.

A few years later a specimen leapt at Liz from a midtown bungalow, and she asked Deanna if we could do it.

While working on this piece, Deanna experimented with using digital tools to prepare before carving this piece.

birds of paradise, in grays and reversed

Deanna then carved four blocks, one for each color.

Liz tried printing it on beige paper.

bird of paradise printed in four vibrant colors on beige paper

And chien colle with the fancy green lama li lokta paper….

birds of paradise printed on green lama li lokta paper

And chien colle with homemade green paper….

birds of paradise printed on homemade paper

The real friends were the tiktoks we made along the way…

If you’d like to simulate renting a mediocre apartment with a ho-hum porch, consider:

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