Murmuration Number One

Murmuration refers to the phenomenon when hundreds, sometimes thousands, of starlings fly in swooping, intricately coordinated patterns. The groups can number up to as many as 50,000. This way of moving misleads and confuses predators.
During the first COVID lockdown, although I had a lovely project that I should have been, and really wanted to be, working on, I simply couldn’t make myself focus on it. I became preoccupied with drawing black birds - Corvids or, more correctly, Corvidae. A Corvid is a member of the passerine bird family Corvidae, which includes crows, magpies, jays, rooks and ravens. In some cultures Corvids are a symbol of death, but in others they represent change and transformation.

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Sally Heinrich is a multi-talented writer, illustrator and printmaker. Born in Adelaide, she has been writing and drawing for as long as she can remember. She has travelled extensively in Australia, Asia and in Europe, and worked in Sydney, Darwin and Singapore. She currently shares a large studio space at 6 Manton in Hindmarsh. Much of her work is drawn from interests in the art, religion, tales and traditions of the East and the West, and also a deep connection to home. She delights in the interweaving threads which connect people, communities, cultures and the environment. Her work includes illustrations for more than forty books including her own picture books, novels and non-fiction. Her artwork and lino-prints are widely commissioned, collected and exhibited in Australia and in Asia, including in the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, the Adelaide Parklands Art Prize, the SA Library, Singapore and Melbourne Zoos, community projects and schools. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships, including from the Asialink Foundation, The Ian Reed Foundation, The May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust, Varuna-the Writer’s Centre and Arts SA. She was the 2020 Max Fatchen Fellow and in 2021 she was awarded honorary membership of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (SA)