“Everything that we think is disgusting about human life, pigeons wear without shame.”
RH: You posted on Bluesky about picking up your brush again after so many years.
MTH: When I started painting again… I was just trying to manage my mental health and have hobbies.
RH: I get it. <lowers voice> I play guitar at home.
MTH: Exactly. It's just like you look at the horrors and you're like, “Well, I need something else to hyperfixate on, because if I do this only, it's going to be bad." And I have children, and I want to model art just being a part of life and not being your job, necessarily: just a thing you like to do. So, I don't know. I was happy to get back into it in that way.
RH: Had you drawn birds before starting this pigeon project?
MTH: No, and I stridently really disliked birds for the most part.
RH: Until?
MTH: I think like most middle-aged people, there's like a light switch that turns and you go from being indifferent to birds and then you're like, oh, now I notice every bird that's around and I have bird questions.
RH: Have you gotten into birding in general?
MTH: Not in a significant way. Not in, like, an Ed Yong way, but like, when I walk around, I'm always looking for different birds and telling my kids about the birds that I've seen. And so it's like, I appreciate the discipline of birding, but I don't have the interest in waking up early in the morning about it.
