Today, April the 8th, is an official time to celebrate an unofficial holiday, which dates back to the 1940's and is known as Draw A Bird Day. In honor of the event, I've posted a drawing of a blue jay that I did as a very young child (image one).
As you can see, drawing was not my strength! When it comes to pictures of birds, I'm better off rendering them photographically, rather than with crayons, but being an accomplished drawer is not a criteria for participating in this holiday.
Here's what MNN (Mother Nature Network) has to say re the event: "Although it's not a recognized holiday, it's celebrated worldwide on April 8 as a way to find joy in life's simple pleasures and to help people temporarily forget their suffering. According to the Draw A Bird Day website, the holiday dates back to 1943 when a 7-year-old British girl named Dorie Cooper went to visit her uncle who'd been wounded in the war. The man was distraught after losing his leg to a landmine, so in an attempt to distract him, Dorie asked him to draw her a bird. He drew a picture of a robin, and Dorie laughed, saying he wasn’t a very gifted artist but that she’d hang the drawing in her room anyway.
"The young girl's honesty and acceptance lifted the soldier's spirits, and every time Dorie visited after that, he and the other wounded soldiers would have a contest to see who could create the best bird picture. In a matter of months, the ward's walls were covered in bird drawings. Tragically, Dorie was hit by a car three years later and killed. At her funeral, her coffin was filled with bird pictures drawn by soldiers, nurses and doctors from her uncle's hospital. She was remembered as the little girl who brought life and hope to a ward of suffering, and since her death, people have been honoring Dorie by drawing birds on her birthday."
MNN goes on to say that "anyone can participate in celebrating Dorie's life by drawing a bird on April 8 and sharing it with someone."
Therefore, in memory of Dorie Cooper, I'm honoring the day by posting the following images of bird drawings that were on a chalkboard inside a store on the UWS of NYC (images two-five); as well as a drawing of a bird that was on a pop-up chalkboard (as seen below) outside a shop near to The Wild Bird Fund, the only bird re-hab facility in NYC (image six).
Moreover, I'm including an ink drawing of a bird in image seven, which which I featured in a post on Blogger.
And with that, I'll give a thumbs-up to Draw A Bird Day, via my drawing of a turkey (image seven) from bygone years as as a means of paying homage to Dorie Cooper, the holiday's creator, who would surely laugh at my drawing skills, but who might've enjoyed my photos of our avian friends.
