About Us

We call ourselves the Bird Sisters - the French word is Oiseaux -- because we migrate seasonally. Our summer studio is in upstate New York and our winter perch in Gulfport, Florida.

Our work incorporates humor, movement and metaphor. Materials include mixed media use of paper, tin, clay, cloth, carved and painted wood, and found objects. We have created a series of figurative, often biographical or mythological figures/ cupboards which range from small to larger than life size as well as many other figurative pieces which tell stories.

We love to travel, and are almost always working. En route we are collecting materials, images and ideas for our work. Back home we cut, paste, color, snip, stamp, and hammer, making souvenirs that both recall the journey and joyfully anticipate returns and reunions. We carry our childhood within us. Memories of parties, play houses, and past times. 'Whose little girl are you?' we ask. The answer is always different. Some of the best travels are done each night when we surrender to the mystery of sleep, only to wake at morning struggling to remember the elusive details of the dream journey. Was it swimming? Flying? Walking the dogs? Or perhaps, breathing underwater?

In winter we work in sheds and gardens, a lively surround where parrot, jay, snake and palmetto frond intrude and inform the work. The summer studio, by contrast offers distant views, expansive gardens and an opportunity to work large in the landscape. Wherever we are, we visit libraries and love the books and the language contained therein. They are great sources of inspiration for our work. Virginia, Emily, Walt, Will, H.D., and Sylvia. We are on a first name basis with so many.

We honor attics and out buildings and collections both random and methodical. We believe in critical mass. All is story. All objects are in conversation with each other: Sometimes subject, sometimes object, sometimes verb. But always talking. We love to make our work and are always asking, 'Are we there yet? What is the journey and what is the destination? What is truth and what is fiction? What is memory ? What is desire?

Stop! Look! Listen!


Susan Andrews	Carolyn Fellman

PUBLIC ART: COMMISSIONS & INSTALLATIONS:

• Geographies: Mapping Beauty, Mapping Love, Award winning Three Year Commission
by First Night St. Petersburg (with Betsy Orbe Lester): December 31, 2003.

• Florida Craftsmen 50th Anniversary Conference,
Installation at Stetson University Art Gallery, March 2003.

• The Birthday Project, Award winning Art Installation/Communal Birthday Party
Three Year Commission by First Night St. Petersburg (with Betsy Orbe Lester):
December 31, 2000, 2001, 2002.

• Mnemonic Devices, a five room mixed media, multi dimensional installation
commissioned by The Maitland Art Center, Maitland Florida, March - April, 2002

• The Doll Show, (artists and curators with Betsy Orbe Lester), We challenged artists to reconsider the genre of the doll.
January - February 2002, The Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FL , invitational show of 15 national artists, all media.
March 1999, Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, FL, exhibit of open call for work by over 70 Bay Area artists, all media.

• Once Upon A Time: We All Begin As Children, Percent for Art commission,
Installation at North Branch Public Library, St. Petersburg, FL, Winter 2001
8’ X 5’ painted, printed wood, metal, cloth, paper. Also an alphabet freize, 12"X30’ of printed and painted wood appliquéd
with brass, copper and steel letter forms and regional fauna.

• Make Believe, Installed during residency at Washburn Art Center, commissioned by Gallaudet University, Washington, DC,
September -December, 2000. Mixed media installation filling the atruim 40’X50’X25’. Paper Mache, cloth, wood, metal,
all painted and printed and embellished with found materials.

• Runaway Girls, Florida Craftsmen Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL, Mixed media installation. January 2000 Migration Artifacts,
Mixed media installation commissioned by the Scweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY August - October, 1997

• Illuminations: Touring the Night Garden, performance piece played against projections of mixed media collages
based on the life of Ellen Biddle Shipman, Aurora, NY and Schweinfurth, Auburn, NY,
Commissioned by the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Fund, 1997

• Finding Miss Isabel, Figurative cupboard, installation with public participation,
commissioned by The Howland Stone Store Museum, Sherwood, NY 1989.
Carved and painted wood, paper, cloth, metal, found objects, 5’ X 2’.

• Cast Of Thousands (or Paradise Reclaimed), installation and workshops,
commissioned by Art Park, Lewiston, NY, 1986. The Garden of Eden, peopled with many figures from tiny to
larger than life sized personifying warnings, blessings, and sources of personal inspiration. Installed both inside
a large studio barn and outside in the yard. Park visitors worked with us contributing ideas and embellishments.
Painted and carved wood, clay, metal, paper, plaster, cloth and found objects.

AWARDS

• First Night International, Creative Programming Award, 2000, and 2004

PUBLIC/PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

Public Art Collection of the City of St. Petersburg
Reynolds Tobacco Company
City of Orlando Permanent Collection
Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival
Golden Artist Colors Inc.
The Pew Charitable Trust
Johns Hopkins
Florida Craftsmen Permanent Collection
First Night City of St. Petersburg, Florida
Our work is in hundreds of large private collections, including several listed in Art & Antiques 100 top collectors issues.

Click here to visit our Exhibits page.