Kara James

Please Save the Birds — Thank You, 2016Olympia Park
Please Save the Birds—Thank You was created in recognition of the dire need of the plight of flight, a tiny symbolic and functional shelter for the continuously collaterally damaged bird population. The author of words on the back of the sculpture is unknown (some people attribute them to Leonardo da Vinci), but before he left us, Mike Lanphere told us about them, and this is his tree.  I hope everyone who walks by this tree could know how appropriate it is that the tree stands in a sports-centric park of fun, directly under the O’Hare flight path. I hope every kid playing a game in this park gets to feel the heroic spirit—like a bird floating down from the bird house and whispering confidence in their little ears, a legacy of flight: for birds, bats and balls, boards and pucks, and people flying down mountains to know the forever importance of being here, and to save the birds, thanks.