That Bird Life (2026)

by Maris Kaplan & Elise Mahan

linen, alcohol ink, silkscreen mesh

72” wide x 60” high

This collaborative work was done as part of the Birds & Bikes group show at Axis Gallery in Sacramento, October 2026. Elise and I met several years back at a holiday craft show and were excited to have the opportunity to spend time together while we created. We scheduled monthly working sessions with no specific plan in mind, and our meandering brains had us creating abstract flowing markings while discussing our similar migration stories, career philosophies, and midlife cherishment of simple joys - like birdwatching along Sacramento’s rivers. We joked that these days ‘all we wanna do is enjoy that bird life’ and thus the title of our piece was born.

After mark making on linen, we mocked up a few ideas of what to do with it and finally settled on a kind of reverse-applique technique with silhouettes of Cedar Waxwings and Red Tailed Hawks. I used silkscreen mesh between the layers to keep the structure while preserving transparency. The cut out shapes became independent birds of their own, flying free from their canvas and spilling onto adjacent walls. The piece in its entirety evokes lightness, movement, joy, psychedelia, nature and freedom.