I found this perfectly exquisite blackbird lying dead in an alleyway, so I made the ink drawings directly and quickly from the body onto separate sheets of paper. Once I had made the drawings of the blackbird I buried him and some months later dug his skull and bones out of the earth. I drew the skull alongside the bird to preserve the memory of the life of this lovely creature. In this drawing, the dead blackbird is almost consumed by darkness but the 3 swallows (vintage wall ornaments) swoop down in tribute carrying flowers (made by my son in primary school for Mother's Day) and illuminate the body of blackbird. There are many wonderful folklore narratives woven around blackbirds and after reading various tales, imagining images and listening to its song, I drew my own stories about this beautiful bird by adding drawings of objects from my own collections alongside the original studies of the blackbird.