Jessica Cadkin & Michael Lynch — The End

A few days after her uncle's death, Jessica Cadkin was out walking when she noticed a crow cawing at her. It followed her for several blocks, seeming to want her attention. Only when she stopped and looked up at it did the crow alight on a nearby light post. They quietly stared at one another for a few minutes before it flew away. Crows appear prominently in mythology across cultures. In Native American traditions they are not only tricksters and wise guys, but protectors. In some Asian myths they represent the divine; while in Norse lore, Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory) serve as the eyes and ears of the god Odin. In Hindu belief, crows act as messengers of the dead, bridging the living and the spiritual worlds. Drawing on these associations as well as her own personal encounter with a crow shortly after a family member's death, Cadkin's sculpture, _Eulogy_, reflects on memory, loss, and connection. Michael Lynch's work often arises from his keen interest in art, natural science, and physics. The paintings of birds striking windows, _The Final Act 1, 2, and 3_, are based on photographs of the keratin and oil from powder down feathers transferred onto the glass at the moment of impact. They represent just three of the more than one billion fatal bird-window collisions in the United States each year. _The Short Story of the Owl and the Rabbit_ is a reconstruction of a memory from a scene Lynch encountered over 50 years ago, one he always wished he had a way to record. Lynch often seeks to bring to life the stories and events in nature that might otherwise go unnoticed.