Venice artist is just hangin’
By IRENE MANAHAN Special to the Daily Press
VENICE Look up! It’s a bird! It’s a — wait. You can stop there.
Pigeons perch on wires stretched across the Rose Avenue and Fourth Street intersection. The sun is warm, the breeze is cool, and beneath the small flock hangs a conspicuous wooden cut-out painted orange — a “berd.”
Colorful, two-dimensional bird figures like this one dangle from utility wires throughout the region.
“There’s one on Lincoln, too, right?” asked Rodney Chhor, who works in Venice.
Chhor suspects the birds are the dirty work of troublemakers desperate for attention. Others surmise the wooden cutouts bear a historical message or commemorate a person who may have died at that intersection.
“Usually, I see tennis shoes up there,” said Bob Harner, Jr., who resides in West Los Angeles. “It’s probably the work of an artist trying to get a name for himself. I know artists in the area who do these types of things. It must relate to his work.”
Indeed, the mysterious “berds” are the quirky brainchildren of 26-year-old artist David Browne, but the Venice native refuses to elaborate on what all the dangling cutouts mean.
“Berd on a wire,” Browne calls his handmade creation, “’cause my last name has an ‘E’ at the end of it.”
Browne has tossed up at least 300 berds — complete with ropes for hanging and counterweight padlocks — throughout Los Angeles County over the last two years, since first taking to the wires strewn over Venice.
He has since expanded his reach to power lines in Santa Barbara, San Francisco, even New York. Now, Browne is eyeing destinations such as Japan and England.
“We’ll see if money permits,” Browne laughed.
Browne first began designing the berd when he was 19 years old.
“I was fooling around with the logo. I had been slowly working on that graphic for some time,” said Browne. “I’ve always been doing artwork — painting, drawing and everything underneath ‘art.’”
Little did Browne know that his berd drawings would take on a life of their own.
When Browne first designed it, he “wasn’t trying to figure out what to do with it. It was just perfect. It was what I’ve been looking for.
“With the birds on the wires, I thought the meaning would just come together,” Browne said. “I think it’s obvious, but apparently, it’s not.”
The bird’s meaning, which Browne said he has never told a single person, has something to do with an experience that all people have in common. Even the colors, ropes and padlocks tie into the revelation, Browne contends.
“I’m familiar with graffiti and posting, but birds?” remarked Venice artist Art Monkey, who has seen a couple in the area. “A machine gun or barrels of oil may better represent what’s going on instead. I’m surprised he invests so much money in buying locks.”
Any feedback is good feedback, said Browne, who is proud that people recognize them. He hopes that people will take notice of one and become excited to see others.
“A lot of people assume there is no meaning to them because I won’t say what it is,” said Browne, insisting again that there is an underlying purpose for the bird cutouts. “It’s pretty funny.”
Some people think it stands for peace, but Browne said the berds’ true meaning will never be revealed.
“Everyone has their own idea of what it means,” said Browne. “It would kill their whole thought of it.”
THE ‘BERDMAN’ BANDIT So far, most people have responded positively to “the berds,” said Browne, but others have found them to be hazardous.
“I put up at least 300 in Los Angeles, but there are probably about 60 left,”Browne said.
He doubts that California weather conditions have swept away the cutouts, but suspects either authorities or thieves have removed them.
“I don’t like to put them in an unsafe place,” said Browne, whose main concern is security. “I’d hate for someone to get hurt by it.”
Choosing each spot very carefully, Browne said he also prefers to hang them at busy intersections with a lot of traffic for maximum exposure.
“Santa Monica is a tough city to do my work,” Browne said. “There aren’t many wires above ground.”
He has put up approximately 10 in Santa Monica.
Browne’s act of hawking “the berds” can be charged as a misdemeanor, an act of malicious mischief and vandalism, according to SMPD Lt. Alex Padilla.
“We would definitely pursue it,” said Padilla.“He can’t be putting them up there.”
A BUSINESS BECOMES HIM Each “berd” is handmade from plywood and painted by Browne. Typically, one cutout takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes to make. After hand-cutting the wood, Browne creates an assembly line and works on the berds in his free time.
“Of course, it’s been worth it. I would-n’t take a minute back,” said Browne.
“When I started, it was mainly just that I wanted to do something. I had an idea and it was a way for me to express what was in my head and let go.
“But it tuned out people actually like these things.”
After taking a few business courses at Santa Monica College, Browne fashioned himself into something of an entrepreneur. In 2002, he developed a silk-screening business. “I had a T-shirt line. I still do. I was just printing my own T-shirts with my own graphics. That was keeping me pretty busy,” said Browne. “(Later), I started going to thrift stores looking for clothes to sell. I’m fully engulfed in thrifting.”
Browne sells his merchandise online at www.studiobrowne.com, and even sells the notorious berds ($50 each) at galleries in Downtown LA and Venice.Browne started selling the berds just a few months ago after he was approached by someone on MySpace.com.
“It’s more of a business now, but at the same time, I’m still having fun and the original concept and feeling is there.”
Browne currently resides in a studio/retail/gallery in Echo Park.
While some artists give their type of work a style name, Browne feels versatility separates him from the rest. He is currently working on other street projects that he said also carry some secret symbolic meaning.
“I can’t really describe it. I feel like I’m all over the place,” said the artist of his work. “The meanings between them are compatible with what we go through and what we’re involved in life.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 11, 2007. Read the original PDF.