Swirls Collage with Swirls Cathead Basket

Bird is an artist, nurse, and truth-teller. Her personal history with trauma and disability, coupled with her expertise in the body’s physiology, informs her sculptural basketry practice. As a young nurse, she experienced a disabling injury that left her in bedrest and depressed. Two years later, she took a basketry class and found it profoundly rehabilitating. Her research later revealed that basketry served as a medical tool for trauma recovery in hospitals. Bird sculptures embody lived experiences. She grows and harvests her own willow using sustainable practices. She creates to, be part of an ancestral legacy in which weaving natural fibers was a part of daily life and a way to honor the resilience of nature. Her work is supported by grants and has been featured in national exhibitions.