A large pigeon had flown into her face 1907

Charles Robinson's surreal illustration presents us with a peculiar collision: a girl, a bird, and a sky full of fluffy clouds. Imagine Robinson, back in the late 19th or early 20th century, carefully layering his watercolors to create this dreamlike scene. The girl’s elongated neck, bending like a soft curve, is so odd, yet it also feels so gentle. You can almost feel the brushstrokes as he coaxes the subtle gradations of color that form those puffy clouds. And then, bam! A pigeon flies right into her face. Is she startled? Amused? I wonder if Robinson was thinking about the unexpected ways that nature barges into our lives, disrupting our sense of order and reason. It reminds me of Odilon Redon or even Paula Rego— artists who weren’t afraid to embrace weirdness and the uncanny. It's a reminder that painting, at its best, can be a way to explore the strangeness of being alive.