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| Colin Morrell displays a few of his art projects: a soft sculpture of his sun conure, a great blue heron made from fabric on canvas and a whimsical sculpture of a bird with aviator glasses. | Photo by J. J. Meyer |
Like many great artists, Colin
Morrell, a freshman in the visual arts conservatory at the Orange County School
of the Arts in Santa Ana, finds inspiration in nature.
“All of my
art projects have to do with birds,” said Morrell, 15.
“When I do
a project, the kids at school say ‘Colin and his birds again.’ They think I’m
obsessed. I’m known as the ‘bird kid.’”
While his
sun conure, Comet, has been the model for several pieces, he looks mainly to
wild birds, including those in his back yard.
Last summer, he talked his parents into putting up a birdfeeder. It quickly grew to two with seed, another for suet and one for hummingbird nectar.
“I wouldn’t have put up birdfeeders,”
said his mother, Amanda Morrell, “that was totally his idea.” And it didn’t stop there, she said.
Her son also researched the idea of
placing a fountain in their back yard to draw species that typically don’t
visit feeders such as warblers and other insect-eaters. He found a large stone fountain for a steal on
Craig’s List. The sellers were asking $150 for a fountain that retailed for
$2,000. But the trick was to get it out
of the sellers’ back yard through an 18-inch clearance on the side of the house. And the sellers wanted it out quickly.
“The base alone weighed 1,200
lbs.,” Amanda said. It took eight male
friends to move and install it. But the
effort has paid off with daily avian visitors to the fountain, including
hummingbirds that like the bubbling action at the top. Colin added mosquito fish and aquatic plants
to the reservoir at the base where other birds stop to drink. His favorite is the boisterous scrub jay, but
the “coolest looking bird” he says, is the spotted towhee.
Next Colin talked his parents into
replacing the backyard lawn with California native plants. The family found the varieties they needed at
a plant sale at Fullerton Arboretum. He
then laid stone to create a walkway around the fountain and through the
garden. In a few spots, he placed stone
remnants in random piles for lizard shelters.
“Colin invests in birds and
nature,” Amanda said. So he didn’t stop
with his own back yard. He designed a
demonstration garden as part of an Eagle Scout project for the Boy Scouts to
educate the homeowners in his community about the importance of
drought-tolerant California native plants and their role in nature.
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