In the Youth Common and Reception Areas of the High Desert Mental Health Urgent Care (MHUCC), two companion artworks by the artist Michael Waugh each depict scenes of a colorful summer sky crossed by a dreamlike flock of birds. Over a painted background, Waugh utilized the historic technique called micrography- using letters and words to form designs- to draw the delicate figures in flight. Viewers can enjoy the discovery of how these drawings are meticulously crafted from artfully handwritten sentences. To create these drawings, entitled respectively Nurslings of the Sky, Part 1 and Nurslings of the Sky, Part 2, Waugh chose to transcribe an essay called "Nurslings of the Sky," which was written in 1903 by Mary Hunter Austin. As an early feminist and defender of Native-American and Spanish-American rights, Austin is best known for her written tributes to the deserts of California. Austin lovingly describes the gentle desert clouds as “Nurslings of the Sky.” Waugh also selected Austin's essay for the MHUCC because of Austin's uplifting belief that a person could find their meaning in life by looking at the sky. Waugh observes that for Austin the natural world and our inner lives are conjoined, while in his artworks he similarly forms the connection between Austin's words and the birds in the sky. Waugh states: “One thing becomes the next without beginning or end.”
Michael Waugh is known for his large-scale, meticulously rendered drawings, composed entirely out of tiny calligraphic text, which he creates by copying, by hand, historically significant books and government documents. He has received awards from the Pollock- Krasner Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts, among others. His work is available through Von Lintel Gallery, Los Angeles, and is part of numerous collections, including that of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Waugh lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
To learn more visit:
http://michaelwaugh.com/art/michael_waugh.html 
