Wish You Were Here

Even more than 40 years after its release, the iconic 4-note theme from "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" still gives me chills when that minor arpeggio finally comes in after several minutes of intro.

I thought it might be interesting to develop the birdcage idea from Cage 2'03 a bit further, having five perches to represent the stave and the birds the crotchets and quavers on the stave. Each bird was given a slightly different personality and colour was added from a watercolour wash I'd experimented with.

The finished piece is shown below. The coloured accepts are suspended between the second piece of glass and the paper backing using wooden spikes (cocktail sticks) that push through the paper into a foamboard layer behind it.

Finally, I thought it might be interesting to animate the birds to illustrate the notes as the riff plays. The eye blinking was an additional challenge ...