These days, trash really isn’t what it used to be—maybe because now we just have more of it.  Less than a century ago people used everything they had or could find for everyday necessities, and they rarely threw away scraps of anything.  But now, in the 21st Century we have no need to use everything we find therefore we have much more waste.  While most people think nothing of throwing away their old scrap metal and used car parts, there are a few artists out there who are taking this trash and turning it into unique works of art.  Mr. Jim Bird is one such person.  Ten percent of his one thousand acre farm in Forkland, Alabama is dedicated to reviving other people’s trash into works of art with the help of some odd-shaped hay bales.

Don’t Judge a Field By Its Junk

Whether you’re from a small town or a big city, you have probably found yourself driving down an old country road a time or two.  You know the scene—two lanes, not always the best pavement job, tractors, farms, and forests.  When driving down rural Alabama Highway 43 (one such highway as previously described), the last thing you’re expecting to see is a field full of crazy hay sculptures.  In fact, all you should be expecting to see is miles and miles of endless pastures filled with cows and a few homes sprinkled in from time to time.  But, be on the lookout!  When you start to realize that you are passing through a little-known town called Forkland, brace yourself for what is just ahead of you.  On that long stretch of empty highway lies Jim Bird’s 100-acre hay farm—fields full of hay sculptures created from hay bales and scraps of metal by Jim and his wife.  This place is “found art” at its finest.  Everything in the fields was made for fewer than five dollars, except for the 30+ foot tin man, which went over budget because Mr. Bird had to purchase 40 dollars worth of aluminum paint.  However, there is no hay present in the sculpture so in his opinion, the tin man did not completely qualify for the budget limitations.  You may think “redneck” when simply passing through Mr. Bird’s farm (I know I did the first time I saw it), but if you look closer it really is art.  After a few trips past the farm, I am sure you will begin to look forward to seeing it and you may find yourself picking your favorite sculpture—whether it be the rabbit, the spider, the tin man, Snoopy stuck in a red airplane high in a tree, or the hay bale that simply has the Crimson Tide “A” propped against it. Mr. Bird has taken the old cliché “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” and taken it to an extreme.  One clue to let you know that aesthetic enjoyment is just ahead is a sequence of three one-word signs containing the words “acta non verba,” which is Latin for “actions speak louder than words.”

Although some of the hay sculptures have changed since he first started creating them in 1993, these words have always remained the same.  Not only is Mr. Bird trying to entertain travelers along the boring stretch of highway, he is trying to teach them a lesson as well.   
Being from Alabama, I pride myself on knowing the “little-known facts” about my state.  However, until about four years ago I had no idea about Mr. Bird and his art.  I had gone camping in Forkland with my boyfriend and his family and friends to a local Forkland campground located on the Tom Bigbee River that we fondly call “The Campsite.”  One night during our stay we ran out of supplies and needed to drive into town to get some dinner and stock up.  Since this was my first time to even visit this part of the state, my eyes were wide open to everything I was seeing.  It was a treat to take in everything this seemingly nothing place had to offer.  The scenery was beautiful and it was nice to be away from a busy city for a while.  But, as we were driving into town, I noticed the three signs “Acta Non Verba” in sequential order on the highway.  I had no idea of their meaning and before I could even ask anyone else in the car to explain it to me, I saw it—the top of the tin man.  Then as we drove closer, its entire 30-foot body came into view.  From my view in the car I couldn’t tell exactly what he was made of but what exactly he was could not be mistaken.  An almost exact 30-foot replica of the beloved Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz, complete with a giant red heart on the left side of his chest.  Then, just past the tin man we started to pass other different sculptures but these were truly like nothing I had ever seen before—hay bales turned into animals and other shapes.  They were just sitting out in the middle of an open field.  There were probably at least ten of them at the time but the ones that stick out in my mind are a spider, a caterpillar, and a rabbit.  Honestly, the first thought that came into my head was “redneck.”  I had never seen anything like this before in my life and my first reaction was a little judgmental.  I thought that these “sculptures” were either the work of a bunch of kids or a crazy farmer who had some time on his hands; I was wrong.  I asked the other people in the car with me if they knew anything about the “things someone put up in that field.”  They told me the land belonged to a local farmer and that he just began building those sculptures a while back.  They reassured me that the man wasn’t as “crazy” as I had led myself to believe, but they didn’t know much more about him so we left it at that.  Little did I know that less than four years later I would have the privilege of sitting down to interview the man behind the hay and that he would forever change my perspective on what found art truly is.

The Man and His Muse

Everyone knows that it takes a special eye to be able to see the good, or the positive, in what others view as a mistake.  One has to have an imagination that at some times may seem a little wacky.  This is the case with Jim.  Most farmers who bale their own hay depend on their balers—machines that harvest the hay—to make symmetrical hay bales because you really can’t do anything with a bale of hay that isn’t the same shape as all the other bales.  It won’t stack correctly in a barn and it won’t roll along the ground quite the way you need it to when you’re ready to put it to use.  When Jim found himself in the position of having a baler that was messing up oddball bales, he didn’t know what to do.  During our interview, he tells me:  I had pushed [the baler] into the woods and I got to thinking about it, I said well I’ll just take that baler back out and make something out of them.  That was that, and it all started 20 years ago with a caterpillar he made as a surprise to his wife, Lib.
Meeting Jim and Lib for the first time was a treat.  I have been seeing those sculptures for years and it was so interesting to finally meet the mind behind them.  Jim and Lib have both lived in Alabama their entire lives and although that may seem simple to some, they have a story to tell anyone who can take a minute and listen.  Jim tells me this about the beginning of their life together:
I was raised in Birmingham and then when I finished Auburn I went back to be an Engineer in harder times and Lib was a police reporter for the Birmingham News and I was working and they had me on the drawing board and I just, I’d get in there and shut the blinds and it was boring as hell so I wanted to quit my job.  So, I quit my job to get married!  We’ve been married 58 years now, something like that!  Let’s see…they gave her three weeks to get married at the Birmingham News and they gave me the weekend.  I told them I think I’ll just quit!
After this exciting start to their marriage, Jim had to get another job.  He decided to begin drilling wells, and this is what brought the two to Demopolis—a small town in West Alabama.  Eventually, Jim became a John Deere tractor dealer with a junkyard on the side—the leftovers from that business are still used to make some of the sculptures today.  Not long after that, the Birds moved onto Jim’s family’s land and began raising cattle.  When talking to Jim, I get the sense that he is a mover; he can’t just sit still when things change.  Like most people from his generation, work is bred in him.  Whether it be raising cattle, selling tractors, or building hay sculptures, he always has to be using his hands.  In fact, Lib tells me that the first sculpture he made for her—the caterpillar—was made when one of their daughters had a baby.

I asked her if she was surprised when she came home to find about six hay bales lined up together with legs and eyes waiting for her in the front pasture.  She simply says, No, Jim is always doing something with something, that’s just what he does.  And that was it, Jim was at home by himself, things were changing in his life, and he had to get moving. 
The fact that Jim has made everything for fewer than five dollars is extremely intriguing to me, but to him it’s not a big deal.  He tells me, “Yeah, well there’s nothing to ‘em.  They’re just buckets and tops and hay.  The hay is my spare hay.  I seed [the land] if I need it.  I seeded some last year.”  To him, it’s just life.  Another aspect of his art that intrigues is one of the pieces itself.  Although it contains no hay, Mr. Bird’s thirty-foot tall replica of the tin man is a sight to see.  As I found out through my research, it has two bathtubs for its feet, or foundation, and it draws the most attention out of anything on the land.  It is also the only piece Jim has ever created for more than five dollars.  In his defense, Jim tells me that he:  Had to buy 40 dollars worth of paint.  But it was built for five dollars…all the tin man is…is bathtubs, 55 gallon drums and an old fuel tank that had a hole in it and the top, the head was an old thing that you checked motors on and it had a hole in it and the top of the head was a rusted out fertilizer spreader.  That’s all.
He ends with “that’s all,” as if to say, “anyone could make it if they have the materials.”  But, that is one thing that makes Jim special.  Not everyone would see two old bathtubs and some 55-gallon drums and think to create something so eye-catching.
Knowing how small the town of Forkland is—and knowing how people in small towns have a tendency to talk—I asked Mr. Bird what the first reactions were to his art.  He tells me a story about his “Acta Non Verba” (actions not words) signs that are posted at the beginning of his land before you can even see the sculptures.   
I had it down on another farm we had down in Jemison and I put it up down there on some old burned trees and the guy just below my place down there cooked barbeque, homemade barbeque on Highway 28.  And those people down there thought that guy had some kind of new barbeque.  I used to laugh about that.
Mr. Bird tells me that although most people are surprised and intrigued, the only negative feedback he has ever received came when he had fashioned an Auburn Tiger out of a boat he had on the river and, some University folks sunk [his] tiger.  His attitude shows that he seems to think something like that would be expected, living in such close proximity to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, home of Auburn’s biggest rival.  They didn’t aim the destruction at him, they aimed it at Auburn, and so it’s all right.
Although the Birds live in rural Alabama, Jim’s art has had national and even international recognition.  He has had tourists, various field trips, and even one Japanese film crew come to visit his farm.  One instance that stands out in his mind is that of a first grade teacher from Columbus, Mississippi who was trying to teach her students how to write a letter: 
I had one of the things one time that impressed me was a lady in Mississippi brought some children over here from her class to see it and she took them back and told them all to tell me what they liked about it and what they thought about it and she sent me this whole manila envelope full of these little letters that these little first graders wrote…She was teaching them how to write a letter and I thought it was really sharp.
Sometimes Jim recruits the curious passersby to help him in making sculptures.  He recalls one time when he was attempting to make a flower.  A couple stopped on the road to look at the sculptures and he asked them to come help him.  To his surprise, the woman was actually a competitive florist.  She stood back and gave direction as to how things should be organized and in the end Jim was left with a long-lasting, great looking flower.  However, he told me that most people that help him are not skilled in things such as that; they are usually, “just bodies.”
As I sat talking with Jim and his wife, I felt like I was at home.  Although Lib was in the hospital, she chimed in just as if we were seated around her kitchen table sharing a meal.  The interview ended up lasting two hours and I could have stayed for four more.  The Birds take you back in time and almost instantly bring you into their family.  When I left, it was as if I was leaving my own grandparents.  I was invited to come down to their home in a few weeks when Lib would be leaving the hospital—an invitation accompanied with the promise of a tour of the grounds, a meal and of course more talking.  You would think that after twenty years of building hay art Jim would be looking toward retirement from his craft, but that is far from the case.  In fact, before I left the hospital, he showed me a rough drawing of his latest brainchild—a thirty foot sign at the end of his property spelling out “FORKLAND” with 55 gallon drums strung between two large trees.  He told me the only thing standing in his way was having enough drums to make it.  If history continues to repeat itself, he’ll collect enough shortly, just as he has collected over a mile long trail of what others would consider “junk” by which he makes his creations.  It was a treat to finally meet the man behind the hay and the woman who has stood by her husband for almost sixty years.  They are an inspiring couple and everyone should have the pleasure of getting to know the Birds.



Unique, But Not Alone

One observation I’ve made while researching for this project is that our found artists don’t get as much credit as they should.  Not to make painting, writing, or other forms of art seem trivial, but it takes a little something extra to do the things that Mr. Bird does.  In Alabama, we are blessed with other found artists—one who is better known than most is Charlie Lucas.  Like Mr. Bird, Charlie was born and raised in Alabama. But rather than using hay as his medium, he uses old scrap metal. 

His life as an artist began at an early age, even though he doesn’t really see it that way, I was always making things and nobody never told me that it was art, and I don't even see it as art anyway.

Found Art started to become an art form in the early 1900’s.  A French-American named Marcel Duchamp coined the phrase when he took an old urinal and turned it into art, giving it the name Fountain.

  Most people thought he was crazy at the time, but he continued to make art out of everyday objects that most people would not look at twice.  This characteristic found in Duchamp in 1915 is still found today in the hearts of found artists everywhere.  Perhaps the term “found art” does not just mean that the materials used to make it have haphazardly been “found,” but that the artist is able to find themselves through their art.  Just like the urinal called to Duchamp and encouraged him to make a piece of artwork out of it, so does the hay call to Mr. Bird and the scrap metal to Charlie Lucas. 
Found art seems to be in all of us, we just don’t all tap into it.  If this were not true then seeing the art would invoke no emotion at all.  I don’t know if there is anyone who can drive past a field of hay bales fashioned into rabbits, spiders, or caterpillars or a urinal turned into a statue and not have some kind of feeling, whether it be confusion, curiosity, or distaste.  You cannot help but feel something.  Furthermore, what makes that feeling so strong that we are compelled to stop our car alongside the road and get out to have our picture taken with the “junk”?  I believe found art speaks to the human condition.  We all have an inner need of expression and for some, making or contributing to found art is the outlet.  Culturally speaking, found art is a big part of our society that needs to be appreciated much more than it is now. 

Sources:

Benn, Alvin. Jim Bird's Unusual Art is Outstanding in His Field. 2006. 9 September 2009 .

Bird, James. Interview. Ashley Anderson. Tuscaloosa, 12 October 2009.

http://www.deepfriedkudzu.com/2005/09/jim-birds-hay-creations-in-forkland-al.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Duchamp_Fountaine.jpg

http://www.alabamaarts.org/lucas.html

Found Art. 10 September 2009. 12 September 2009 .