Remarks on Color: Mourning Dove Brown
February's Hue

by Eve Wood | Feb 1, 2022

Joseph Cornell, Untitled (Aviary with Yellow Birds), 1948

Imagine existing between two worlds, neither here nor there, neither one thing nor another, brown, then pink, then a shimmering iridescent green. Life is very confusing for Mourning Dove Brown, as she is continuously changing color depending on the light, the time of day, and her general overall demeanor. Sometimes she feels sad and the green ring of luminescence verifiably glows around her little neck, until suddenly, and out of the blue, the sun catches in a sparkle of deep magenta and she is transported to the top of a mountain. The fact the rest of her is an overall drab brown is of little consequence to her as she rarely looks in the mirror and if she by chance spots her own reflection in the storefront window of The Gap, as she sometimes does when foraging for wayward seeds on the curb, she consoles herself with the fact that brown is the most ubiquitous color — from the coats of dogs to the ugly corduroy couch someone dumped on the corner – brown is literally EVERYWHERE, and this is her saving grace.

Still, she has her moments of doubt and self-recrimination, as her mournful cry denotes – sometimes even going so far as to paint herself a brighter color in the hope of standing out, yet the brown always, inevitably comes through. Needless to say, Mourning Dove Brown has not had much success on the dating market, especially since brown birds are mostly overlooked, even those with green and pink highlights. She and her friend Ida, a Jacobin pigeon, came up with the idea to start their own dating service specifically for soft billed avians with little aptitude for love. After all, doves mate for life, so it’s that much more important that they be discerning when choosing a mate. They called it “Coo My Way,” and within the first thirty days Mourning Dove Brown had met her match in a big, blustery fellow named Floyd, and the rest, as they say, is birdstory!