     Upon first glance, the viewer can easily see a bird featured on the right side of the painting. However, if the viewer were to continue their gaze on the artwork, they would then be able to witness a hidden image constructed by the tuft of leaves on the left side, which creates a second bird in this painting. This optical illusion was purposeful and intentionally created by the artist as a tactic to lengthen the gaze of the viewer. The artist’s intentionality of adding depth to this image is observed through the manipulation of the leaves’ structure, the single droplet of water in the middle of the branch, and through the use of colors in both the leaves and the background of this image. The combination of these effects produces a significant effect because together they enable the viewer to script a narrative paralleling the life cycle of birds, which is derived from the overall mood of grief exhibited in this image.  

          Within the configuration of the leaves, a hidden image of a secondary bird is present, which creates a narrative of the life cycle and its emotional toll on the primary bird. The artist could have painted another, distinctive bird- similar to the primary bird on the right side of the painting- however, the ambiguity created by this tactic allows the viewer to visualize the life cycle of animals, which signifies that a bird that has recently died.  The structure of the leaves, which represents this secondary bird, is intentional in the use of negative space. Because the secondary bird is a hollow shell, rather than occupied by more leaves to fill the empty space, the artist is representing a bird that was once alive, but no longer is still alive: a mere shell of something that once was. The negative space created by the leaves is another tactic created by the artist, which creates feelings of uncertainty. Uncertainty is a direct result from negative space because it allows many different pathways for interpretation. The negative space exhibited in the tuft of leaves tells the reader about the primary bird’s mate that is no longer alive, and it also shows the uncertain effects of the transition in the expression of the primary bird. The viewer knows that the primary bird is uncomfortable with its mate’s transition from life to death by the primary bird’s body positioning. Its neck is cocked upwards and to the side, which shows that it is uncomfortable with the progression of the life cycle and the effects of it on a bird that it was very close to, its mate. The viewer observes this discomfort because the awkward positioning that it is undergoing just to catch a glimpse of the mate. If the shell of leaves were supposed to represent any other bird instead of the primary bird’s mate, then the primary bird would not be making such an extreme and uncomfortable effort just to look at it. Rather, the primary bird would not be looking at the leaves, but it would be looking straight ahead- a position similar to that of the secondary bird.  The primary bird is mourning the loss of its mate and is personifying inanimate objects into its late mate as a result of, and coping mechanism, dealing with the grief experienced. 

     Another representation of grief that is depicted in this image is the inclusion of a single droplet of water upon the branch of the perched birds. Because there is only one droplet, rather than of the entirety of the branch beaded with water, it shows that the droplet is not derived from the result of a natural rain.  Instead, it serves as an intentional symbol that adds significant depth to the image because it mirrors a figurative rain: tears. It is strategically placed equidistantly between both the real bird and the symbolic bird acting as an emotional bridge that connects the two. The single droplet personifies the literal bird because a tear has fallen from its eye, yielding an undoubted byproduct of grief. Artistically, droplets could have appeared anywhere on the branch to convey the sense of a recent rain; however, this is clearly not what the artist intended. Its lonely quality, which parallels the literal bird’s emotional state, and the isolation of a singular droplet coupled with the precise location of the drop is all evidence that the droplet was very intentional and should not go unnoticed. The introduction of a lone teardrop enhances the painting’s mood through the personification of grief that the primary bird is experiencing as the result of the loss of its mate. 

     The use of color in two different aspects of this image have significance: the coloring of the fall leaves represent a transition from life to death, while the background represent the transition into the afterlife. Fall leaves, rather than ordinary spring leaves, are intentionally chosen to represent the secondary bird because fall leaves encase the season of transition. The specific transition that fall leaves signify is the transition of spring life to winter death. The shift from spring to winter is equivalent to the nature of the life cycle because everything that is living is mortal: life is finite. What was blossomed in the spring cannot endue the grueling winter, so the leaves fall off and die as a result. Yes, a bird has to ability to endure the cold winter, but its life is limited by many other factors that prevent it from living forever. The season of life is limited and must come to an end eventually: a phenomenon commonly referred to as the life cycle. The coloring of the background is significant because the location of those colors relative to the birds’ locations points to an afterlife for the secondary bird. The background is blurred with no depictable figures so the viewer’s attention is adverted to only the specific colors and their location in relation to the foreground. The specific coloring described is shown by the biggest color contrast in the background is uncoincidently placed on the same side of the painting that the symbolic bird is. The upper half of this side of the painting is the lightest portion of the painting, and the bottom half serves as the darkest portion of the painting. The stark contrast of colors and the location of the contrast, being on the same side of the painting as the recently deceased bird, show the viewer that the bird is now transitioning into the afterlife of heaven or hell. The secondary bird appears to be encircled by the lighter tones of paint, rather than the darker tones, which tell the viewer that the bird is now in heaven. On the right side of the painting where the primary bird is, there is only a slight contrast in colors while the rest of it remains dull and lackluster, signifying that the primary bird has not reached the afterlife yet because it is still alive. This transition from life to death, as witnessed through the fall leaves, is deepened through the background’s colors by adding in the dimension of the afterlife. Through the fall leaves that construct the symbolic bird’s season of transition from life to death, the background’s additional transition expresses a double meaning that furthers the initial transition from life to death, and then into heaven. 

     In summary, this optical illusion has created multiple vantage points for the viewer. The painting depicts the natural aspects of the life cycle that nothing lives for forever. Everything that lives is mortal and this painting explicates that through the use of both a literal and figurative bird. However, there is hope for reunion of the two birds in the afterlife as evidenced through the contrast expressed in the background on the left side of the painting. The color scheme used by the fall leaves is mimicked by the unimpressionable background, which furthers the overall theme of a transitional period.  Significant amounts of depth were brought into this painting because the viewer was able to look at a sprig of leaves and see a secondary bird, to look at a water droplet on a branch and see a tear drop, and, finally, to look at the coloring and see the transitions from life to death and into the afterlife. The depth experienced by this painting communicates the difference between just looking and actually seeing a narrative.
