“Make Hawk Scream bigger & more dominant” from the folio, March Wind in the Woods (1952-61)

Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

“Make Hawk Scream bigger & more dominant” from the folio, March Wind in the Woods (1952-61)

c. 1961

conté crayon on paper

11 x 17 inches

Burchfield Penney Art Center, Charles E. Burchfield Foundation Archives, Gift of the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation, 2006

A red-tailed hawk’s loud, frightening scream pierces the sky as the predator flies and defends territory. Burchfield combined the hawk’s lidded eye with reverberations from its startling call to create a symbolic audio-cryptogram. Did you know intimidating red-tailed hawk screams are often substituted for bald eagle cackles, which are higher pitched and less daunting?