Sam Kronick, an MIT undergraduate I bothered as he took a saw to wood, said he, too, found the work to be soothing. Kronick, part of a group called Cracked (a “rogue artist troupe trying to make art in a technical school”), said he’d been drawn to the event by Haeg’s expansive approach to art.
I later looked up to find that Haeg had already left, though most of the attendees stayed behind to stain the outer surfaces of their boxes. On ours, my friend drew two small birds; it was really quite lovely. Generally speaking, though, our bird house looked more like a shanty. The door to it didn’t swing open as I imagined it should, and, as my friend pointed out, the other houses didn’t seem to make noises when doing so. We have yet to hang it around the school’s campus as the others most certainly have, for fear of making life worse than it already is for some poor, homeless bird.
A short while after the event, Haeg’s greatest gift became apparent to me. He brings people together to do things they might not otherwise do by themselves. The impulse may very well be there, but many of us need the promise of something more to push us to action. With the Animal Estates project, Haeg offered the chance to be part of something bigger than ourselves.
Related:
Worldly travelers, Some Spaniards in the works, Readers' pick: Piece of public art, More 
- Worldly travelers
Recently, Brother Cleve has become something of an international presence, thanks to an eclectic band he plays keyboards in called Dragonfly and to an increasingly successful career as a DJ. Dragonfly, "Blind (Brother Cleve's rock 'n dhol remix)" (mp3)
- Some Spaniards in the works
With his elongated forms and spiritual intensity, Greek-born Domenikos Theotokopoulos is often seen as expressing the passion of Counter-Reformation Spain.
- Readers' pick: Piece of public art
There's interactive musical art at the Kendall Square T stop.
- Red Sparowes
The brainchild of Isis guitarists Jeff Caxide and Bryant Clifford Meyer, this post-rock outfit is inspired by Mao Zedong’s attempted eradication of farm-pestering sparrows in the late 1950s.
- 30 ways to have fossil-free fun in Boston this Summer
It’s tough to maximize your summer fun when, every time you start your engine, you realize that you’re strangling the last few breaths of life out of the planet’s 17 (or so) remaining white rhinos.
- Stone soul picnic
This article originally appeared in the October 5, 1982 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
- Star Fish Market
Arriving early for a tour of Samuel Adams Brewery, hungry and thirsty Bostonians might stumble across Star Fish Market.
- The dirt
ABC’s The Bachelor has long been one of the dirtiest shows on TV, a softcore brothel spritzed with the air-freshener pieties of courtly love.
- Bringing back sexy
It seems the Hindu god Krishna and his lover Radha were always sneaking off to some secluded moonlit spot. Slideshow: Domains of Wonder: Masterworks of Indian Painting at the MFA
- Birds of paradise
A conversation with Jerry Laurutano, proprietor of Jerry’s Underground Hair Salon.
- Excellent Italian interview
Steve Albini is a pretty nerdy guy.
- Less
Topics:
This Just In
, Media, Mammals, Nature and the Environment, More
, Media, Mammals, Nature and the Environment, Wildlife, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Magazines, Whitney Museum of American Art, Birds, Fritz Haeg, Less
