Since as far back as I can recall, art has been my vocation. It runs as pure and deep as my love for my partner and my beautiful children. The desire to create and express, to capture what burns like fire through my veins. My dreams flooded with the raw inspiration and passion from within are what lead to the birth of Thirteen Birds. When my father passed at the young age of 61, just before the birth youngest son, I felt my spirit awaken to the dark reality that time can and will stop still for us all. During my time studying painting at Loughborough and earning myself a BA Honours in Fine Art, I was always seeking something new. Trying to find where my style and work fitted in.
As a child I remember so vividly how my father could create such wonder. Transforming a blank canvas magically into something beyond words. A story tied together with colour. His thoughts intertwined across lines that independently may not mean much and yet together, mean so much. Despite the lack of money we had, these pieces of beauty were formed from so little and yet they spoke so loud. My brother and I would spend hours drawing on old rolls of woodchip and tossed out betting slip. Anything could become something with a little vision and creativity.
Adversity has struck hard during my life but one thing that kept me going was the freedom I found in my artwork. With the love and support of my wonderful wife and children, the romance of my work is built on love and perseverance . Thirteen Birds is both a memorial to my dad and the phoenix of my life.
Darren Rolinson
Our Story
Before we found each other, life had not always been gentle. We had both weathered seasons that seemed determined to bend us out of shape. There were losses, disappointments and days spent simply trying to keep our heads above water. Yet somehow, through it all, hope remained. We clung on to our resilience and kept our faith in this world. We carried it like a small lantern through the dark, trusting that somewhere beyond the horizon, something brighter was waiting. Then we found each other. Or perhaps we found our way home.
What began as conversations stretching long into the early hours soon became something neither of us could ignore. While Darren drew the original Thirteen Birds, we shared stories, dreams, fears and pieces of ourselves we had never expected another person to understand. Something beautiful was taking shape between us; unseen, feather by feather, wing by wing. Then came our first date at Oxford Castle. Armed with poems we had challenged each other to write, we spent the evening sharing, laughing, listening. Both somewhat in disbelief at the sheer improbability of it all. Looking back, it sounds more like a scene from an old romantic film than real life, yet from the very beginning it felt as though we had known each other forever.
When the world slowed during Covid, we did what seemed the only sensible thing to do when you find your soulmate amongst billions of people on a spinning blue planet. We chose each other. Darren moved into my little two-bedroom terrace with me and my one-year-old daughter, and from that moment every dream became ours. Less than a year later, we bought the home we still adore today. The following spring we married, and later that year, just days before Christmas, we welcomed our beautiful daughter into the world — our phoenix from the ashes and one of life's greatest gifts.
Now our days are filled with everything we once hoped for. The laughter of our girls. Endless cups of tea. Family chaos. Quiet moments. Creativity. The simple joy of building a life together. Life still brings challenges, as it always will, but love changes how those challenges are carried. Like trees whose roots have intertwined beneath the earth, we weather every season side by side. The storms still come, but they no longer threaten to uproot us. Thirteen Birds grew from that love. The art and poetry within these pages are small pieces of our journey; fragments of hope, resilience and beauty found after difficult seasons. They are our way of leaving a few feathers behind on the path, in the hope that someone else might find comfort in them too. Because if our story has taught us anything, it is this: Even after the longest winter, spring still comes. And sometimes, when life seems determined to take everything from you, it quietly places something extraordinary in your hands instead
