> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A Short But Succinct Survey of the Current Hand Turkey Stratosphere - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/short-succinct-survey-of-hand-turkey/ - Published: 2011-11-24T16:45:47.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T15:40:44.000Z - Description: Hand turkey. You know you've made one. And if you haven't, well, perhaps it's time you did. - Author: Erin Lindholm - Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Folk Art, pop culture, Thanksgiving, Turkey, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011) [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/11/turkey.jpg "turkey")](http://www.businesspundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/turkey.jpg?ref=hyperallergic.com) Hand turkey. You know you’ve made one. And if you haven’t, well, perhaps it’s time you did. I hadn’t really given a thought to hand turkeys for years until three days ago, when I walked into a hand turkey drawing session in my neighbor’s apartment: four, or five, thirty-somethings hovering around a single sliver sheet of poster board, in various states of tracing, or decorating, their hand turkeys with pens and black sharpies. And these birds were awesome. A ballerina; a punk-rock bird; one had cat paws; another with Santa boots and dollar sign bling. Bottom line is, all hand turkeys start with the simple act of putting your hand down on a piece of paper and tracing around it. How you decorate it; whether or not you cut it out; hell, your choice of material and drawing medium is just the start of a chance personal expression that will never be replicated. Because it’s your hand! In a nod to the ubiquitousness of the hand turkey’s importance to the Thanksgiving holiday, within the same time frame, both [Google](http://g.co/doodle/ab23hc?ref=hyperallergic.com) and the [New York Times](http://lisahanawalt.com/post/13067871275/visions-of-thanksgiving-in-the-new-york-times?ref=hyperallergic.com) have given the hand turkey a nod. Here, a few other inspired birds (click on each image for the source): ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/11/hand_turkey_by_bilious.jpg) Hand turkey not going down without a fight (deviantart.com) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/11/images.jpg) Hand pilgrim turkey. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/11/profile1small.jpg) The Beatles bird (scienceblogs.com) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/11/dabonclouds.jpg) Hand turkeys in love (via 0.tqn.com) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/11/my-hand-turkey.jpg) Hand turkey (the other side is always greener) (via brainfuel.tv) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/11/scan0001.jpg) Oh My Gawd I know some New Yorkers that would die for that coat ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/11/hand-turkey-4.jpg) Hand turkey moonlighting as songbird. \* \* \* Editor’s Note: We are also [celebrating Thanksgiving on Hyperallergic LABS](http://hyperallergic.tumblr.com/post/13253192597/roe-ethridge-thanksgiving-1984-2009-share?ref=hyperallergic.com), our tumblelog. So … **[submit images of your Thanksgiving](http://hyperallergic.tumblr.com/submit?ref=hyperallergic.com)** — photos of your meal: whether an artwork in itself, the result of hours of intensive labor, or perhaps merely arranged artfully on your plate, an expression of your holiday. [Submit](http://hyperallergic.tumblr.com/submit?ref=hyperallergic.com) also illustrations or videos of your Thanksgiving day: the food, the people you share it with, the gratitude, the happy or painful recollections of a complex personal and/or national history, or the utter absence of any of these things. [Show us](http://hyperallergic.tumblr.com/submit?ref=hyperallergic.com), via Instagram, Hipstamatic, Lightbox, Picplz, your Holga, your cheapo point-and-shoot, your 35mm, your own drawings, your collages, your imagination: Eating with dozens of loved ones? Eating with people you’re reluctantly stuck with? Vegan? Kosher? Halal? Turducken? Fasting? Starving? Alone? At home? At the bus station? At a soup kitchen? At a turkey trot? What are you giving thanks for?