Why Birds?

 

Oriental Kingfisher

April 2026

9x12

So why am I so fascinated by birds?  It's obvious that they are a favorite subject for my art, but getting to the bottom of why is a little tricky.

My high school art teacher taught me to 

always start with the eye 

Birds are beautiful, obviously.  Well, most of them are - I have no desire to start painting buzzards or nightjars, but there are oodles of species of birds and after years of looking for inspiration, I still find ones I have never seen or heard of before.

Take this little oriental kingfisher, for instance.  So appealing, so vibrant. So jewel-like.

You might say the same thing about flowers - and you'd be right.  

But birds have personality.  They have individuality and character. Sometimes they're even silly.  And the variety of birds on this planet!  My goodness, I can go on painting them forever.

Birds often appear to be soft or fluffy, and having handled many birds in my life, I can attest that feathers feel nice. They also smell nice, or parrots do, anyway.  But now I'm straying.

I think the most appealing aspect of birds as subjects for my art is that they are elusive.  

They are shy. 

They are free.

 

Capturing a bird in a work of art is a small way of keeping it as a pet.  I can enjoy their beauty and I can struggle with reproducing their appearance, and then I can claim a bit of ownership over a being that I may not ever see with my own eyes.

In my daily practice of saying Compline with my husband, we often come across verses that describe God as having wings and/or feathers. God Himself uses birds as a way to describe His character.  I think that's wonderful.

All the tiny details 

And although I don't usually include flowers, there is always some botanical element

Making some of the details really subtle brings me joy.

And so, in conclusion: why birds? 

Why not?

Selling Locally

This past Sunday, my darling husband and I had lunch at a local pizza place - Lupi's - the one on Jenkins. I was thinking about their food when I suggested we eat there, but when I went to our table I was reminded that local artists have their work up on the walls.  So, I inquired about getting MY work up on their walls, and the manager was so nice and the terms are so favorable that I decided to give it a try.

These are the 3 pieces that I have chosen to display: 

Green Honeycreeper 9x9"

Cock of the Rock 5x7"

Long Tailed Grackle 5x7"

 They are prints, not originals - because I wasn't prepared to take that much of a risk at first.  As you can see, I framed them and printed some placards giving the name of the work and the price, along with my name and the qrcode to my portfolio.

Whenever we go to Lupi's, I normally get their caprese salad (which comes with a mini loaf of fresh bread), but seeing as it's still early for tomatoes, I just got their meat lasagna.  It was delicious, but I will return at some point in the summer to get the caprese because it's so good that I actually don't  mind that I'm eating fresh tomatoes. Plus they make their own mozzarella.  And of course their pizzas and calzones are the real deal.   You should try them, if you haven't and live near one.

So we shall see if my work does well in a non-gallery setting.  There are gallery options available, but I'm taking this one step at a time. 

Yesterday I posted a process reel on Instagram and the algorithm made choices for me...

If you would like to watch it, here is the link:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXW9IMbAGGM/?hl=en

 

Yellow Bird

5x7"

January 2026

After dinking around with watercolor for the first time in over a year, I began dabbling in this so-called technique of squeegee painting.  This is where a medium - in my case acrylic ink, is scraped across the surface of paper with a tool of some sort. I bought mine at an estate sale.  I had some inks, but the bulk of my colors came from my sister - the depository of all art supplies.

I made some larger works first, which I may or may not showcase here, but decided that since I was just dinking around a smaller size would be more achievable.

A little background on my recent evolution as an artist: In 2021 I began dabbling in watercolor.  Up until quite recently I would only use words like dabble and dink to describe my art-making.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum: I began to produce artwork that was really good.  I mean, really good.  And this was such a surprise and revelation that I proceeded to get all in my head about it, quickly becoming addicted to the dopamine hits provided by social media comments and likes. And the pressure to keep surprising myself became poison.  So I stopped painting for a while.

Returning to the beginning of this year, which is when the pressure to create became greater than the pressure to surprise myself, I got my watercolors out and began making works based on colors and patterns and texture.  And they were fun to make and no pressure.  But I felt that I was making art that was not unique to who I am - I follow a bagillion accounts on Instagram that are people making just this kind of art.  And while we all find those process videos inspiring and entertaining, I knew I was capable of something more like me.

But how to go there?  Start painting birds again, but this time without pressuring myself.  I changed medium from watercolor to acrylic paint markers - a gift from my daughter which I initially thought I wouldn't enjoy that much ( especially since I had just invested a bunch of money in a set of prismacolor alcohol markers).  

Then I found the scraper at an estate sale and knew I wanted to try squeegee art.  My backgrounds became fertile, colorful places onto which I could make marks with a variety of implements, and placing a bird in the midst of all that pattern was the clincher - that and giving my birds a gold dotted halo because why not?

This series is not nearly as crazy-making as my watercolors were, and I approach each one with a sense of play and experiment.  This has allowed me to crank out a large portfolio of which I am quite proud to share with you and the world.  I think it is apparent in the work that I am having fun, finally, and that I have come home to where I belong, doing what I was created to do.

 

 Writing About My Work

Yesterday I started putting my recent collection into individual resealable clear plastic bags - the kind that greeting cards sometimes come in.  It was a nice chance to take another look at all the pieces I have created this year and notice how my work is evolving. 

Although I am enjoying the current look of the work and the process I use, I am always craving novelty and growth.  I was able to see how I've made some small changes that feel like I have improved the final product.

One big change is that instead dragging the ink in straight lines horizontally and vertically, I have started curving the lines.  I also allow the ink to sometimes leave trails as I go across the page - this happens when I don't put sufficient ink down to make it from one edge to another. 

I'm looking at a framed piece I own by calligraphy artist Timothy Botts which is hanging in my studio, and I see exactly those same effects in his background: curved lines and trails of insufficient ink.  I never noticed that before!

Another change, or evolution - is that I am decorating the backgrounds so much more than I used to.  I remember, in the early pieces, I would think to myself, "That's enough," after adding a few marks here and there.  Now I keep going and although it might seem busier, I think it really adds more interest and texture.  Plus, creating surface design just makes me happy.

I seem to have favorites in each of the sizes I'm working in.  I wont list them here because I don't want to share every thought that comes into my head.  But after putting most of the work into plastic sleeves, I'm feeling like I could work more in the 9x9 size. I think I really prefer the square shape at the moment.  I recently bought some 11x14 bristol, which I could easily cut down to 11x11, so that might be in my future, also.

I need to upload all the scanned photos of my work, and get scans made of the last four 5x7s I finished last week - and then I can post photos of what all I have been talking about here.  But as part of my homework, I have been assigned writing about my work, so here I have done that. 

Regeneration

Regeneration

33" x 35"

Hand Dyed and Commercial Cottons

Fused and Machine Quilted

$250

For most of the quilting, I used black thread.  But for the center where the arcs didn't intersect, I decided  to see how white thread would look.

I like how it kinda disappears.

This is a new way of quilting for me.  I really enjoyed both the process and the result.  I will be doing more of this in the future.

Blogging from my Phone

I seem to have a lot of down time at work, so I thought I'd try a little experiment.



Now I just need to figure out how to get my words where I want them in relation to the pictures.

But as you can see, I have begun the quilting. The going is slow as I really need to concentrate while I'm doing free motion, and that can't happen when there are people in my world.

But I'm pleased so far.

Top Finished

After having a run-around morning, I had several hours all afternoon to work on the quilt.
I finished to branches on the right side of the tree and then had the daunting task of cutting the pattern for the "crown" or top of the tree.

I wont lie to you; it took me about 45 minutes to cut this out, and I wasn't even done then!  I still had plenty of little fiddly bits to go in and remove.  But it wasn't an unpleasant thing to do.  I was listening to NPR podcasts and just working away.  

And then, suddenly, as if by magic, I had the fabric piece cut out and the tree was finished.

Just kidding.  That took a long time, too.  

Then I ran into a problem.

Without thinking about the consequences, I fused every branch all the way down to the pattern.  I could have just fused the branch to the trunk, but I just had to see how close I was to the original drawing.  And then, when it came time to transfer the fabric to the quilt, it frayed as I was pulling it up from the backing paper.  I had to go REAL SLOW, and then I had to trim some of the frayed bits away.  Live and learn.

But all is well that ends well.  And now I just have to put a back on it and quilt it.  

I had a fuzzy intention of making a quilt every month, but now I have two quilt tops that are unfinished and I think I will readjust my goal and try to finish both by the end of this month.

My cousin Celeste asked a question in yesterday's post:

What kind of fabric are you using for the sun rays that makes it appear transparent? I love that effect.

I am using all hand-dyed fabrics by Melody Johnson, of course.  These are getting to be in short supply, so I will be making my own very soon.  But it's merely a matter of using lighter values that gives the look of transparency.