Spring Arrived Anyway

(continuing the Daily Drawing During a Quarantine)

Predator Paranoia/ April 29

Spring arrived anyway...which seemed a little weird, as if it had not gotten the memo that the world had changed.
Our chicks arrived in the mail and we raised them first in the tub and then in a new coop we built at the edge of the yard. (click on link to see video of their arrival!)

Chicks in the Tub/ April 16

I feel like the May snow storm was especially cruel. On May 10th I drew an inventory of every article I wore on my body. It was a far cry from the last 9 years in Miami, broiling under the sun!

The weather tried to keep us indoors and I found moments of gloom taking over me.

Wistful/ May 6

The bed seemed the safest place to be, even though my heart was done with hibernating.

Bed day/ April 15

Making the Best of It

Practices/ April 21

(Continuing the Daily Drawing During Quarantine)

Michael and I grow stronger. We take daily walks, laugh and share more of ourselves with the other.

We dance, we sing karaoke, we bake, we read to each other. 

Performance/ March 17

Connecting/ April 19

My friend Leesah hosts one of the first online virtual performances for St Patty’s Day. We join Wassaic community in online Bingo. We swap gifts with neighbors and find offerings at our door.

Gifts/ April 10

And every meal we eat together. And we trust when it comes time for the quarantine haircut, we will be there for each other.

Every meal/ April 18

Haircut/ April 27

Topiary Time Lapse

Our Giant Rooster brings us so much joy and wonder.

Photos are from July 24th to December 3rd. #timelapse #seasons #treeseasons #tree

On the Cover of JAVMA, at long last

At long last and in the nick of time! Ten years ago I stopped submitting work to my father's favorite veterinary journal. I had, for years, submitted paintings of my kids with the basset hound, a couple of cats and even chickens. So you cannot imagine my surprise when last fall the art director of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association contacted me about a painting I had submitted in 2008!
You see... it is almost never too late, and you never ever know what is going to happen if you put your work out there!

The sweetness of this issue is that my father, just 6 days ago, retired from his Veterinary practice of 43 years! His last day was in December and then "my cover" comes out in January... It is poetry.
Oh joy!

The painting- called Picky Pecky Hen, an encaustic on sewn paper , was sold years ago out of an exhibition at the Beacon Howland Cultural Center.

Three french hens

sold

This trip cannot get any better for me.

Happy Easter

There is such joy in a new day, a new beginning, and the end of winter. Hallelujah!

wildlife in a paved paradise

I miss my Home Farm. But we would not find these raccoons so cute there. They would kill my chickens for no reason at all, just for the sport. But here, in Miami, they are a reminder that nature has to coexist with us humans...

In praise of the ingredients of my offering

I have been making my offering to the gathering, a cranberry kuchen from my German grandmother's recipe. The process of putting the ingredients together is like a poem of gratitude and honor.

First of all: cranberries! If I were a locavore They would be out of reach, an exotic delicacy...which they really are. They only grow in acidic bogs in the northern hemisphere of the world. These come from Oregon...about as far away on the continent from Florida as you can get. I have to thank the truckers for bringing the harvest to market.

I then had to cream the butter with the Florida raw sugar. The butter made me think of my sweet baby sister who used to milk her cow (Martha) every morning, holiday or not! I think she made butter a few times, though I remember her cheese experiments better. As I soften the rectangles of butter back to a paste, I think of my sister and all the dairy maids working with the cows this morning.
Another ingredient like the sugar that is local and in season, is the orange! It is with pleasure I squeeze the juice out of the oranges. I make myself a glass of juice to drink while cooking.

Two of my most prized possessions, on my list of things I would grab if I needed to migrate quickly with only what I could carry, are Papa Frank's copper pot and Nick's wooden spoon. The pot was a wedding gift and has been the vessel for sustaining no-fail delicious meals for over half my life. It has all of my ex-father-in-law's love in it. The wooden spoon was a gift from an 8 year old boy fifteen years ago, an acknowledgement of a friendship I treasure. Whenever I use the spoon, I believe anything is possible.

The eggs are from the Country Hen and I love the story, the Farm News, that is included in every carton. It is a glimpse into the life of a farmer and his dreams for a healthy sustainable occupation. I remember my own chickens and the joy in finding their eggs. Each hen laid a different color and size. I loved the variation and someday I will have chickens again... But are these not beautiful????

As I worked in the flour and the baking powder I thought of the farmers all across the country. Seriously, if you are eating today you should thank a farmer!
I added a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon of baking powder, oops.

While the kuchen cooked, I put some Baume des Pyrenees on my burn. It was, as my French grandmother told me, the perfect thing for burns. In fact it should heal quickly... Because the product is so good, the American medical establishment has lobbied for it not to be available in this country... as my grandmother said, "it would put them out of business".
Today we give thanks as a collective in the United States, taking a pause to reflect and acknowledge our blessings. There is power in gathering and, with your group, highlighting the positives. Some are gathering at football games or in dens to watch parades on TV, and others are gathering around a table of food.

Here is the cranberry kuchen, ready to travel!!! Love to everyone I can think of, and to all those I fail to be aware of. May your bellies be full.

the Five necessities for Xmas

1. Candles. Winter is a season of increasing and massive darkness and the eternal hope of new light. Lighting a candle is a powerful symbolic act. It brings awareness and vision. I wish I had taken pictures from last evening when the whole apartment was lit by islands of candles.

Cooking by candlelight was an interesting experience. at one point I think I used cinnamon instead of pepper!

2. Mistletoe. Any excuse to get kissing seems like a good one. It is very poisonous to digest unless you are a bird. According to ancient European custom, Mistletoe is hung (never touching the ground) to protect the house from fire and lightening. A good things when you have so many candles!

3. A red dress. Or any new dress. The holiday isn't a celebration unless you deck yourself up in finery to participate. I am going to add a bit of glitter with earrings and eye make-up.

4. Music. It's hard in the tropics to conjure up a white winter without a little song. Here is my favorite CD by Leesah Stiles.

5. A baby Jesus. It is what Christmas is all about. We celebrate the birth of new life and the awareness of God's love in our life. In a season where "the rivers turn to stone and the trees show their bones", (my friend Cait Johnson said that), we need the hope of planting a seed. Jesus was a seed. He brought love and showed us how to live on this earth with it. I can't find my creche. It's in storage or in an unlabeled box out of my awareness. So I gravitate to the fresh kittens outside, or the smiling toddlers in the stores. They are full of innocence, wonder, and still have the capacity for awe.

Bonus #6. We need gifts. gifts to show our affection for each other. Gifts to acknowledge the light between us. (Time to..uh no... go shopping.)

Something to crow about

I finished the commission!

And right on time!

acrylic on canvas

30 x 15 inches

SOLD

Oh my gosh, no time to delay

This is a bigger job than I anticipated.

 I have three days to get it done. It is to be given as a gift from my neighbor to her new husband on the eve of their wedding, which is in Ireland this weekend. The dog is his, and the cat is hers. The animals all keep wiggling on me- their tails going first one way and then the other. I had to move the moon to the other side from the initial sketch, and that, of course, changes the highlights and shadows. And the words!!!! She wants all the sounds...So much sound.

Wish me luck!

SHOW at the Cornwall Library

My Anxious Chickens are running across the walls of the library in Cornwall CT. Please stop in and ask Ellen about them.

Hen and Butterfly
Encaustic on paper, on wood panel
6 x 12 inches $200

The chickens are gone

sold
They left tonight. We carefully grabbed each one with a blanket and I was able to carry them quietly to the back of the truck where a transport cage waited... and I told them, in my daily crooning voice, about how happy they are going to be in their new home. I knew it had to happen- but I had no idea this morning that it would be the last time I'd wake to the rooster crow.
Sad.
I guess I have to believe I am going to be happy in my new home too.
Encaustic hen on paper, 6 x 8 inches. 2008

Moving Target as a recurring theme

The beauty of getting to be a certain age is that you can start to see patterns. Or maybe I am just slow and it has taken me this long to see that what I painted years ago, I will paint again. I'll paint it now.
6 x 12 x 2 inches acrylic and collage headlines on canvas.

I am trying to get organized, to make sure everything is inventoried and signed. So I spent the day in the barn loft studio and uncovered an unsigned and unfinished piece from maybe the year 2006. I could call it Bleak Vision, like the headline in the lower left says...
It reminds me of Lydia, my hen who has been de-feathered and let loose by Bruno. Missing for the last two days, she might be naked and hiding so I whisper her name near the neighbors bushes hoping to hear her coo forth... meanwhile I carry a bucket of her orange feathers... saved for an art project? And I throw scraps of peanut butter and jelly and lettuce at the door to the coop.
I feel like a moving target as well. The lists aren't getting any shorter, but the halls are filling with boxes and bags. Progress seems painfully slow.
Another Painting- called: Issues, from 2008... begs the question:is the naked hen a recurring theme? Last night I dreamt I was unclothed and frantically trying to pack the trunk of my car with bulky fragile things like lampshades... and people were everywhere, so at the same time I am trying to hold a towel to my front for modesty's sake.
I feel tired just writing about it!

A roof over my head

makes me luckier than a huge percentage of the world's population.
I don't know how I was born so lucky... here in beautiful hilly New York, with family, friends and lots of personal space. I could have been born in Palestine, or Libya, or even Alabama.
My daily list never gets tackled and stress can bring me down. I have to constantly remind myself to take moments and count my blessings. I am so thankful to be where I am today!
My chickens have a roof over their heads too!