cardinal directions

I’ve moved around a lot. None of which was as a child, but shortly before I turned 21 I moved out and would bop around over a dozen times between then and my 34th birthday. I never thought it was excessive until I realized I was re-using the same boxes over and over to pack the same things. No need to label anything! I guess it made it more bearable in a way, some sense of continuity. Glasses, winter clothes, living room decorations, “wall stuff”. Packed and unpacked, redecorated, reset in a hope that it would be the last time.

In the last couple years I’ve finally been able to lay some roots. The neighborhood I’m in has insane density of wildlife for an urban-ish area. When I first moved in I put a bird feeder out and watched my Snow White entertainment nibble away. Just my yard is home to a blue jay family, two cardinal families, a variety of robins, sparrows, starlings, dark eyed juncos, and a ton more I haven’t seen yet. A decent sized murder of crows rotates large pines and telephone lines around the block, and two blocks over lives a red tailed hawk couple. When I thought about it, just about every place that I’ve lived has had cardinals in the yard. They were one of the first birds I learned to identify by sound.

While perhaps not my favorite bird, I had to take a stab at the vibrant red. Feathers are proving to be a learning process, as well as how light reacts with them. I’ll be 100% honest, this painting had a good 3 inches on the right hand side I became so frustrated with the blurry trees I took the whole thing to the paper cutter and very satisfyingly lopped off the offending paper. I’m sure someone out there has done paper trimming ASMR somewhere, but it’s even more satisfying when its cropping your picture for the better.

Currently I’m taking a mini hiatus from birds and working on another Presque Isle native, a cute little luna moth. Hoping to finishing this weekend! Weather permitting, I’d really like to get out and try some old fashioned plein aire painting, like a real human, out in the wild! Happy long weekend, friends <3