A New Bird Collage

Spring!!!

The last two days or so it has really begun to look like Spring. There are flowers blooming and the leaves on the trees are starting to come out and everything is turning green.

Serenity Trilogy

This is a series of postcards that I did a few years ago on the long version of the Serenity Prayer.

At that time in my life I had pared my prayers down to simply saying one word at a time. This was especially nice walking to work, since it was simple and I could pace the word with my steps. I would take action words from prayers that I said often and say these words as my prayer.

Now, I love drawing birds and thought I might illustrate this prayer, or the primary words that I would pray, and find a bird to represent each word. Since I live in Illinois I used birds that are native to my home state. Then I wanted to find birds that would show humility and strength; not the birds that one would usually think of, like and eagle for courage. The first card, representing Serenity, is a Tufted Titmouse; small with muted colors I thought it looked very humble and at the same time has a strong presence. The second bird, Courage, is a Red Tailed Hawk; not as impressive as other raptures and very common, like all of us. The third, Wisdom, is a Barn Owl; again, very unassuming and delicate.

Each print was first made from a block print that was then scanned into a digital format and colorized on Photoshop. On the back of each card is a part of the Serenity Prayer, so they make a trilogy.

You can find them in my little Etsy shop.

Squid Bird announces the winner!!

Squid Bird could hardly sleep last night, knowing that the winner would be announced today! Now the time has come and the happy winner is Franny. Congratulations Franny, I will be in touch with you and I hope you enjoy the little felted bag!

This has been a wonderful event and I have seen so many great blogs, full of amazing art work and friendly women from all over the world. Thank you to everyone who entered my drawing and took a little time to visit my blog. Your comments have been a great joy!

Squid Bird says...

Entry for the OWOH drawing will close at midnight, February 11th. The winner will be announced tomorrow. Good luck!

New watercolors....

A few weeks ago I did a multitude of little (about 2x3 inch) watercolors of birds and flowers. Here is a sampling...

The originals are available for purchase, in my Etsy shop and I am thinking of using the images for note cards or other projects.
Enjoy!

It's a busy life...

Here we are at the Swift Condominiums, located at the edge of beautiful Lake Michigan. It's dinner time for the kids and so everyone is busy, busy, busy.

The Blue Grosbeak

I happened to be passing by, recently as the page in the Audubon book was being changed. After working here for over 12 years I had never actually seen it happening. It was cool to see page after page of beautiful prints, some of which I had seen in the past and others new to me.

Only the Head of Special Collections gets to turn the page...which is too bad for the rest of us, as it would be a lot of fun.

At the library we have a bound edition of James Audubon's Birds of America. It sits in a large case at the entrance of the library, and is displayed open to a select page. Pictured now is the Fish Crow.

Secretly, I've always wanted to be the one to be responsible for turning the page.

Another piece of home...

This is an old Japanese print that hung in my grandparents' house. I remember it from way back and feel fortunate to have it now (well no one else wanted it...). It gives me a strong connection with my family and my past.

I like the parrot passing by. That was one of those things, you know, that at the time you just have to have, and then later wonder why. There were two, believe it or not; one had a fatal accident...