In the spirit of allowing my weekly paintings follow my life, I was inspired to create this sketch of the Women's March last Saturday. I felt the power peaceful people have when they are driven to protest. It made me hopeful.
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I've always been pretty mesmerized by the depth and simplicity of Aesop's Fables. These ancient Greek stories reveal so much that is true, and therefore often contain a darkness. This story about the Tortoise and the Birds has a third character, the Crow. The Eagle is happy to help the Tortoise in his move (for a price) because he doesn't think he is able to eat this creature with a hard shell. It's the clever Crow that tells the Eagle that if he were to drop the Tortoise on the sharp rocks, they could share a meal. Despite the serious look on the Eagle's face, I chose the short happy moment before the Crow's intervention. It would be quite thrilling for a tortoise to fly, right? However, the moral of the story, and there ALWAYS is a moral with Aesop, is to never soar aloft on an enemy's pinions (flight feathers). Consider yourself, and everyone else who has heard this story in the last 2500 years, warned. So I think the population of house sparrows at my bird feeder doubled this week. I observed about 30 of them today. Earlier this week I noticed that a happy host (the collective noun for a group of sparrows...who knew?!) of sparrows moved into the bird house on our garage. These aren't parenting sparrows...I think they are chilling together this winter kind of like a group of college roommates. These four are vying for the sweet spot with protection from the cold (I saw them on Monday when it was freezing out). Looking at the way they feed and dive into the birdbath all day long, I see a clear pursuit of pleasure and freedom from the responsibility of taking care of any progeny. I'm glad to see them having a good time. Our New Year's Day adventure this year brought us to a beautiful afternoon with good friends in the woods of the Wissahickon by Kitchen's Lane.
Today this lovely girl turns 7. It's been a very exciting day in our house and we are on our way to dinner at Tako, a favorite Sushi restaurant. So, I need to cut this a bit short. Happy New Year!!! |
Little Bee:
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