The Wonders of Nature

Hello, yes, I do still check in here every now and then. If you follow my Instagram feed, and Facebook pages you know that I am busy creating and making, but I miss posting here regularly. My time is divided a bit differently these days. I haven't been in to the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History to volunteer in the bird lab for months, and I tell, you it is breaking my heart. I love that place so much, but I had too many irons in the fire as they say, and well, something had to give for the sake of my sanity. 

For the time being I have found other ways to give my time to in areas that engage my natural history interest. A couple of weeks ago I participated in an English Buckthorn and Japanese Honeysuckle removal workday at our local forest preserve. It was super satisfying to remove those most tenacious and aggressive of invasive species (except kudzu)! A group of about 20 of us trudged through snowy woods and found the plants that had been marked for removal that fall, and then cut, lopped, and in some cases, chainsawed them off. 

If you don't follow me on other social media outlets, I wanted to share the above image with you. I made it for a group gallery show in which the theme was all work inspired by Little Golden Books. I chose "The Wonders of Nature". The original book was illustrated by Eloise Wilkin. As you can imagine, engagement with the natural world is something we try to encourage in our little 3 yr old daughter. Children have an instinctive curiosity about nature that the book captures simply and beautifully. I wanted to create a painting that captured some of that, as well as Wilkin's aesthetic. You can all of the Little Golden Show pieces HERE.

It's been a colder and more snowy winter than in recent years; more like the winters of my childhood. Fighting cabin fever and staying engaged with the natural world can get challenging in late winter when the low temps and every surface being iced over conspires against spending quality time outside. But when nature gives you copious amounts of snow...make snow forts! I have a lot of exciting projects coming up this year and can't wait to share them with you. I'll continue to try to keep this thing going, but remember that you can always see my latest efforts on FB and IG. 

In the meantime, the original "Wonders of Nature" painting is sold, but you can get a print of it here. 

I hope your 2014 is off to a wonderful start, and stay warm!