Tag Archives: spring

Boys of Spring

Osprey in the OutfieldThis Winter was a bit much even for the seasoned New Englander. It wasn’t just the record snow. We’ve seen a lot of snow before. It was the snow never went away, not even a little bit. It was too damn cold. The temperature refused to rise above 32 degrees for any sustained amount of time. So the next storm just piled on top of last like a Dagwood sandwich of snow.

Winter 2015 sailed right past it’s March 21st expiration date while a blanket of white continued to cover my yard.

At this point of despair I started to look to signs of Spring beyond the view of my lawn.

The two most sure signs that Spring has returned to Cape Cod are nesting Osprey and youth baseball.

Baseball came first with an email with the subject header, “Pirates”. Right away you know that’s going to be a good email. It was from my son’s coach alerting us to his first (indoor since the ball field was also blanketed with snow) practice.

The next was a Facebook post a couple weeks later from Cape Cod Museum of Natural History letting us know that the Osprey were back.

These two events made me very happy. They gave me hope.

And then this week I had the real proof of Spring. I was at my son’s baseball game on a sunny enough day that I wasn’t wearing my knit hat or quilted jacket. I was already satisfied with this beautiful day. Over head I heard and then saw a beautiful pair of Osprey flying over the boy’s ball game.

Spring had sprung.

 

Throwing the Baby out with the Bath Water

Baby Moira

Baby Moira

“Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water”, is one of many old adages that I would hear as a child that was confusing and sometimes frightening to me.

Here are some other favorites:

If you were over doing something you’d get, “Don’t gild the lily”. Did this have something to do with the Lollipop Guild?

If you had a question about anything in the future, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it”. I think this is the same bridge that we were told not to burn.

If you had to wait at all, “A watched pot will never boil”. This was scientifically proven to be false in seventh grade home economics class.

If you were about to ruin a surprise, “Loose lips, sink ships”. No pressure

The baby and the bath water one eventually made sense to me. In my personal life I stick to the wisdom of not tossing everything out when some things aren’t working, especially cute little babies.

As an artist…I don’t listen to this advice. Sometimes you need a fresh start. Sometimes it is a great choice and oh so satisfying.

Babies will be thrown, bridges and old artwork will be burned.

Last year I started working in a new style*. I was and have been loving the way I am working now. It feels really good and there is still plenty of room to explore what I can express with the new techniques that I am using now.

I’m buying new supplies. I have been drawing and painting stacks and stacks of pictures in the art studio. It’s exciting. I want to share what I have been working on.

Then I took a look at my website. It was full of my “old” work.

There were still plenty of images that I was proud of. And there were many that expressed ideas in a successful way but none of them were like the new style.

I knew I had to rebuild my online portfolio, start fresh.

I took all of the old images down and slowly, over the past year I have been putting new pictures up. Until this week none of the new pictures were for the children’s market. This is funny because the idea for working in the new style originally came from an idea I had for a picture book.

Well, Spring has sprung a perfect time for rebirth.

So here are some new babies.

Quack LessonsYuri and HandsomeMr. Woodduck

I plan on adding some more in the next few weeks so keep a look out.

Here’s to them growing up to be children’s books one day.

*Ugh, that word, “stlyle”. I know, I know.