New Year, New Art Project

So we will have a break from chemo, and hopefully the side effects will slowly start wearing off. I expected to have a lot of energy this week, but didn’t happen yet, so maybe next week. Since it is the second round, it may take just a little longer to get my mojo back, but it will come, so the next weeks are really something to look forward to. Whooo Hooo to being able to get the nasty taste out of my mouth, get rid of chemo burn and nose running constantly.

On the art front, I got one piece juried into the Glendale Arts Council Show.

Wolf Dream Catcher on Black Velvet paper, embellished with feathers, fur, leather and beads.

It is a Wolf Dreamcatcher, and will be there until Sunday, Jan 24th. The show is open daily from 10Am to 5 PM. It is at Sahuaro Ranch Park, 59 Ave & Mountain View, in the old packing building just North of the main building and rose garden.  If you live in the West Valley, you would really enjoy it, there are two rooms of great art. Speaking of Art, I have started a new project for the new year. Thinking of Christmas, I decided to make Hand Drawn Christmas Cards. If I do one a week , should have enough to send everyone on my Christmas list an original. They are 5″x7″ and will pop right into a frame, or can be matted and put into an 8″x10″ frame. SO here is a sneak preview of the first four cards.

On the pet therapy front, I got a couple of photos of Loki during our parrot therapy session. Thought you might enjoy! Oops, Loki is screaming, I mean Loki is calling me to do more parrot Therapy……Later!…..I am coming Loki……nuts, you want to be paid now…..I thought this was volunteer work……hmmmmm…

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About Bird Endowment – Blue Throat Macaw Project

Triple Time Blues
Blue Throat Macaw Babies

If you have been following my blog for a while, you have seen my painting, “Triple Time Blues”. This painting was donated to the Bird Endowment, and is going up for auction Jan 24 at the NPRPF Parrot Festival  Banquet being held in Houston. Here is a quote from my blog from 6-10-14 about the painting and my artist mission:

“Usually when you think of Blues, you think of sad times, but Thanks to a wonderful friend of mine, Laney Rickman, when I think of Blues, I think of music and parrots! She is the head of a wonderful organization, the Bird Endowment, which has the awesome Mission of “Saving The Blues”. Bird Endowment works with the Blue Throat Macaw, which is one of our most endangered macaws in the wild. To learn more about them, please check out their website: http://www.birdendowment.org – They have some great programs to help you get involved in Blue Throat Macaw conservation like the Nino Adoptivo program, you can actually sponsor a nest and help the propagation of the Blue Throat Macaw in Bolivia! SO what does this have to do with the Blues? My personal mission as an artist is to support Avian /Wildlife organizations who promote conservation, education, rehabilitation and research. SO I donate a few paintings to organizations to raffle, auction, raise money, or even just to raise awareness.”

Laney has taken time out of her VERY busy schedule to write a guest blog, so without further ado……Laney Rickman

Laney Rickman

“*Triple Time Blues* symbolizes Bird Endowment’s mission.

At The Blues Conservatory™ in Texas, our Saving the Blues™ parent-rearing program preserves and perpetuates the integrity of the Blue-throated Macaw cultural identity and provides future breeding birds with the best potential for hatching and parent-rearing their own offspring.

*The Triplets* are the culmination of a series of important milestones. Here is some historical perspective.

Great-grandparents *Ira & Eureka* were our very first pair of Blue-throated Macaws, acquired in 1992. They were also our first wild-caught pair, legally imported in 1981. They had been with several breeders but produced their first chicks with us in 1993. Founder Pair #1 raised *Xena* in 1997.

GO Blue!!!

Grandparents *Xena & Trust* were our first F1 pair (first generation hatched in captivity) to produce and parent-rear offspring at The Blues Conservatory™. In 2002 they raised *Joplin*.

Mother *Janis Joplin* was our first F2 chick (second generation hatched in captivity) produced at The Blues Conservatory™. She and *Buster Blues* were our first pair to produce and parent-rear offspring that are third generation hatched in captivity. In 2011 they raised *The Triplets*.

*Albert Collins, Francine Reed & Junior Wells* were the first, and only, clutch of three chicks successfully parent-reared at our facility. They are still together in The Flock. They represent not only the achievement of Bird Endowment’s long-term goals, but many gratifying memories for me as well.”

Thanks Laney, the best of luck with the auction and keep up the good work with the Blue Throat Macaws!!!!

Half a Bubble Off

WIP#2

Today, I was lost in thought……. must be related to the forgetfulness thing, LOL! Anyway, just started thinking about the saying “he is a half a bubble off”, and suddenly realized…I are one. Yup, like when you are young, you feel young, and don’t get it when old people say they are a young person trapped in an old body…. Then one day, you wake up old, and get it…  you are one. Well, I woke up today and realized that I am a half a bubble off from the rest of the world and finally realized it…. but I have to say it is a good thing when you are here. The rest of the world just doesn’t quite get you, BUT….hey it is OK. It means you are creative, march to the tune of your own drummer, and pretty much don’t get a lot of what is going on in the world. And that can be a really good thing. It allows you to have a sense of humor about yourself and be OK with being different. But not too different…just a half a bubble off, LOL! It is nice when you find things that allow you to be like the rest of the world too! I finally found a Starbucks drink that I like since I don’t drink coffee…. now I can meet my friends at Starbucks, have a drink that doesn’t have a thousand calories. Of course that would not be possible without Starbucks cooperation in finally coming up with a drink which uses stevia to offset those high fructose sugar calories! SO there must be someone else out there who doesn’t like coffee and can’t drink a truckload of sugar, LOL! That is what keeps me from being a whole bubble off.

SO what do bubbles and Red Vented Cockatoos have in common? I don’t know, but needed something to get back to the subject of the “Work in Progress”.  Am loving working on the negative painting. Also love finding the color in a white bird. The joy and challenge of painting.

Here is the latest! Enjoy!

Anyone else out there getting old?!??!?!?

Sketch

Or is it just me? Sometimes it feels like it, but there are so many sayings about getting older, that I have to have SOME company out there. I would show you what I am working on ….IF I could find it! Seems like I spend half of my life looking for stuff I have “LOST”. The other half of the time, I am trying to remember what I came into the room to do. By the time I backtrack all of my steps and do all of the stuff that I forget to do before getting there, I have even forgotten that I forgot……….hmmmmm……yup…..Ok, what am I forgetting???? Oh yes, I just found my drawing. A GREAT BIG and I mean BIG “Thank you” goes out to Dr. Todd Driggers. He let it casually drop that he had a Red Vented Cockatoo in his office… Of course as much as I love to paint endangered species, I started jumping up and down, saying, can I come see it, pretty please, pretty please? His office staff graciously accommodated us(well I HAD to take a friend, after all how many times do you get to see a Red Vented Cockatoo?) and let us go crazy taking photos. Now that I am caught up from Kickstarter and my commissions, thought I would take the time to try this little beauty. Oh, almost forgot to put the photo in!

Now if I could just figure out which side is left, and which side is right, we would be in business. Oh well, I would just probably forget anyway!

Ready or Not………!

The last few months have ZOOMED by. Maybe it was being so busy that made it seem so. A new piece is started, but that is not the focus of the blog today.  Just had to post a few photos of what has kept me so consumed over the last few months. The mat cutter is getting a rest, the packaging and labeling are all done, and the finished pieces are all framed, Audubon Gifts From nature….ready or not, here I come!

Audubon Show 3

Audubon Show 2

Audubon Show 1

 

 

 

Another Time Out For Commercial Break!

The raffle for the Kakapo Painting,”Vanishing Species”, will be done at the AFA conference in San Antonio, August 18th. Barbara Heidenreich’s Blu Lu(Blue Fronted Macaw) will be picking the winner and the drawing will close at midnight Aug 17, so that all of the tickets can be converted to a form that Blue Lu is used to working with. Blu Lu will also be picking the winners of her last three paintings. If you would like to see her in action, there is a wonderful video of her picking the winners of the paintings she did to benefit the Bird Endowment. http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com/2012/08/paintings-by-blu-lu-macaw-raffle-winners.html

There is still time to buy tickets for both raffles! Go to https://chirpingcentral.site-ym.com/store/view_product.asp?id=1120674  and/or  https://chirpingcentral.site-ym.com/?page=BE_raffle

Hurry! only two weeks left to support these wonderful projects!

If you are attending the AFA Conference, hopefully you can meet Barbara and Blu Lu along with Mary Rose of Chirping Central. Please stop in, say HI!, and buy LOTS of tickets!

Now back to your regularly scheduled program!

The Kakapo Support Project is underway, PLEASE help!

Chirping Central has the page up now to buy Raffle tickets for “Vanishing Species”.
https://chirpingcentral.site-ym.com/store/view_product.asp?id=1120674
The tickets are only $1.00 US. The winning ticket will be drawn at the American Federation of Aviculture conference on August 18, 2012. We will ship the painting to the winner, so you do not have to be in the US to buy tickets!!! All of the funds will go to the Kakapo Recovery Project. Thanks so much for following my Work in Progress!

Here it is again for your viewing pleasure, LOL!!!

Vanishing Species – Step Away From the Painting!!!!

Candy says to step away from the painting, so it is done for now. As promised, I have a very special guest blogger, Mary Rose, from “Chirping Central”. For those of you who do not know Mary, all I can say is that she is a human dynamo. Instead of asking what she does, we have to ask what she does not do. She hails from Australia, is VERY involved with birds, bird organizations, and sits on several boards. She is the president of the Arizona Seedcrackers, is on the board of the Maricopa Audubon Society, and is involved in getting Tovari Castle open to the public. Her organization, Chirping Central” is all about the birds, what more can I say. Well, I could say a lot more, because this is only the tip of the iceberg, but………here she is!

I am excited to once again be working with Arlene to raise funds for one of the many endangered birds of the world. The Kakapo of course is one which has an amazing story and is semi close to home for me. It is a bird which at one time was thought to be extinct but which has had an amazing recovery due to the efforts of many dedicated people doing all they can to save the species. What is great about this project as well is the level of information which the project makes available to the public. After all if we did not know what was going on how could we help? It is through these communications that we are aware of achievements and setbacks and it is a vehicle for all of us to be able to contribute in some fashion. Whether you donate directly, participate in a raffle for original artwork by someone like Arlene, or simply engage in discussion about the issues it all helps the birds and I am proud to be part of the effort.
This piece of artwork is of course based on a photo taken when Barbara Heidenreich visited the project and it is wonderful that Barbara shares her photos to further the cause. I have been following the “Vanishing Species” blogs by Arlene, seeing the development of this piece of art at every stage and can hardly wait to see the final piece – which I am sure will be absolutely stunning. Arlene is an amazing artist and has the ability to capture the essence of the birds she paints. The lucky winner of this piece will be proud to hang the artwork on their wall.
So for me I am a true believer that extinction for many of these species is optional. Unfortunately most of the time decisions surrounding which birds to work with revolve around dollars and cents, but projects like Arlene’s help to get projects going and keep them going. It does not matter how large or small the contribution is – it all helps. How many “bird people” do you think are around the world? If everyone joins forces and contributes the impact can be huge – meaning that extinction truly is optional. We have the power to save the birds – we just have to care and be engaged. Personally I believe it is our ethical and moral responsibility.
This reminds me of a quote from Theodore Roosevelt from 1916 – “Birds should be saved for utilitarian reasons; and, moreover, they should be saved because of reasons unconnected with dollars and cents… The extermination of the Passenger Pigeon meant that mankind was just so much poorer…And to lose the chance to see frigate-birds soaring in circles above the storm, or a file of pelicans winging their way homeward across the crimson afterglow of the sunset, or a myriad of terns flashing in the bright light of midday as they hover in a shifting maze above the beach—why, the loss is like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists of old time.”
I think this sums it up very well. While Theodore was not specifically referencing parrot species the principle is still the same. When we lose a species we are so much poorer. Don’t let the Kakapo become another Passenger Pigeon or Carolina Conure. We have the power to stop this process and this raffle is your chance to help the Kakapo – one of the many species in trouble. I encourage you to seek out information about the Kakapo at http://www.kakaporecovery.org.nz and on the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/KakapoRecovery. There is a wealth of information on these pages.
So once Arlene’s Kakapo piece is finished I will be getting tickets loaded on the Chirping Central Conservation Fund page for the raffle. I encourage everyone to buy tickets for your chance to own this amazing piece and also to help the birds. Every penny counts and all funds raised from this raffle will be going to the Kakapo. Thank you again to Arlene for producing this wonderful piece and allowing me to be part of the process.
Mary Rose
www.chirpingcentral.com

As soon as Mary gets the website to me, I will post it here, on my website, on Facebook and wherever it can be posted! …..Oh you want to see the painting,LOL. BTW, comments are welcome!!! The more the merrier! Now where was that brush????   Sunny, come back here with my brush……..here we go again…….sigh……….

Vanishing Species WIP Almost Done!!!!!

As a slave to five parrots and staff for two cats, it occurs to me that parrots and cats these days JUST have no respect! Looking back to my childhood days, (Stop ROTFL it was not THAT long ago!!!) we always had a cat and a dog around. Now the cats these days go wherever they please……..on my computer desk………on the counter…….on the kitchen table. They leave hair EVERYWHERE. The parrots throw food around, take one bite of something and throw the rest down, and leave feathers EVERYWHERE. But back in the day, you NEVER saw a cat on the counter or table. There were no parrots in the house then, but I am sure they would not have thrown food away, we were NEVER allowed to waste food (especially vegetables like broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower). So as I sit here continually fighting cat hair and feathers…..all I can say is…..CATS and PARROTS these days…..no respect.

As you can see the painting is ALMOST done, just a few more leaf details and a few more washes and Candy will be saying “Step Away From the Painting!”

Vanishing Species……Still Continued……..

Aside

Was last night the bird full moon or something? My house was full of critters last night. AND not just the usual parrots who live here. It all started with a call from Margaret, my friendly local Liberty Wildlife Rescue and Transport volunteer. “Hi Arlene, we have a baby Harris Hawk here, would you mind dropping it off at Liberty Wildlife in the morning when you go in?” Of course, I forget to mention that I had volunteered to be the West side pick up station for the volunteers who cannot make the additional 45 minute trek from here to Liberty Wildlife. So most of the R&T volunteers have driven at least 45 minutes when they get here. HOWEVER, I rarely get more than one or two birds a week to triage and transport. LIKE I was saying, it must have been the BIRD equivalent of a full moon last night. By the time Margaret got here with the baby Harris Hawk, she had two more calls, and the baby was soon joined by a baby Morning Dove and a small Turtle. As she was leaving, she got another call about a Mallard, who soon joined the party! My fellow volunteers were SO happy to see me add to the flood of critters coming in through the check in window this morning,LOL. Needless to say, it was ‘hopping’ all morning. We would just about get one bird checked in and another one would show up. NOW don’t get me wrong, I LOVE baby birds, and Liberty Wildlife is JUST chock full of “Too cute for words”, but I wish the situations which happened to separate the babies from their parents DID NOT happen. But it does, so volunteers spend the spring and summer trying to help the lil cuties grow up into fierce big critters who can go back into the wild.

And with all of the bird madness going on right now, there is still an update on the current WIP! This painting is rapidly……OK, maybe not so rapidly, coming to a close. The leaves are taking a little bit of time, but don’t worry, it will be finished very soon! Then you will be able to hear from my next special guest blogger! Can’t leave you without a little bit of mystery!