Last day

The warm weather is here and the windows are open. From my desk, the birds are keeping time — chirp chirp chirping away. These days the birds zip by through the garden. I see them streak past my window. I attribute their intention and speed to the incessant demands of chicks and fledglings. It’s a birdy-bird world.

High in the sky, the hawk cries as it is warned or punished for finding a nest full of eggs or chicks. Hawk chicks are hungry. As the smaller adult birds, say sparrows or catbirds, go find food for their babies, the hawk finds a nest of babies to feed its babies. The adults return and attack and yell at the hawk. It’s a bird eat bird world.

It’s easy to ignore or to obsess on the drama. I can hear mating, territory, or warning calls simply as birdsong. After all, it happens whether I can hear/understand it or not. It can be either a backdrop for or complete distraction from my own drama! Every year, the joy of seeing baby birds or finding a nest, active or post-family rearing, is consistently great. Understanding why small birds are attacking a hawk, is consistently distressing.

This spring when trimming back the forsythia, I found a small nest lined with plastic strips and used duct tape. The plastic strips flew out of the nest and I recognized all of it from its time sitting near our garbage can on our driveway. Here I thought someone had finally picked up the garbage and placed it in the bin or taken it to recycle (flat plastics are recycled into plastic decking material. Please take your plastic bags for recycling!), but instead the birds picked it up and put it in their nest! I guess they found out it’s an effective way to keep their babies dry and warm. Fascinating! Kind of gross, but I still love it.

Reuse, recycling, creativity, necessity, inventiveness, and it could be argued, playfulness — what a way to create and build with the materials we have! Much like this May Arts Marathon…using these resources of artists to raise money to bring safety and settlement to some who have been uprooted. It feels like a nice big round circle.

Oh did I say circle?

Birdie Birds

Spheres 2

Day 20 or 5.29.25 Hunting for Magic

I like the idea of worlds within worlds. I went on a hike looking for a late morel or two. I found none. What I found instead was a lot of ticks. Yikes on ticks. I think they are all gone now without a chance to bite me.

It’s hard to imagine, but possums, who eat ticks, must be like, “Cool! A snack landed on my leg!” For them, it might be better than room service!

I saw turtles on a log, even though there was not much sun late in the afternoon. I think I saw a bear, and maybe even a fox. I saw a herd of heiffers who wondered why I wandered into their pasture (I’d found a motherload of late morels there one year). I found mint in the pasture, but the cow patties there didn’t make the mint feel like a snack.

No mushrooms, but who cares? I saw a lot. And even though this painting was mostly done before the hike, I like to think about it along side the hike.

Day 20 or 5.28.25 taking care of the babes

Today I watched a sparrow couple and three babies twittering away on the edge of a field. It was such a mystery. Where was their nest? How did they arrive there and would they be okay? For now, the babies in the hot sun were being attended to by their parents…but who knows if there was a plan for night fall. It looked dicey. The babies could almost fly but not well. They were little and still a bit fuzzy.

sparrow chicks looking like Edward G. Robinson, “Look here, see?”

You may remember at the beginning of this marathon I observed ants herding aphids on my cherry tree. As promised, last week, I attended to my cherry pie ambitions by putting a sticky band around the trunk to keep the ants from crawling up and down to tend their herds. I know there are still ants and ant babies that need food, but hey, I planted that tree! I’m done sharing! Today while assessing how my garden might look better, I was a little relieved to notice another tree is being cultivated by ants to herd aphids. The other tree is not precious. It is a volunteer cottonwood tree that grows in and through a plastic pot in the corner of my garden. In fact, the pot cannot be moved. The tap root is strong and firm though the bottom of the plastic pot. Because it chose to live in a pot (at least cosmetically), it looks intentional, on my part. What luck!

Here is an ant on my cottonwood tree with its herded aphids.

The tenacity of nature is heartbreakingly beautiful. Some of the biggest dramas from birth to death seem to be about taking good care of someone other than one’s self. Maybe not if one is a cottonwood tree growing in a pot, but I could be wrong about that. The reason I looked at that annoying tree that I can’t move, today, is because its leaves were doing fascinating things. Undoubtedly a reaction to stress. I won’t show you a photo, it’s a little gross…but also a little inspiring… There are so many creative and unexpected outcomes from stress. It’s funny, it’s probably stressed out that it planted itself in a pot. Oh…well…

“What’s wrong with stress?” someone once asked me. I guess I mostly agree.

Day 19 or 5.27.25 Hang on!

I thought a lot about what I posted for the past few posts. I just want to say, attempts that come out so-so are all part of my process. I might look back on the last few drawings and have new ideas about them, but I also might not. I don’t consider them really done, but I need more time to look at them to figure out what they are asking for to feel grown up.

I decided I needed to change up the rhythm of what I’m doing. Today I went back to using color. And animals. And Circles/ Pine Pollen. Painting is a little like spell making. When it works out, it’s pure magic. When it’s so-so, it’s just art supplies. I’m a little frustrated by my last few attempts.

And because art doesn’t happen in a vacuum. I’m also frustrated that my garden groundhog has eaten all of my echinacea plants. I’m frustrated that I don’t have rabbits in my yard this year. I’m frustrated that time seems to evaporate and the speed of daffodils to tulips to bluebells to lily of the valley to lilac is so fast!

This May Arts Marathon has been really fun in making me learn about efficiency and posting. This time is also evaporating fast! But in the spirit of spaciousness, I’m likely to continue this blog…not every day but some times through the future.

Hang on!

Day 18 or 5.26.25

Obviously I’ve made a lot of ink paintings, but I’m trying to integrate some of the things I studied last week and see if I can replicate any of the techniques. I’m not at all sure of what I’m doing, but that’s okay. As a human, I have crazy capacity for play, so I do. I play and just when I think I’ve made a real ugly mess something emerges.

I wish I had a little more intention for this painting, but the truth is I just started painting. I might not show it to anyone if it weren’t for this marathon, but I signed up for this and so did you!

And if you want to know about the ants…today I disturbed a bunch of them. I observed them throughout the day. I want to let you in on a little secret. They look busy and officious, like they know what they’re doing by communicating with their antennae and such, but I watched them carry larvae in one direction and other ants carry larvae in the exact opposite direction back to where the other ants came from!

No one knows what they’re doing! I’m in good company today.

Day 17 or 5.23.25 Real and Imaginary

Still thinking about those Lohans. Among the nicest things in the paintings I studied, are the crazy animals (have I mentioned, I LOVE animals?). There are elephants painted with toes (like toe-toes). Dragons that look believable and which fly and dance. Rhinos are so oddly shaped. It’s obvious, no one REALLY had time or access to look at these creatures, much less make notes. Most of these depictions are acts of pure imagination.

I went to the Bronx Zoo last week and spent time with the White Rhinos. They are so fantastically beautiful. The visiting children were screaming in their excitement to see the animals. The rhinos slumped in the indoor exhibit — it was so loud. Then, the rhinos were let outside and they ran around and scratched themselves on logs. It was really lovely. They seemed so happy to move around in nature and in the quiet outdoors.

I didn’t draw any sketches or take notes — but I do have internet images and memory from my adoring gaze. And I have a paper with a ground laid out — a round blob in the middle already looks like an eye, and some of the shapes on it already look like a rhinoceros…

I’ve never seen a real Lohan, the god is based on painted images… it may have toe-toes, I’m not sure. I added an animal suggested by the blob on the paper. This piece may still have more mileage in it…I’m likely to paint more on this. Thinking for now….this is still a place holder.

Day 16 or 5.22.25 This is a Place holder

Today I spent thinking about a Song painting of Lohans (Chinese dieties) and a Ming painting of Lohans. I looked at print copies today, not originals, but even with looking at the reproductions, the ink washes and the quality of the lines have been buzzing in my head all day. I knew today I would spend the day on the road looking at raindrops so I put down this “ground” this morning. Now that I’m back at my desk, I’d like to consider it more before diving back into it. There are a couple of moments I already really like in this painting, but I want to be careful of not falling in love with every line I make, every brushstroke I put down. Even though there is beauty in simplicity, I am uncomfortable showing up at the party and simply declaring, “I’m here! The party is here!”

I’d like to put a little more on the potluck table, maybe into this piece of paper…but maybe tomorrow. For now I am going to contemplate this inky ground as the cold raindrops tap my windowsill and my shoulder of the planet turns away from the sun, inviting the inky, wet darkness… maybe then THIS will become THE painting, that I will agree, says, “I’m here! The party is here!”. But I show you the place holder, for now…

Day 15 I cAN'T make this up

Okay…. so I’m still in process of working with my black paint. And I won’t bore you with the details about my problems with throwing things out and using things up completely, including black paint in places it doesn’t need to live. My day was a busy one, but since I owe you a piece of art…here I am looking for inspiration.

I dip my brush into the black paint situation I have, and I see that an ant is crawling up my hand. I start painting an ant for you, realizing I promised an ant picture at some point, and son of a gun! My black paint has attracted a few ants…

My models scurry here and there… and one takes a rest in the middle of this picture. You may be able to see it.

Day 14 Round Peg, Square Hole

I started this one by continuing to clean up some of the black paint from yesterday’s adventure. After working last week in color and then just yesterday, working with black and white, I decided since I’d been painting rounded shapes, I should work with the shape of my page. Well, I couldn’t groove with it and went back to round shapes and color. Maybe tomorrow something else interesting happens… More experiments to come, for sure.

yellow rectangle

Day 13 A Deficiency of Process

Some, most of the time, things work out. Today there is a gentle breeze blowing through the leaves. The earth and I are breathing. Pretty good. Last week felt very poignant as every day brought news of someone new transitioning out of feeling and hearing and smelling a fresh breeze. Things are always changing. Some, most of the time things work out. Sometimes they don’t work out at all as expected. Sometimes they work out as expected and it kind of stinks. C’est la vie. C’est la guerre!

Despite the poignancy and temporary nature of existence, life continues. Observation, contemplation, and making continues. Progress is made, occasionally, thwarting our very best befuddling attempts.

Even though I found a way to work and hit a nice rhythm at my overcommitted desk, I quickly gathered my materials to move the production to a new location. I made a split second decision, which I knew at the time, might make a mess. And guess what? It did! I did!

Two of my favorite phrases are Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance and TIPS= To ensure Prompt Service. I don’t give myself the time or treats to do either. I just muddle through - making bad decisions to move black paint from a contained area to a less contained area in a half-witted way. I guess I like the organic nature of process. Every decision in a process offers a little information, some of it, completely not useful, admittedly.

Here is my attempt to recontain, black paint I sprung loose. I like to talk about my deficiency of process, but I totally claim the making a mess part as being part of my process. It’s easier to work from a point of challenge - to clean up my messes, than to work with a blank slate, I suppose.

Day 12 Belonging

Everyone has a space in my garden, even punk-art Aegopodium, but I try to keep that space small-ish.

I’m thinking about the current discussion about birthright citizenship. What it is like to not feel like one belongs in either the country of one’s birth or the country of your parents because one does not speak the language, know the smells, or have familiarity with the customs?

Some things in Nature don’t care. Pollen doesn’t care. Seeds will sprout and thrive wherever they have the opportunity. One of my favorite things? Volunteer plants in sidewalk cracks and on building structures. A good reminder that human work is an answer but not the only answer on what can exist here.

Seed on the Wind

Day 11 Sprouts and Pollen

Tiny little fragile sprouts. Trying not to trample them.

Day 10 Pining for Pollen?

5.14.25 Still covered in pine pollen. The grit is everywhere…. I know I was complaining about the rain last week, but I could use a little help to clear the air… It’s always something!

Day 9 So itchy! Pine Pollen

My car is covered in fine yellow dust as it is parked below enormous white pine trees. A 30+ yearly reaction to pine pollen, I finally was curious as to why it is so irritating today. I looked at microscopic images. I don’t have new ideas as to why it’s so annoying, but I do know why it flies all over the place…each pollen grain has two air sacs which presumably help the pollen disperse on the wind. Here is a synthesis of the many images of pine pollen I reviewed today.

Day 8 too many words!

I’ve been writing so much. I decided to say less. Here you go!

Day 7 Good Faith+Hot dogs

The birds are really singing this rainy day. The harmonic trill of the hermit thrush echoes through the little valley behind my house. The pew pew pew galactic shooter call of the cardinal cuts high across the trees. The songs of sparrows, mockingbirds, chickadees, finches, and tufted titmice seem to crowd the air around the rumble of the brook spilling along at what looks like full capacity.

All of this rain, and the brimming waterways, the installation of the new pope, and the possibility of baby raccoons in the shed has me thinking about Noah’s ark and good faith. Noah’s Ark is such a great story (Yes, because of the animals. I might have mentioned? l love animals). So much rain, so much trust that it would stop, so many predators and prey on one boat. With the grey moods that come with grey skies, a loss of habitat, and an endless horizon of water, what an existential and management nightmare! It’s a story of good faith. This, too, shall pass. Change is inevitable.

It wasn’t so long ago that my neighborhood was muffled by a snowy blanket. It felt like a long winter - like spring would never come. Just when we thought this is the last snow, another came. Repeatedly. But disregarding the snow and the raw temperatures, the snow drops broke ground and bloomed. Life repopulated our treetops, vernal ponds, and yard. Now, my corner of the earth is donned in bright green. It’s easy to take it for granted. It’s so normal, expected and yet so miraculous and surprising. The peas I planted yesterday are sprouting already. It sure is grand magic. All the birds that seemed so quiet and gone for months are calling - present and accounted for - ready to raise young. Oh the drama of it all!

And although I am a lapsed Catholic, I am not a lapsed human. I like this guy, Leo XIV. I was really moved by his words that I heard untranslated — I understood “Peace” and other simple words. I heard when he switched to Spanish…and was moved to tears by this signal he wished to communicate with perhaps the largest group of Catholic people. I don’t mind he didn’t speak English - it signaled that the world is big and not everyone needs to speak English. That the cardinals picked him feels like an act of good faith. That he’s from Chicago - a diverse town that engenders hard work, humor, and civic pride is also a plus. As a lapsed Chicagoan, I gotta say, its people are real salt of the earth. Yes, that’s funny because Chicago sits on a giant freshwater lake. I love Chicago. It’s a logical, cultured, smart city built for living in with plenty of skyline and flat vistas to take a long view.

I’m now living in Vermont - a kingdom, this season, of green expansion… I know the plants will fight for space and resources, but I may ask all the plants, mostly native, many from other continents and climates, to consider peace. I’ll make strong borders for some and make space for some communities to grow and mix. It’s an act of good faith. What can grow will grow, and bloom.

In a spirit of celebration of the Chicahhhgo pope I present an ode to the Chicago Hot Dog - a culinary delight involving a poppy seed bun, hot dog, yellow mustard, sweet relish, tomato slices, diced onions, pickle spear, pickled peppers, and celery salt. And In honor of my beautiful verdant rainforest I offer you a possible contender for the Brattleboro spring link. Buon Appetito! Buen Provecho!

Hungry?

Day 6 Community Asylum Seekers Project Art Marathon 5.8.25

I’m once again rewarded by my luck or foresight to have a stated goal of Sifting Mud. Does this allow playing in the garden and weeding to be part of my project? I might find out if the weather finds a way to stop raining. In the meanwhile I enter my shed in search of tools or gloves or pots or some gardening paraphernalia in order to make baby steps into the new season. A familiar smell gusts out through the opening door. I’m pretty sure I know that smell…it’s a little scary. It’s a little exciting. It might mean that the raccoons are back and there might be a new litter!

I have a lot of stories about raccoons. One year I looked out the window to see them crawling through the open windows of my spouse’s car. That was a good one! Last year I casually mentioned our family of adorable baby raccoons and learned to never ever discuss such things with farmers. It turns out farmers just don’t like them. Even wonderful organic farmers that you might love dearly and forever have strong opinions. Nope. It’s a little scary. It’s a little exciting. It’s a little baffling. Along with their incredible beauty, raccoons can carry a bad toxin in their poop that affects humans.

I know that smell means there is poop, but it also likely means there is a lot of cute adorableness in my shed somewhere if I want to go poking around. The farmers scared me well enough with talk of horrible neurological diseases that I likely will cede the space and just imagine those tiny racoons huddled in a little nest just beyond my office window.

Last year, during the throes of conflict between my fervent wildlife protectionism and intellectual understanding I should protect our family’s health, maybe even make this paramount, I talked to the local naturalist. She wondered what the problem with having baby raccoons was? She told me to let them be and not evict them. I did try at some point to limit their access to our shed, but apparently failed this spring. Af first I was a little surprised by my lack of success, but then remembered I left a hole open last year and never shut it after they left. I admit I’m delighted that they seem to be back, especially since it just keeps raining and raining and raining.

In any case I have plenty of N95 masks to clean up their poop when they grow up and move out. Maybe mama will show off her babies to me some night. I really hope so. I seem to love them already. Don’t worry I won’t make you a painting of their poop. Here is a cartoon of my upside down attitude towards wildlife. What can I say? My formative years were spent consuming cartoons and nature shows. My bias is permanently skewed toward the small creatures.

Day 5 Community Asylum Seekers Project May 2025 Art Marathon

I played around in the garden the other day…and true confession, there is a weed that I sing to. I thought it was called Agriponium, but because I’m writing this blog, I needed to fact check the spelling. I found out it is actually called Aegopodium podagraria or, appropriately for this Vatican’s Conclave first day gathering, bishop's weed, or gout weed. It is very persistent and loves to live in my garden.

A friend came by many years ago and cautioned me to rip this plant out aggressively. I let it go the first year. That was a mistake. It doesn’t look bad, but it does prevent other nice things from happening.

So the song I sing? The song that gets stuck in my head every year from May to October? It’s sung to the tune of the Ramone’s “Psychotherapy” ( it might get stuck in your head for a long time but if you dare, it’s here). My song is basically just singing (incorrectly) Agriponium over and over again, instead of singing “psychotherapy.” It’s Very Punk. I guess even more so, now that I know I’ve been singing the name wrong or else singing it with a punk accent.

Indeed this song has made me name Aegopodium this year’s winner of “MOST PUNK” (since it is yearbook time). Along side it in the garden is Bittersweet, also a weed that loves to grow in my yard. It wins “MOST PERSISTENT” and to make good on the ant drawing I promised…. Black Ant wins “MOST ENERGETIC”. I’m sure there are some more winners to be announced this month. Stay tuned!

Day 4

I have an acute case of plastic guilt. I honestly don’t know what I am doing as a human at the top of the food chain. My guilt might be pathological. I ought to be a fuzzy woodland creature that makes cool stuff all day and which will rot away eventually. No meaning issues, no storage issues, no legacy issues.

Because of my extreme plastic guilt, I tend to be bad at garbage. I recycle what plastic that can be recycled, but mostly I just keep it around. For instance, those long twist-ties that hold things like lettuce together?

veggie twist tie bouquet

A piece of wire between a layer of plastic and a layer of paper - they could be useful! I curl them up artfully and keep them in a vase….I have been doing this for years.

Another collection I have is from the newspaper which comes once a week wrapped in a plastic bag and sealed with a heat sealed plastic strip. You know the ones?

plastic strips

This is about half a year’s worth.

I was tidying up this morning and decided this has gone too far…but what to do with these rigid strips? The only thing they are good for is to be a strong band around something or maybe I could weave them. So I started to weave them together. And since there weren’t really enough, I added twist-ties. And now half way through it is really boring looking, time consuming and a little annoying to keep doing, especially since now I’ve begun to make a mess. I started this because I was TIDYing

Let’s analyze the problem right now. First, white is not my first choice of color to work with. Second, what is it? It could be a small mat. Not really that useful decoratively or any which way. Then I start to think of course, it’s not useful…it’s art! It’s a commentary… here it is in process…

Oh, this is really funny. I’ve been doing this for a long time and took the photo…but only now can I read the words on these dumb twist-ties I’ve been struggling with for hours — can you read it? Enlarged on my computer, it clearly says, “Tagback.com to recycle.”

UH…yeah….read the fine print! My bad…hilarious!

Day 3 5.5.25 Raino de Mayo

What a great, wet, green spring! I drove about 12 hours in the rain this weekend. I saw a lot of windshield wiper action, a lot of grey skies and grey roads and green grass and green trees. Admittedly my eyes are a bit bleary after so much blurry beauty. Here is one vision I saw and another I am working on manifesting. Can you guess which is which?