Air&sugar

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

When I went to Japan, I started studying Japanese about 18 months ahead of time, mostly so I would not accidentally be a rude American. I found it fascinating so I am still studying Japanese with no plans to stop any time soon. Also, the next time I have a chance to go, I will be ready. You know, just in case. 🤷🏻‍♀️

My brother is literally sitting on an ANA airplane right now (hasn’t taken off yet) texting me to ask how to say “thank you” to the Japanese flight attendant. He is ON the plane about to leave for his first trip to Japan.

My brother is also sharing his trip: every day he posts a huge number of photos (in one batch, normally between 50-80 pictures) with no captions or explanation of any kind. Some of the photos are blurry; some don’t include enough of whatever he was looking at to actually decipher what it is.

Even my husband, who notoriously does not give a single shit about anything anyone does, ever, is enjoying this chaotic and nonsensical approach to social media. We have a daily “did you see <brother’s> post today?” chat where we try to figure out what is even in the photos.

He did caption one post enough to write, “I don’t read Japanese and I barely speak it” but based on the fact that we reviewed how to say “thank you” before his flight took off…. I’m not sure our criteria for ‘speaking a language’ is the same at all. 😂🤣

Paul Klee, Horizon, Zenith and Atmosphere.

Went out for a few errands and took my coffee with because it’s delicious. And as I drove I realized that some folks employ large, insulated “travel mugs” to accompany them on their rounds.

Huh?

Today we went to a retriever training session. A friend of mine wanted to check it out but was too nervous to bring her dog (who is, to be fair, insane). So we took Baby Muppet instead.

Baby Muppet, the Airedale Terrier. Terrier. The trainer we worked with today said, “this is a first for us.” But she was very kind and helpful and after she saw what he could do, she loved Baby Mup.

He tried a ‘marking drill’ (bumpers thrown from a blind in different directions, he goes out to get them and brings them back), some various fetching/retrieving on different terrain, AND some water retrieves.

His biggest issue was with the marking drill. Once he picked up a bumper, he tried to go back to the helper in the blind to return it to her 😂🤣 after two or three tries, he realized I wanted him to bring it back to ME. And then he did just that, every time.

The trainer said that’s pretty common and most dogs get a little confused about it; so no harm there. When she was asking if he had any experience, I said, “no… but if we can show him what we’d like, he’ll do his best to get it done.”

And he did. Because he’s the single greatest dog in the universe.

We weren’t sure what he’d think of the pond for water retrieves. He swims in a pool at a dedicated dog swim facility every week, but that’s pretty far from a muddy pond with sandy banks and reeds and stumps and all.

After a few beautiful retrieves (he figured out the duck call meant pay attention, and that we would cheer if he brought the bumper back to us) in the pond, we realized he might actually like ponds better than he likes the pool! He had the time of his life.

We are invited back to retriever training. One of the other ladies even looked up eligibility on her phone, so we know Airedales are allowed to do AKC Retriever Hunt Tests. I don’t know that we’ll take it that far, but it sure was fun to see Baby Muppet enjoying himself and doing so well.

I love him more than anything.

I keep coming back to that; partly because it’s true and partly because I am so pleased and proud to be able to say it’s true.

My life is bigger, and exponentially richer, because of him. I hope he would say the same thing about me. Being his person is the honor of my life.