East Turkey Creek

8 x 10

oil on canvas

available

This is the last piece I did when I was in the Southwest.  East turkey Creek flows through the village of Paradise, and it is beautiful!   I am so caught up in Spring - planting the vegetable garden, trying to get outdoors to paint, working on the breeding bird atlas (the site is working now, if anyone is interested in checking it out mnbba.org).  I may be a bit patchy with my posting for awhile.

"Into the silence, which was at times also a roar, of my thoughts and questions forever returning to myself to search there for an explanation of my life and its purpose, into this concentrated tiny hub of dense silent noise, came the cackle of a hen from a nearby back garden, and at that moment that cackle, its distinct sharp-edged existence beneath a blue sky with white clouds, induced in me an intense awareness of freedom.  The noise of the hen, which I could not even see, was an event in a field which until then had been awaiting a first event in order to become itself realisable.  I knew in that field I could listen to all sounds, all music."

                    - John Berger   "The Field"

Making Maple Syrup

This photo was taken a few weeks ago when we were boiling down sap to make syrup. We got about 4 gallons of syrup this year - it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.   It's a bit of work keeping the fire going.  Our friend Scott Olson and his daughter  Maddie came out to help on this day.  Scott's Prius in the background has one of his inventions on top, a Row-Bike.  Check out www.rowbike.com.

I have been very busy lately with the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas Project, which is a 4-year project to map all the breeding birds in Minnesota and their ranges.  If you are interested in checking it out or in volunteering go to www.mnbba.org.

Dunes

9 x 24

oil on canvas

available

I am still obsessed with  the sand dunes I visited in New Mexico.  Miles and miles of  white sand formations.  It was funny, I was reading Arctic Dreams  by Barry Lopez ( a fantastic book) when I went there, and it felt like I could have been in the arctic!  There is a stark beauty that really grabbed me.