WHY THE BIRDS?
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What’s so special about those birds?
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They are my youth, my adulthood, my memories and what I love to paint! For every artist there is that something in their soul that guides them to be creative and these guys were a big part of mine!
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I grew up in southern California with three very ornery and spirited men in my life, my Dad, Les and his two buddies, Earl & Cliff. The memories I have of growing up with these three characters are priceless…. The Saturday mornings out to breakfast, the card games every Friday night filled with laughter and jokes, “Milk Toast”, visiting Earl at mini golf, learning to drive on the streets of “The Best Trailer Park”, and the many trips to the Long Beach Ford Service Center where Cliffe would lecture me on the importance of taking care of my every so lovely little brown Pinto. They were the rambler, the gamblers and the sweet talking ladies men back then! They were a hoot!
In my young adulthood, Cliff passed away from Cancer but Earl and my Dad remained close for decades, even after my Dad retired and moved from California to Nevada. All were entrepreneurial in spirit, always full of energy, and loved to bet on anything…. mostly horses, poker and sports! It was a comedic and fun adventure that was always hilarious to watch and wished that I had been old enough to be included in their antics.
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My Dad passed away in 2010 and Earl a few years before that. Dad was 92 when he died but lived a very full and wonderful life with my step-mother, Patty. I specifically remember on the day we went to the funeral home they told us that the casket he ordered so long ago was no longer available, but that they would find something suitable in it’s place. I did not know the importance at the time… but of course there were these three birds right there on the casket……
A few months later when my step sister, Lisa, spent the day on Lake Mead, there were these three seagulls that hung around her and her group of friends for most of the day….. one in particular…..coincidence? Maybe. But we all don’t think so…….
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In 2012 I started painting full time. As I began to paint, a round featured, big bellied, whimsical happy blue bird appeared. It so reminded me of Earl, and the loving memories of him, Cliff and my Dad and that’s when it hit me….
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The birds are My “Why” of what I create!!!!
