New Painting (maybe)

This is a drawing from February 2004, and I don't need to check my journal to know that it was made during a particularly trying time. The drawing has been hanging on a clipboard for five years; now it is the basis for a painting. I always feel that the intensity gets lost the second time around. Perhaps it's the right brain/left brain thing--one feels, the other copies--so the painting is quite different (and it might get trashed). No title yet but I'm thinking "the sapper," lurid colors, and lots of paint; I've worked on it for several days.

The drawing was inspired by an iron "jack" I bought at auction for $4 (I've been told it's a tank baffle, so my street will be safe when the tanks roll in). It sat in my MD yard for several years until I realized it was a perfect bird bath base! My neighbors then approved and wanted one just like it. I moved it here to VA, painted it red to match my tin roof, and it sits outside the kitchen window--I enjoy watching the birds bathe--brown thrashers, robins, cardinals, chickadees, juncos, mockingbirds; occassionally, bluebirds.

In my workshop are three nests which fell from the maple trees--I can't seem to part with them--filled them with egg-shaped stones once and used them as a centerpiece. Nature amazes and provides.

The red stop sign in the drawing? I dropped my marker and needed to cover the spot. There are no accidents.