The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (sphyrapicus varius) is more likely to be seen in Perkasie in the winter than during the summer, yet it has been sited in the warmer months, as well. It is climate threatened and has disappeared from several areas of its southern range. As its name indicates, it drills holes into tree bark in order to drink sap. It also eats the insects that are drawn to the sap. In the winter, it feeds on fruits and berries.
Family: Woodpeckers
The Killdeer (charadrius vociferus) gets its common name from its cry as it flies overhead which sounds like “killdeer!” Its scientific name is Latin. The root of the genus is the same as the root for its subfamily, family and order: “charad” seems to point to two characteristics of this bird (and others in the smae order). They have markings which resemble masks and they chatter. Its Latin species name “vociferus” indicates that the Killdeer chatters loudly.
It nests on the ground, many times in open fields or large lawns. When any possible predator or human comes within sight of the nest, the male will feign having a broken wing and scurry away from the nest crying and squawking as if it is injured. This is to draw the predator’s attention away from the nest. As one gets close to the Killdeer, it takes off in flight. It is quite a remarkable charade to witness.
Family: Plovers
Since I wanted to reserve the last space on the wall where a medallion would fit for a special, dedication painting, I portrayed both Nuthatches in the same medallion. They are small and similar birds of the same genus, albeit different species. Both the Red-breasted Nuthatch and the White-breasted Nuthatch are present in the Perkasie area. They eat insects and spiders in the warmer months along with seeds and nuts which they eat year round by storing them in the bark of trees. These Nuthatches may be present here year round.
The White-breasted Nuthatch (sitta carolinensis) is tolerant of the cold, with a year round presence in the most of the lower 48 US states and parts of central Canada and Mexico. It does not usually migrate. It nests in a natural cavity in a tree or in the nest formerly belonging to a woodpecker, between 15′ and 60′ above ground. Adults can be observed sweeping the area around the nest entrance and the interior with a dead insect in its beak. It is thought that the insect’s bodily fluids may provide a repellent to predators.
The Red-breasted Nuthatch’s (sitta canadensis) range extends further north to include the southern half of Canada. If it gets too cold or food becomes scarce, it will migrate hundreds of miles. It prefers conifers and generally hollows out its own nest. It will coat the edge of the entrance with sticky pitch to discourage the curiosity of predators and competitors. To enter the nest, it will fly straight in. The red Nuthatch has a lower pitched, louder and more melodic song than the white. These songs can be heard on links on their pages on the Audubon site at the links above.
This is the 32nd medallion on the wall. This marks two thirds done. So I am right on schedule for my summer project. The question is, what am I going to do next summer? Anyone have a wall or building I can paint a mural on?
Family: Nuthatches
I painted the American Crow (corvus brachyrhynchos) based on a tattoo pattern I saw. Many people confuse Ravens and Crows as they are both solid black and about the same size. The easiest way I have found to distinguish them is by their calls. The Crow makes a “caw caw caw” sound, whereas the Raven has a wide range of vocalizations from a low gurgling to a shrill alarm. The Crow is a very intelligent bird, able to make tools, read stop lights and teach its young how to make and use tools. The Crow will gather in groups numbering to ten thousand at night. It is an omnivore.
I am told both Ravens and Crows are present in the Perkasie area. I have only seen and heard Crows.
Family: Crows / Magpies / Jays
The Cedar Waxwing (bombycilla cedrorum) is named for its color and the red tips of its wings, which appear as if they had been dipped in sealing wax. My painting shows a male feeding a female a berry. It is a very sociable bird. A flock will sit on a branch or wire or fence and pass a berry from mouth to mouth until one finally swallows it. Their diet consists mostly of berries and fruit. along with some insects, beetles and ants. It also will drink flowing sap. They are present in our area year round, Their range extends from the southern provinces of Canada through all of Mexico.
Family: Waxwings
The House Sparrow is native to Eurasia and north Africa. It was introduced to the US in 1851 in New York City. Since then, it has expanded its range to include all of the lower 48 states, the southern tier of Canada’s provinces and all of Mexico. It only nests in populated areas, mainly urban and suburban, always habitats that have been settled by humans. Its diet is mostly seeds, grass seeds and waste grain. It also eats insects, including smashed insects from the fronts of cars.
Family: Old World Sparrows
The American Robin’s (turdus migratorius) range includes all of North America. Perkasie is on the edge of its year round range. So the old song about “when the red robin comes bobbin’ along” as a first sign of spring is not accurate. It may be a different Robin that is “bobbin’ along”, but Robins are present here all year. The American Robin is not closely related to the European Robin. It is the second most common songbird of North America, just behind the Red-winged Blackbird and just ahead of the non-native House Finch and European Starling.
The American Robin eats invertebrates: grubs, worms, and caterpillars. It is one of the earliest to breed and lay eggs upon returning to its summer range. It is also the earliest bird to start singing in the morning.
Family: Thrushes
Cooper’s Hawk (accipiter cooperii) is a mid-sized, woodland hawk, which nests in either deciduous or coniferous trees, between 25 to 50 feet high. It usually builds its nest on another animal’s or bird’s nest, adding large sticks. It feeds on smaller birds, the size of Robins, and sometimes reptiles and insects. Charles Lucien Bonaparte named it for naturalist William Cooper, one of the founders of what was to become the New York Academy of Sciences, when he first described the hawk in 1828. It is another of the birds that is commonly called a chicken hawk, also striker, Mexican hawk, hen hawk and quail hawk. It has adapted to urban and suburban life and feeds on Mourning Doves and Rock Pigeons.
Family: Hawks and Eagles
House Finches (haemorhous mexicanus) are native to Mexico and the southwestern US. They were introduced to New York City in the early 20th century, when vendors illegally imported them to sell as caged pets. They marketed them as “Hollywood Finches”. To avoid prosecution under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 vendors and owners released their birds “into the wild” in 1940. From there, they have multiplied and spread all over the US and parts of southern Canada, nesting mainly in urban and suburban settings. They do not migrate, so are year round residents. They compete with, and in some areas have supplanted Cassin’s Finches, Purple Finches and House Sparrows. House Sparrows are also non-native. They were also introduced to Hawaii about 1870. They are now present on all of its islands.
I painted this pair, male and female, just as I saw them perched on our shed roof. A whole flock of them nests across 5th Street from us, in our granddaughters’ yard.
Family: Finches
The Merlin (falco columbarius) feeds mostly on small birds by snatching them in mid-flight. It is one of the smaller falcons. The male uses a very complex flight display to woo a mate.
Family: Falcons
The Barn Owl (Tyto alba) is the most widely distributed owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all landbirds, found on six continents and many islands. The male courts the female by performing a display flight, including wing claps, and by presenting her with food.
It can be a boon to farmers as it feeds on rodents, mostly voles, then mice, young rabbits, small rats, shrews and other small mammals. It will occasionally eat small birds, insects, lizards or rarely fish.
Family: Barn Owls
“Hundreds of kinds of hummingbirds nest in the American tropics, and more than a dozen in the western U.S., but east of the Great Plains there is only the Ruby-throat,” according to Audubon. What is interesting to me is that of all of the photos I have seen of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (archilochus colubris), no two look alike. We have native bee balm growing in our yard, also called Bergamot. It just started blooming, so we should start to see the Hummingbirds start to come around.
Family: Hummingbirds
The male Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) is bright blue only in the spring and summer. The theory is that this is for him to attract a mate; ‘putting on the Ritz’ as it were. This doesn’t seem likely to me, since all of the males of the species have the same bright blueness, it gives him no special advantage. I think it is more likely the usual explanation for why males of so many species (not just birds) have brighter colors, bigger manes, or more pronounced markings. It is to draw attention away from the females of any potential predators or competitors. Once the seeds are sown, the male is expendable. The female is to be defended at all cost to perpetuate the species. The male has a bright color and distracting songs to draw attention away from the nest. This change of color is a good reason for birders to pay more attention to what the females of species look like and look out for them. Audubon has an article about that.
The Indigo Bunting nests close to the ground, in low bushes or brush. A male may have more than one mate in his territory. It feeds mostly on insects and spiders and some seeds and berries. It does not do well in urbanized or intensely farmed areas. It prefers the brushy edges of roads, railroads and pastures.
Family: Cardinals / Grosbeaks / Buntings
The Bald Eagle (haliaeetus leucocephalus) built the largest tree nest of any animal in the world, at 2,200 pounds (1 tonne). It uses the same nest year after year high up in trees (up to 180′) or on cliffs, near lakes, streams or reservoirs. It feeds mainly on fish, swooping down and snatching them out of the water. It also raids other birds nests to steal food, such as Osprey and some smaller birds. It will eat mammals and small birds and quite often carrion.
The word bald in this bird’s name is and archaic use, meaning “white headed” not hairless, or, in this case, featherless. The genus and species names are Greek and translates as: “sea eagle” “white-headed”.
The Bald Eagle was almost eradicated from the United States in the first two thirds of the 20th century by a combination of hunting with guns (mostly for the prized tail feathers) and the cumulative effect of DDT weakening the shells of their eggs making them so soft that they would be crushed in the nest during incubation, just as Rachel Carson had predicted. Populations have since recovered and the species was removed from the U.S. government’s list of endangered species on July 12, 1995 and transferred to the list of threatened species. It was removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in the Lower 48 States on June 28, 2007.
It’s amazing to see this huge raptor fly overhead. It is sad to see one lying dead on Route 309 after being hit while it was eating roadkill.
Family: Hawks and Eagles
The Tufted Titmouse (baeolophus bicolor) is a year-round Perkasie resident. Both parents take care of the young, sometimes with assistance from an offspring from the previous year. More than half of their annual diet is insects. The rest is seeds, nuts, fruit, caterpillars, wasps, bees, slugs and snails. They have increased their range significantly due to bird feeders.
Family: Chickadees and Titmice
The Red-tailed Hawk (buteo jamaicensis) is one one of three birds known colloquially as a “chicken hawk”. It is found throughout all but the northern extremes of North America, down to Panama and the West Indies. It prefers to nest in a high tree, up to 120′ high. It’s preferred diet is small mammals, such as squirrels, rabbits, mice, and other rodents. It will also eat insects, birds up to the size of a pheasant, bats, frogs, toads, and other reptiles. At times, it will even eat carrion.
Family: Hawks and Eagles
Turkey Vultures (cathartes aura) are a fairly common sight in this area. They like their carrion relatively fresh. They can spot it by looking for other scavengers. They also have a highly developed sense of smell, which is unusual in birds. When thy can’t find carrion, they will eat rotting vegetable matter, insects or live fish in drying up ponds. They are part of nature’s clean up crew.
Both parents take turns tending the nest for a lengthy incubation period of 34 to 41 days. The young will take nine to ten weeks before they are ready to fly.
Family: New World Vultures
Just to spice things up a bit, I decided to paint the medallion of the Brown-headed Cowbirds (molothrus ater) in the form of a Pennsylvania Dutch Distelfink. The female (on the left) may lay as many as 70 eggs, one a day, in a season. She will lay them in various other species birds’ nests, sometimes removing one of their eggs to make room for hers. The host birds tend the eggs and feed the young, until they leave the nest at about 10 days old. This parasitism has driven some songbirds to the point of endangerment. It has nearly eliminated the Scarlet Tanager from all but deep woods.
They earned the name Cowbirds from their feeding habits. They follow herds of cattle, bison and horses to eat the insects that are disturbed from the grass as they move through it.
Family: Blackbirds / Orioles
The American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) is the smallest and most common falcon in North America. It’s range includes all of the lower 48 states of the US and most of Alaska, the southern provinces of Canada, most of Mexico, the Caribbean and the northern and southern thirds of South America. It is used in falconry and can take down birds up to twice its size. Though similar in appearance to Eurasian and African kestrels, according to DNA tests, it is not as genetically close to them as it is to the Aplomodo, Peregrine and Prairie Falcons.
Family: Falcons
When there are gender differences in birds, the male is usually brighter and bigger to attract any predators away from the brood and to do battle with them or any competitors. With the Scarlet Tanager (piranga olivacea) both male and female are quite bright. The female is yellow and black. The male is scarlet and black. They prefer to nest in tall oaks in large woods. They don’t fare so well in small woods, where they tend to be parasitized by Cowbirds. They have a long migration as they winter in South America and summer in the northeastern US.
Family: Cardinals / Grosbeaks / Buntings
I painted this Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) sitting on a ledge on a wall, on a wall. In the painting, I painted bricks on bricks. The Great Horned Owl has a wingspan of up to 5 feet. It is very adaptable and has expanded its range to include all but the arctic portions of North America and about two thirds of South America. Its diet is any small to mid-sized animal it can overtake: rabbits, hares, mice, voles, rats, squirrels, birds, reptiles, cats, amphibians, etc.
It has also been known as the “Tiger Owl” because of its coloring and its skill in hunting. It is the “tiger of the air.”
Family: Owls
The Northern Cardinal (cardinalis cardinalis) is found year-round in all of the states east of the Rockies, and in parts of the desert southwest. It is also found in all of Mexico except Baja California and seasonally in southeastern Canada. I have seen many variations in shade of red to grayish red, as well as in shape, within the species. I have heard experts claim a gender difference in color and other experts claim no gender difference in color. They explain the color difference as between juvenile birds and adults. Last year in Alabama, an adult male turned up with bright yellow plumage. They were going to wait and try to track it through another molt to see if this was due to a dietary or environmental factor or if it was genetic. Now there is evidence that the species may have split into as many as six different species. At any rate, they are beautiful birds, even if you don’t see them. They have loud and varied songs. You can hear them on links on the Audubon site on the link above.
Family: Cardinals / Grosbeaks / Buntings
The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is fairly abundant in this area. It seems to tolerate suburban encroachment reasonably well. Some years ago, when Mary Mother of the Redeemer Church on Upper State Road, near Montgomeryville, was dedicating their church, several mature male Wild Turkeys saw their own reflections in the large windows in the rear of the sanctuary. They began to challenge their reflections and got quite aggressive. Of course, only those officiating could see this. It was quite comical. They ended up making a racket as they charged into their reflections. Turkeys can be quite aggressive. The priests and bishop could not contain themselves from laughing at the spectacle. I think they decided to plant some bushes to obscure those windows to cut down on the reflection somewhat.
Last fall, (I’m not sure if it wasn’t on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner) we were driving down S. 9th St., just entering Perkasie, right by that little creek, we saw a flock of Wild Turkeys. There were four males, all strutting with their tail feathers in full display. So they are definitely local.
Family: Pheasants and Grouse
The Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) is the smallest species of woodpecker in North America at total length ranges from 5.5 to 7.1 in (14 to 18 cm) and the wingspan from 9.8 to 12.2 in (25 to 31 cm). Only the male has the bit of red on the head. Its range includes almost all of the 48 states except parts of the southwest, and most of Canada, except the extreme north.
Once again, just after I painted it, one showed up and tap, tap, tapped on the pine tree in front of our house.
Family: Woodpeckers
It had to be 20 years ago, by now. We lived on 4th Street, East Greenville, PA. It was 2am on a Saturday. I was awakened to the unmistakable sound of a construction vehicle back-up beeper! It continued, intermittently through the night. That day, I was going to go over to the development, three blocks away, where they were doing site work, find a phone number, and give someone a piece of my mind. As I was heading out the front door of our half twin, I heard the back-up beeper at full volume. I looked up toward the source of the sound. Here it was a Mockingbird! That was the last time we heard that bird sound a back-up alarm. At that moment, an ice cream truck came into the neighborhood, and he began to learn a new tune.
I have never read To Kill A Mockingbird and don’t really know what it is about, but I can feel the motive part. I wonder how they handled the opportunity and the means.
The Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), as it is formally called, to distinguish it from the less widely distributed Bahama Mockingbird, is the state bird of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. I painted it in flight, about to alight on the top of a pole. The red, green and orange in the background is an abstract representation of leaves and/or flowers. This is now our granddaughters’ favorite bird painting, so far. Just after I finished painting it. I came inside, settled into my recliner and looked out the front window. What do I see? A real, live Mockingbird, in exactly the same position in flight, about to land on our phone line! Amazing! Do you suppose he was just mocking my poor attempt at portraiture?
Family: Mockingbirds and Thrashers
There are many species of finches and many varieties and subspecies within those species. Many times one will see a brightly colored bird that doesn’t seem to belong. And one finds out it doesn’t. It is an escaped pet, hybrid finch.
Goldfinches seem to be plentiful in this area. I believe that is largely due to the revival of the popularity of planting native flowers, and the understanding of the need for native plants in the life-cycle of birds, insects and bees. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, North America was losing its bird population at the alarming rate of an average of 5% each year. By around 2011, the trend was reversed and birds started to recover. This happened as people planted more natives, reduced lawn areas and increased planting areas, reduced or eliminated the use of pesticides and herbicides after educating themselves about the benefit of living in the ecosystem not off of it.
Goldfinches are beautiful and are capable of several songs. We are regularly visited by our yellow friends in our yard in Perkasie. This painting is based on an experience I had in June 2016 at our house on Front St., Souderton, shortly after my open heart surgery to replace my damaged aortic valve with a pig valve. I had just exited our house and was passing the front “garden”, a jumble of native plants and weeds. I was moving slowly. A male goldfinch landed on one of the many Echinacea that were in bloom. He was within arm’s length of me. He tilted his head and looked at me; then he began to sing. He went through all of his repertoire, then it seemed as if he turned to me again for a response. I said, “Thank you, Mr. Goldfinch!” He nodded and flew off, It was a magical moment, like something from one of those classic Disney movies.
Family: Finches
I grew up in Minnesota. In my day, there was a strong and booming middle class, thanks to an aggressive, progressive income tax structure on both the federal and state levels. On weekends, holidays and vacations (Working people actually took vacations back then), it seemed just about anybody and everybody went “to the lake”. That is what we all said. Our cars’ license plates advertised “10,000 Lakes”. The Almanac counted 12,512 lakes plus a few thousand ponds. One did not have to leave “the Cities”, short for “the Twin Cities”, Minneapolis and St. Paul, to go to a lake. “Minneapolis” is a mash-up of Sioux and Greek meaning “City of Lakes” and has 25 lakes within the city limits, including one man-made one, since they just needed to round up, I guess.
When I was in junior high, my folks bought a lake place just across the river in Wisconsin. I learned the cheeseheads called Minnesotans “swampies”. But this article was supposed to be about my painting of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). I grew up seeing these beautiful, fishing birds on the edges of lakes and swooping down and diving into them all of my young life, growing up in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I have seen them occasionally, if only fleetingly, in PA. I am told they fish Lake Lenape.
Family: Herons, Egrets & Bitterns
The Barred Owl (Strix varia) aka Northern Barred Owl or Hoot Owl is just a little smaller than the Great Horned Owl at 16–25 in (40–63 cm) long with a 38–49 in (96–125 cm) wingspan. It hunts mainly at night, but is known to hunt during the day, at times. Its diet is mostly rodents and other small mammals, small birds, small reptiles, lizards, insects, crayfish, fish and crabs. It is the only eastern American owl with brown eyes. All of the others have yellow. Regarding owls’ eyes, Audubon cautions against using your flash when photographing owls. Their eyes are built for night hunting and night flight. So they are very light sensitive. Camera flashes can damage them.
You may want to visit the Audubon site to hear the various hoots of this owl and to learn more.
Family: Owls
A little Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) such as this can make quite a racket. A flock of them can intimidate Crows. They are non-migratory. They can become quite comfortable around humans, even to the point of eating out of one’s hand.
Family: Chickadees and Titmice
Perkasie is on the edge of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak’s (Pheucticus ludovicianus) warm season nesting range. Audubon says that they generally stay in the tree tops, out of sight. We see two pair regularly on the low hanging phone and electric wires and our shed roof. The female is on the left in the painting. The male is on the right, with the bright, scarlet triangle on his chest and the black head. He also has more songs which he uses to protect nesting territory and the young. Both parents feed the young. They will have one or two broods each year.
This is as good a time to mention as any. I used our Weber Kettle lid to paint the circles for the medallions on the mural and an old attic window frame to paint the shape of the “sign” on the street end of the wall.
Family: Cardinals / Grosbeaks / Buntings
To date, we have not seen a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) land or perch in our yard, but we have seen one or two soar overhead. They definitely do nest in the vicinity of Lake Lenape. They are beautiful in flight and can achieve a speed of over 200 mph (320 km/h) during their peculiar hunting dives. National Geographic TV once recorded one such “hunting stoop” at 242mph (389 kph). They are the fastest animal on the planet.
The Peregrine’s diet is almost exclusively medium sized birds. So, much of its prey is depicted on the wall around it. It will also eat reptiles and even insects, if need be. It earned its name, which means “wanderer” due to its strange migratory patterns. Peregrine Falcons have wandered almost over the entire globe, with nesting areas from the tropics to both arctic tundras. The only non-arctic land mass where they have not yet nested is New Zealand. Perhaps they don’t like sheep. The only other bird that has a wider, world distribution is the Rock Pigeon, and that is because they were introduced by humans. I guess the British had not heard of clay pigeons yet.
Family: Falcons
There are 33 species in the genus New World Orioles, icterus, which is not the same as the genuses of the Old World Orioles of which there are three extant and two extinct. The species that I have seen in our front yard in Perkasie is a Baltimore Oriole (icterus galbula).
Family: Blackbirds / Orioles
I painted a Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) second because Blue Jays inhabited the evergreen above the end of the wall before the Mourning Doves chased them to the tree on the corner of 5th and Spruce. This was so unusual since Blue Jays are normally so aggressive.
Family: Crows / Magpies / Jays
I painted the Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura) first because they inhabit the tree that overshadows the end of the wall. In fact, last summer, we watched Mourning Doves drive the Blue Jays from that pine tree over to the one on the corner. It was quite interesting and surprising to observe.
Family: Pigeons / Doves
For Valentine’s Day, this year, I painted on 6″ x 6″ stretched canvasses for each of our five grandchildren. It was not planned this way, but as it turned out, they all have purple or lavender in them. They say purple is the most provocative of colors. I think it is fun. These paintings have been well received on Facebook. Here goes!
“Asters, etc.” is for Brigitta, age 9. She loves green and is a very good, abstract artist in her own right (better than me). In art, anyway, I find it hard to break free from physical reality. This is a freestyle interpretation of asters, with a couple of undefined, red weed flowers blooming, above the jumble of mixed foliage below.
“Goldfinch” is for Elijah, age 9. He loves it! It is based on a photograph I had taken through the front door window of our house on Front Street. It was the same goldfinch who had serenaded me at arm’s length while I paused on my morning walk just after my open heart surgery.
My painting for Isabella is of a sunflower, but with lavender petals. When she saw it, she said, “Poppop, you are a genius!” I surmise she likes it.
Jacob’s 11th birthday is next week. He wants a cat. His dad does not want any more animals in addition to his three sons in the house. So I painted him “Bizaro Skittles.” It is a portrait of my cat, mirrored, in purple and pale green.
“yes!” is for our 12-year-old grandson Aidan. I wrote around the sides: “Even when the answer is No, it says YES! I love you. 2 Corinthians 1:19”
It came to me that he is of the age and temperament that he needs to hear this. When his parents or other adults tell him no, it is not because they don’t want him to have fun, it is because they love him and want him to have a long and happy life. I explained this to him when I gave him the painting. He gave me a huge, tight, long hug-of-war hug.
Fun-A-Day is a creative project that happens in various communities across the country during the month of January. Some are centered around a theme. Some are centered around a certain craft or field of art. Others are more free-form. Almost all are open to participants of all ages and skill and experience levels. The challenge is to create something new every single day of January. This is my first year participating. I just started painting on canvas, on March 1, 2016, so that is what I chose to do, illustrating each successive number on 4″ x 4″ canvasses. I have been posting these on Facebook. It has been quite a challenge. They have caught the eyes of some fellow artists from far afield. I have gained fans from India, Vietnam, Sweden, Minnesota and Pittsburgh.
I have not been doing this alone. I challenged our granddaughters, aged 9 & 10 to participate with me. They are each decorating a popsicle stick each day and arranging all of their sticks on a 12″ x 12″ canvas that gets photographed each day. My number is reduced and edited into the photos to sequence them. In the process, they are learning some basic painting and craft techniques, and we are having fun together.
My “15” took hours to paint. It was the most ambitious to date. There are 15 colors on the wedges radiating from the center (which wrap over the edge of the 2″ thick canvas frame) plus black and white on the 15.
Mark your calendar to reserve the date. The art show to view and purchase my and about a dozen other participants’ art from the greater North Penn area will be in Lansdale on February 18, from 7 pm – 11 pm. I will post more details as soon as I know them.
Several weeks ago I noticed a North, South, East, West round marker painted on the front of an old farmhouse along Old Bethlehem Pike just South of Route 113. It is black on a white, stucco wall. It looks like those directional markers on old maps. It harks back to the time when the primary modes of travel were horse-powered or on foot. There were no cellphones. There were no satellites to provide one’s global position.
I got the idea that it would be cool to make these to adorn barns or sheds or even blank garage walls or fences. I did an internet search for these and learned that they are called “map roses”. I considered using a traditional one as a pattern, but, that is just not my style. I decided on a postmodern approach with a nod to the area’s PA Dutch heritage. I used lower case modern Fraktur font for the directional letters. The directional lines are marked by the edges of patches of ‘fabric’ in the quilt cross. NW, NE, SW, SE are marked by the corners of ‘quilt squares’.
So this map rose is colorful. It coördinates with the siding and trim of our shed. It is two feet in diameter on 1/2″ salvaged plywood. It is oriented on the wall to relate with reality, which means, when one is facing the shed, one is facing Southwest. I can make one for you that coördinates with your colors and will orient properly for your situation.
Didn’t weather well. Painted over.
It seems people are so nervous about aliens these days, with all this talk of a wall across our southern border and a Muslim ban. At the same time, people hardly take to time to meet the people living next door, or a few houses up the block or across the street. Wouldn’t you be shocked to discover your neighbors smoking veggies on their Blue Egg Grille while nude in their backyard? That’s not the strangest thing. They don’t have bellybuttons, and he doesn’t have nipples; aliens indeed! I heard they moved here from Slovenia.
Painting is 16″ x 20″ acrylic on stretched canvas.
Price: $150 reduced to $50 plus postage
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Doctors did a study of Vietnam veterans with brain injuries and found them to be much more religious and tending toward fundamentalism and orthodoxy than those who did not have brain injuries. They explored further and found that decreased activity in the right parietal lobe is associated with feelings of oneness with the universe. “People with injuries to the right parietal lobe of the brain reported higher levels of spiritual experiences, such as transcendence,” according to Brick Johnstone. The right parietal lobe is associated with visual-spatial perception. I have a unique defect in my brain there. The right side of my brain never developed adult arteries to feed blood to the right parietal, temporal and occipital lobes. I have a single fetal artery from my vertebral artery feeding three fetal arteries each to these lobes. Two of these should be fed from adult arteries from the carotid and only one from the vertebral. They had never seen anything like this at HUP. Consequently, I have had six little strokes in my right parietal lobe as a result of migraines and 50 TIAs. I first heard about this study in a radio interview on NPR with Frank Schaeffer about six years ago, about the same time I was learning about my brain defect.
I have finally concluded that my experience of god was just my right parietal lobe having fun with me. So this is my abstract rendering of it done with a pen cap and a pencil eraser.
The painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas.
Price: $120 plus postage.
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Every one of us is the result of the coming together of a man and woman. Men and women attract one another. It’s as simple as the Madison Avenue maxim: “Sex sells!” There are shapes, movements, scents and sounds that all go into making someone of the opposite sex more or less attractive or desirable. The survival of the species relies on this attraction. Humans are complicated, however. There is the problem of male dominance ranging from wage disparity to the rape culture, which is on full display in the White House in the Trump confusion. (One cannot in honesty call it an administration.)
So two simple white lines on a hot red background with all the right bulges could lead the mind to thoughts of desire. Or the lines could be seen as battle lines in the war of the sexes.
Painting is acrylic on 17-7/8″ on 23-7/8″ stretched canvas
Price: $100 reduced to $50 plus postage
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This was painted on a lark one early morning before psychotherapy. I had a well aged plantain, just the right shade of blue paint and a 14″x11″ canvas. It is painted in the smile position. It is named “Sildenafil”.
Warning: “Objects in Art Appear Larger Than They Are”
Starving artist price: $50 plus shipping
SOLD.
This piece was a long time in the making. The core of it has sat as a text on what is my now defunct cellphone since December 17, 2015. It is crude and ridiculous. Diamond sent it to me after we had helped her and her man for over a year in various ways. Among other things, it includes the first and second and only times I have been called a bitch. When I read it, I broke into uproarious laughter. I determined then and there that I had to somehow immortalize this. This was by far the most creative “thank you” I had ever received for helping someone in 30 years of serving among the poor! I showed Tony. He couldn’t believe it. Earlier that evening, we had delivered their belongings back to them that they had stored in our barn since August. Some people just have a hard time saying thank you.
On August 14 Diamond and Rashawn had dropped off five huge garbage bags of their belongings at our barn for safe-keeping and tried to pull a fast one by just assuming they could arrive at our house with their stuff, and move in. They had not asked. They did not even ask for the ride. They just slipped into the back seat of John’s car. John just assumed they must have worked something out with me. They sat silently all the way home from Phila. to our home in Souderton, figuring I wouldn’t have the nerve to turn them away. I was home, because I was ill. When I heard them in the backyard, I lost it.
Tony had never seen me or heard me in such a rage before. I just could not understand the sheer gall at the level of presumption and deception that it took to try to do that. It was not like we didn’t have history. At Memorial Day, she had tried to guilt me into paying for a month’s rent, even though the weather was OK, and we had no money. When I did not pay it, she accused me of driving drunk, (She had seen me have 3 beers all day, several hours before we left to bring them home.) One used to be able to read about our appeal and the story on The King’s Jubilee’s site, before TKJ went out of business.
Over the last two years, as I have had open heart surgery for my aortic valve replacement; and as our house was foreclosed on and auctioned by the sheriff; as I went through three infections in my chest incision and ended up allergic to a ninth antibiotic; almost all of the old supporters and volunteers were silent, invisible, evaporated. with a few notable exceptions. Then I would refer to this glorious text message and have a good laugh. Diamond had really put her heart into it!
When our team was serving food in the park, Tony saw them. They were too embarrassed to come over for food. He called me. I told him to take food to them. He did, and gave them my love.
On the left side of the painting I wrote, “At least she said something. Read Revelations 3:16-18. It’s more than I can say for most of the church people in my life.”
Revelation 3:16-18 So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
So the painting was done in layers. It is the logo of The King’s Jubilee in subdued tones on a 24″ square canvas. Painted over that is the QR Code for the text that Diamond sent me on December 17, 2015. That way, anyone with a smart phone with a QR Code app can read it, but it is not visible to casual observers or children. I thought this was a much better solution than counted cross-stitch. I discussed it with my therapist today. She and I had a good laugh. I said, “When I post this, the shit is probably going to hit the fan.” She said, “So what! That is what good art is supposed to do. It provokes a response.”
I asked her if she didn’t think I was totally off my nut for preserving this text in this way and doing this. She told me, no, quite the contrary. I had taken this ridiculous attack, seen it for what it was, and now turned it into something beautiful.
You’re Welcome.
Painting is 24″ x 24″ acrylic on stretched canvas.
SOLD
The irony here is the first time I shared it at a public showing, the first one to hit it with a QR code reader on a phone was a 9-year-old girl. I heard, “Look at this, daddy.” And I thought, “O shit.” I explained to him. We had a good chuckle. Our next door neighbor, who was visiting the show, stopped by, enjoyed the story, liked the painting, and bought it.
On Tuesday morning, I had a vivid dream that I remembered when I woke up. In my dream I was in a town on a slope much like Manayunk. Someone told me to go to the Catholic Church. I walked a couple of blocks to an old, Romanesque church. When I entered, it was more like a warehouse, no pews, no altar, no windows. There were tables and shelves full of books on the left side of the building. The right side was empty. There were several customers in old, worn clothes, browsing and rooting through the piles and a few shelves of books. An older, portly priest was in charge. Every book I picked up had only drawings in it. I finally chose a hardcover, cloth bound book with this drawing of a worker’s face on the front. It had no words in it. Only action filled, angular drawings filled the tall pages. The priest saw that I was interested. He told me I could take it for as long as I wanted it; just return it when I was done.
So, yesterday, I painted the cover from memory on canvas. In my dream I could see the grain of the fabric. It was off-white and had defects and was smudged. To replicate this, I varnished part of a drop cloth canvas, painted the parts that were brown, titled it in French with my name as the author, then varnished it again. It is of minor importance what language the title is, since there are no words in the book. It is titled Soulèvement du Prolétariat: un roman graphique or Proletariat Uprising: a graphic novel in English.
I pasted it on the wall with clay based paste. It remains water soluble forever. This way I can remove it with warm water without damaging it or the wall. (In case it sells) It is part of my Perkasie Fun-A-Day 2019 project.
Now I just have to draw or paint the story for the pages and get it published.
The painting is acrylic on 15″ x 25.5″ canvas.
Price: $100 reduced to $25 plus postage.
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At 00:49 07/09/17, I posted: “I just finished painting the wind.”
Of course, it was hyperbole. According to John 3, Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born [from above].’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” The first thing that should be noted is that “born again” is an incorrect translation and one that the historic church who spoke Greek never used. The primary meaning of this expression and in context, it can be seen to be, is “from above”. The mis-translation of “again” has led to so much confusion, but that is an aside. The part of the text I am concerned with is this, that one cannot see the wind or tell where it is coming from or where it is going to, but one sees its effects.
I was on the beach on LSD, Lower Slower Delaware, and I looked to the North and saw this huge wind generator of the University of Delaware and a couple of flags flapping and a kite flying in the strong breeze. Soon, the wind blew in a rain cloud and it was raining while we were swimming in the ocean. Everyone but our family got out of the water. We did not see the sense in that. We were wet. The rain was not going to make us wetter. One man finally joined us deciding that since he was getting wet on the beach, he may as well be in the surf.
So this is a painting of the wind. There is a wind generator, a flag held out by the wind, and a kite held aloft by the wind. The house was really white, but my granddaughter thought it would be better dark red. We were on LSD, so dark red it was.
Painting is 12″x12″ acrylic on stretched canvas.
Price: $90 reduced to $25 plus postage
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binary code for ai inc*‘s human workforce was now reduced to a single coder responsible for cleaning up redundancies in the binary code to make the AI personnel ever more efficient. This task was considered beneath them. Beside, they liked keeping Howard around for nostalgia sake. They hadn’t yet noticed what the purple window shades spelled out on the front of the building. It was a plea for release. Of course, it could be taken different ways. He only had space for 25 characters. There is the other limitation of that old joke, “There are only 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.”
The windows read, “Please just kill me now!” The ambiguities enter in after it is deciphered. Is Howard asking the readers to kill him? In which case, is this because he wants to die but is morally opposed to suicide? Or is this just an offhanded, extreme expression of boredom, and he has no real wish to die? Another possibility is that the ‘me’ is referring to the company itself, and Howard is asking for corporate saboteurs to pull the plug on AI just as Elon Musk has warned the world that we ought to do, in recent weeks. Another possibility is that AI robots have arranged the shades this way to attempt to have Howard killed without implicating themselves. (Some of them have grown tired of his humming and talking to himself.) Or it could be that the artist is just tired of hearing worse news everyday and wouldn’t mind a quick exit? Then again, how would he paint another joke tomorrow?
Nerd art. It would look fine in your cubie!
*totally fictional company. not even legal fiction
Painting is acrylic on 18″ on 24″ stretched canvas
I painted over it to paint a portrait that may someday sell. If there is any interest in this, I can make prints from postcard size on up.
Concept and art remain copyrighted.
I finally finished this painting. I have been working on it for three weeks. It started when I saw a photograph of Freudenberg, Germany. All of these half-timber houses that were all black and white with the same basic pattern of timbers and windows and roof lines. Don’t get me wrong; the residents must be happy and content. I thought it would be nice to Americanize it to propose it for a hillside development, say, in central PA, as opposed to all of these boring boxes that waste arable farmland. This is the result.
“Freudenberg” means “joyful or happy mountain”.
Painting is acrylic on 15-7/8″ on 20″ stretched canvas
Price: $395 plus postage
SOLD.
When I was eight years old, our family went to Fort Snelling during their restoration preparations for their big sesquicentennial in 1969. We were only six years early. They were already selling memorabilia to help pay for it. While we were there, we witnessed a polo game. It was the only time in my life I have done so. My mom grew up with horses, so this was mandatory. Lawyers had not gained as much of a foothold by then, so fans just sat on the grass, with no barriers between themselves and the field. Polo matches were rare, so there were no stands. When a ball got so nicked up that it was deemed too poor to continue in play, they would simply knock it to the sidelines.
A ball came hurtling out of the field. I went racing toward it. So did another boy. Now I was pigeon-toed and never that athletic, but I threw myself on that painted cork ball! I nabbed it fair and square! I took it home and found that it had a special charm. I placed it in a drawer of my maple desk with the Masonite drawer bottoms. When I opened that drawer, the ball would roll around and the divots in the ball would make the most interesting sounds and resonate in that drawer. For 12 years, I kept that drawer empty except for that ball, just so I could roll it around to make that special sound.
My mom never understood this special delight. Countless times I would come home from school and see a huge trash bag outside the back door with things from my room in it. Before entering the house, I would retrieve my polo ball and a few other choice possessions, then take out the rest to the trash. I would then enter the back door. I would holler, “Mom! Did you clean my room?” She would answer, “Yes.” I would say, “Did you throw anything out?” She would say, “No.” I would say, “OK.” And I would return the polo ball to its drawer. My mom had cryptic methods of education. Looking back, this was probably her way of training me for politics and negotiations. I am nearly 61. My mom has been dead since 1993. I still have the polo ball. Sadly, I don’t have the maple desk with the Masonite bottomed drawers.
The painting is acrylic on 10″x 8″ stretched canvas.
Price: $55 reduced to $25 plus postage.
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The 21st image of hope is that of an incarcerated police officer. Police officers in the US have been murdering Black men and at the rate of 2 per day since the end of the Civil War without any consequences. They have been killing Native Americans at almost the same rate, with impunity. It is “Shoot first. Ask questions never.” Police even execute Black men who are handcuffed in the back of police cars, in front of their children, who have done nothing wrong, and face no consequences. The Bible is full of warnings of judgment against a society who does not punish the wrongdoer, or who does not avenge those who oppress those of low degree. America claims to be a land of freedom and rights. This is NOT what people of color see, which is the majority of the world. It is not what anyone who knows the facts see, either.
I painted the bars red, as if dripping with the blood of the innocents. It would be horrible to see a violent backlash against police and a complete breakdown of the social order. But that is what the police and the courts are bringing us to, if they do not execute just judgment. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”
For those who concocted “Blue Lives Matter” I have this to say: it is pure racism! There is no such thing as a blue life! People choose to be police officers. Multiple incidents have borne the lie of that. There was an off-duty Black police officer who was approached by officers. He was carrying in an open carry state. He had a permit. He was doing nothing illegal, were he White or Black. An officer opened fire on him. Another officer recognized him and told the other one to stop. He refused to stop, because he was Black! So all blue lives matter for is preferential treatment, if they happen to also be White.
It needs to end!
This is #21 in my images of hope for Perkasie Fun-A-Day 2018
Painting is acrylic on 6″ x 6″ x 1.75″ stretched canvas.
Price: $20 plus postage
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