Thursday, November 16, 2023

Hello

I have not taken such a long break from my blog ever, I think. 

First I want to thank everyone who prayed for me. I needed prayers. It has been a hard time to go through, and I know I'm not alone on that score. Life gets rough sometimes, and that's all there is to it.

I'm trying to think of the things I have learned along the way. It will take a while to collect my thoughts. Right now I'm writing as I type. Soon I'll try to get some things out on paper where I can see them. And then I can tell my friends just where on earth I have been.
Thank you again for good thoughts and for the prayers.

P.S. I have a new phone, which isn't letting me post photos to my blog as easily as my old phone did.
These are old photos I took. I may have to just show scans of my art instead of taking photos for a while.
It was a happy chance that I saw the scenes in the above photos.
Talk soon.
Love, Debra
XXOO
 

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Loving a Goose, A true story



 Loving a Goose + Loved by a Goose
A True Story

When my goose Sam lost the last of her three sisters, I worried. Would I have to buy some decoy geese to put in her pen? Would she die of loneliness or just stop eating?
Within a few days, I had the answers to my questions.

She made an elaborate nest in her nighttime kiddie pool where she slept safe from predators. She didn't lay eggs in the nest-she only wanted some kind of goose-comfort, aside from all the human attention she got from me. Every morning when it was time for her to go outside, she wanted to stay in 
her nest. I let her stay, but I kept talking to her. After a little while she stood up and was ready to go outside.

I watched carefully because once I had a goose that mourned her mate by laying next to the fence all day. Lots of love and care brought that goose out of her depression, but I was hoping Sam would only need her indoor nest and be happy to be out in the lush grass with lots of corn to eat. I needn't have worried-she was happy outside and bathed and ate heartily.

Sam and I had never had a one on one friendship-there had always been her sisters, who had died one by one, until it was just her and Titus for quite a few years.

Titus (female with a male's name) was the Alpha goose and Sam was the lowest on the totem pole out of the four. Until Titus died, Sam was very content to be her own goose and not be held and petted. She wanted her corn and a place to bathe and the indoor safety-that was her world.

Until Titus died. Then I became her world. She became a huge part of mine. I think I always substituted the geese for my son who had his own life far away from the nest we made for him. I missed my son so much.

So I had a goose and I loved her. She needed my love; we became best friends.

The Pandemic started only a few months after Titus's death. My world was suddenly small. It was as big as our yard and home. My husband and my goose were my only social contacts. Church was over the Internet. Everything changed.

So I loved my goose even more. One goose, one human.
We bonded. Did she somehow sense an odd thing going on in the world?

Whatever it was, it was something God did for me. I have had geese for decades. Ducks, doves, two chickens. Always birds. I could qualify as a goose whisperer. I know them well.

Our days of friendship and love and trust were days I see as always being sunny, rainbows everyday, warm breezes and my eyes seeing beautiful gray feathers and a black knobby beak.

Sam replaced the broken world, the loneliness of masks, the fear of being close to humans because of an unseen virus. I didn't have to think about that stuff with a warm goose body on my lap.

And then one day she died. June 20. 2023. The chair we sat in is in my studio. It comforts me, just like her nest comforted Sam.

I can't help but think of a loving God who invented love to begin with. What a glorious 'thing' love is.

I miss Sam. I mourn and grieve over her. I still have to figure out how to be Sam-less. It hurts. But there's something that just won't let me give in to despair. It's knowing that God is real, that this stuff matters to Him because I matter to Him.

Thank You God, for the beautiful gift of loving a goose.

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Help please!


 Does anyone know how to prevent thousands of views from one country-probably a spybot or some odd thing like that? It's giving me the creeps.
I've googled it and nothing is making sense to me about preventing that on my blog.

Thanks!

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Finn, the wonderful dog...


 Debra Smith, acrylic on canvas 10"x16"

"Finn"

I know I promised to review some art books I'm reading, but we've been traveling, so I have ten million things to do today-the laundry being top of the list!

See you soon. And thank you for all the nice comments-it helps me to keep on painting!

***


Monday, August 7, 2023

A new painting


 Acrylic on cover of an 'Artists Loft' sketch book.
Debra Smith

I wanted to paint the front of my sketchbook so I'd know which way to open it when I wanted to use it, and just to decorate it a bit. I used painter's tape to block off the edges and when I took the tape off, it ripped off some of the cover of the book. Thankfully, not damaging the painting.

I feel like I am learning some things about values. I am happy about that because my folky paintings were all flat blocks of color-nothing wrong with that at all-I just want to learn more representational painting.
My color work needs much improvement.
It's ok.
The point is to keep working...
I thought soon I'd do a post about some of the books I am enjoying and learning from.

Have a wonderful week!



Thursday, July 27, 2023

I painted Sam...


 Acrylic on stretched canvas, 14"x 11"
I miss my goose.
I miss her feathers and her honk.
I love how she loved me.

And I believe I'll see her and all my pets in heaven. Of course my beloved humans!
Would God, who took the time to make lightning bugs, not include animals in eternity?

***