"I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward. I pray to them because I believe in their existence, the way their songs begin and end each day -- the invocations and benedictions of the Earth. I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen. ~ Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place.
I started BirdlyDrawn a little more than a year ago. My family (Dana's side and my side) was going through some upheaval. I was in the process of leaving art school because the amount of focus required was too great for the challenges of my life at the time. I had just left a job that - after 15 years - had left me sick and broken down.
I needed to draw -- it's better than therapy, for sure -- and I needed a way to add some focus to my life.
So I turned to birds.
My attention was not misplaced.
A few months ago I became the editor of Spokane Audubon's newsletter, The Pygmy Owl.
Next week, I start a natural science illustration program at the University of Washington.
BirdlyDrawn has helped me (and will, I hope, continue to help me) change my focus. It has unearthed possibilities that I didn't know existed a year ago...
Where it will eventually lead, I have no idea. But I'm grateful for the path I'm on now and looking forward to finding out where it will go from here.
