Riding the fences after winter

Coming out of the coldest winter and the longest year of my life, I find myself wanting to assess the state of things. I suppose I’m a bit like a rancher checking to see which cattle survived and which fences and buildings need to be fixed or replaced.

My family is healthy, and in fact, we now have new members from late Fall — two Covid babies, one from each of my daughters and their husbands. My daughters, particularly the older one, shepherded us through the isolation. I’m grateful for their guidance as we might’ve made some serious mistakes early on. 

Some of my friendships have been damaged or have died, I’m sorry to report. The cause was political. Although no harsh words have been spoken, no stones flung through windows, there are times when divisions grow so intense that reconciliation may be impossible. I still can’t believe so many Americans allowed themselves to be deceived about the nature of our country, our history, our government. America is both great and terrible, and we now face an uncertain future made thornier by the events of this past year. 

My work, I’m happy to say, seems healthy. Photography and digital art are just as challenging as ever, but I feel great overall about what I’m producing. As an artist, I know I’ll never be completely happy with what I make (that seems endemic to the profession), and my latest effort — a collection of images about Spring — is the first time I’ve worked around an abstract theme, selecting the palette, the types of images, and the style of presentation. It’s different than how I usually work, which is to let a theme emerge as the images get processed.

I’m also hatching a scheme to donate all the money from my tree pictures to a non-profit that plants trees all over the world! Very excited about that and will post more soon, both here and on social media.