Spent, or feral, are words for how I felt this week. Nothing serious, but I did require a couple days of Advil and horizontal time on the sofa in front of the TV. I managed, however, to paint Domaius, the genus name for Emus, above. He went the way of all the Emus I’ve painted, meaning he started out scary because Emus can be scary, then he got goofy because Emus are definitely goofy, then he went all Dr. Suess before being scary again. It was at that point I began to hate it, which I’ve learned is a sure sign that a piece is almost done. All Domaius needed was softened eyes and a slightly sly upturn of the lips to be finished.

Cookie, above, was the first of my Emus. It was also the first piece that sold at my first gallery show of the Birds. I’d sold a dozen or so on my own to people I knew but strangers bought Cookie and she already had a red dot when I arrived for the opening of the show. Stormy, below, came next and was named for Ms. Daniels who was all over the news at the time. She was long gone by the time I started selling at craft fairs and was the face on the only line of tee shirts I made. I believe I’ve mentioned the little boy who burst into happy tears when his dad bought him one of the Stormy giclees, which I framed for them then and there.

I won’t show you all of the Emus but I would be remiss if I didn’t include Fracas, the collage I made on a gold background with a print of Vago, my favorite of the Emus, along with the War of the Angels mayhem. Those three older Emus are good examples of the goofy, sly and scary phases Domaius went through before I framed him when he was barely dry so he and last week’s Cardinalis could head over to the Ali Gray Gallery to replace pieces that had sold. Best get cracking on more new work, I thought those two were for the August show.