Zick and Rain Crows Alerts!

ZICK ALERT, RAIN CROWS ALERT!!

Akron, Cleveland and Columbus area folks please note, I'll be appearing at 

Author Day

Hudson Library & Historical Society

96 Library Street

Hudson, OH 44236 

Saturday, July 19, 2014

from 1-4 pm.

 I'll have many copies of  The Bluebird Effect, some other bling, 

and my signing pen with me. I'd love to meet you and yak.

And on July 20, The Rain Crows will have a rare, full-band engagement at the Summer Music Garden series in Mount Vernon, Ohio. We'll play two sets of all-original music, much of it brand new, in the 

Children's Garden,

 Knox County Career Center, 

Martinsburg Road, Mount Vernon, Ohio. 

Sunday, July 20, 2014

 from 4-6 pm. 

We'll miss our exquisite fiddler, Jessie Munson, but we'll be enjoying the fabulous pedal steel and dobro wizard John Borchard in her stead. 

Thanks to Nelle and Jeff Howard for these shots from a private concert we played at their Dance Barn at the end of June. We're stoked to have another gig--they're few and far between, and we love bringing brand new originals out into the light. 

If you can, please come see us! We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging. 

Why Don't You Make Notecards With Your Paintings on Them?

I have been asked this question an estimated 1,072 times over a 38-year career as an illustrator. I guess the proximate answer is that it costs money to do that, and career illustrators don't tend to have a lot of money. Now that I've segued into writing and illustrating my own work, not much has changed. Still no capital to do anything with, though I dream. For years I've watched the marvelous Dutch artist Marjolein Bastin flourish, selling cards featuring European songbirds to the American market. Good for her. She does lovely work. But part of me always wondered why that couldn't be me. Wouldn't Americans prefer cards featuring birds they know? Why have a European blue tit when you could have an eastern bluebird?

So when the well-respected New York stationery company, Galison, approached me last year to ask if they could make notecards with my paintings on them, it didn't take long for me to say Hell Yeah!!

Paint four of my favorite birds (I got to pick!) in seasonal settings for high-quality notecards that you can send through the U.S. Postal Service to surprise someone with a piece of Real Mail?

With the backs decorated with my sketches and botanical studies? 

And four designs, four of each, for a total of 16 cards with 17 pretty envelopes, and all of that in a sturdy keepsake box with magnetic closure?

 Oh yes yes yes! I was on it like Bluebonnet. 

Sketches and mockups flew back and forth (electronically) between Whipple and New York City. Without meaning to, I totally grossed out my contact at Galison with this photo of my desk full of reference material. She said she couldn't look at this picture. Well, I don't make this stuff up. Gotta get it somewhere. Detached wings from roadkills, study skins, real sumac in a vase. Real reference material means accurate paintings. That's how it's done at Indigo Hill Arts, where we take bird painting seriously.

The finished flicker in staghorn sumac. A painting I've always wanted to do, since I've seen this scene in nature several times. Maybe not quite this colorfully, but a flicker in sumac is a fine, fine sight. Perhaps North America's most ornate bird, and one I love very much. 

Though cardinals were suggested, I decided the winter image had to be cedar waxwings in mountain ash. Cardinals have been done, and done, and done. I've raised three waxwing babies and I love their rollicking sense of fun. The best part, after painting those tiny red tips on the flight feathers? Taking a toothbrush, dipping it in Chinese white, and flicking it all over the finished painting. Snow!

 Spring would feature one of my favorite warblers, the Canada. See, I got to pick!  I'd put him, fanning his tail, about to launch after an insect, in blooming mountain laurel, because that's where I love them best. What a gas to paint the spectacles and necklace on this magnificent little bird, then top it all off with the candy cake decorations of mountain laurel buds and blossoms.

And Galison wanted the cover painting from The Bluebird Effect for the summer piece. Fine with me! Male eastern bluebird with chicory, a little yellow vetch and wild rose--doesn't get a lot summerier than that. Right about now, in fact.

The bluebird would go on the cover of the keepsake box. It's a really nice heavy box, and the magnetic lid closes with a satisfying car-door thunk.

Throughout, my handwriting and sketches. I even wrote the copy on the back of the cards. It all feels very personal, like pages torn from one of my sketchbooks. I loved the whole experience of being involved in creating these cards. Thank you, Juanita! Thank you, Galison! Thank you, Russell Galen, for your help in negotiations!

So. You want 'em yet? I got 'em! Thanks to my fabulous Web Witch, KK, I've got a little purple card-ordering button on the right sidebar of this blog, and on

juliezickefoose.com's home page

 or you can just

click here

to find out more and order

 I'll wrap 'em up and get them to you via the U.S. Postal Service! 

If these do well, I'd love to do more. More birds, then flowers, insects, mammals, reptiles...the sky's the limit.

Phoebe and the Voodoo Lily

My kids trust me as their personal Ranger Rick, their guide to all things natural. I seldom trick them. But sometimes the temptation is too great. 

Phoebe and I rode our bikes over to tend to our neighbors' dog, Max. Max is 14 and he adores Phoebe.

She gives him the love he needs when he's staying home alone.

I used to pet-sit for all kinds of people when I was her age, too. She's good at it. Conscientious. Will set her alarm to feed him on time. Knows he needs to feel someone cares, and isn't just pouring food in a dish and walking away.

While Phoebs bustled around getting Max's food ready, I strolled through Sherm and Beth's garden. Like me, they love weird plants. I spied a voodoo lily in full bloom. Oh oh oh.

This member of the Araceae attracts flies and beetles by emitting a powerful odor of rotting flesh and cat poo. I moved over for a tentative sniff. Didn't smell anything. Took a deep breath and agggghhhh!! Sooo bad. Like sticking your nose in a litterbox. Worse. Flies buzzing all around. Eccchhh.

I swallowed my gorge and called to Phoebe. Hey Phoebs!! Come see this voodoo lily! It smells AMAZING!!

Phoebe hurried over, asked, "Does it smell good?" 

"It smells AMAZING!!" I repeated. I wasn't lying. The stench was awesome. 

She stuck her nose right down by the spathe and took a deep draught. Trusts her mama. And gave a strangled cry as she recoiled, covering her face with her hands.

She twirled away for a few yards, yelled, "I HATE YOU!!" and stood there shaking her poor little head. "It's stuck in my throat! It's burned into my nose! I hate you!!"

Ah ha ha ha ha. Little Science Chimp prank for ya there, girlie. Pay it forward.

I led her to these iris, which smelt of grape bubblegum. Almost all better.

She turns 18 tomorrow, this Child of Light. And she's gotten her biggest birthday wish, and he's been staying with us for a week.

Perhaps Phoebe's favorite skyline...PNC Park, home of the Pirates.

We kicked his visit off with a Pirates' game, against the AZ Diamondbacks. Here, they're walking across the bridge to the stadium. Liam is always included. I love that about these kids.

The game didn't go so well in the end, but we had fun.

The baseball park is a scene my family loves, but it's truly all too much for me. The organ music, the roaring crowd, the announcements, the flashing tickertape, the clapping and stomping. I get antsy and have to get out of there. I guess it's because my soundtrack of choice is crickets and birds, and my ears and senses are set to sort through all the natural music, identifying each singer. So when I get a wash of loud, random noise, I go on Tilt, like an old shaky hunting dog might.

I did enjoy watching the clouds sail like great clipper ships across that beautiful city skyline. Rough-winged swallows dipped and swooped on the infield.

We had a quintessential Pittsburgh moment--the pierogies, racing past the iconic Heinz ketchup bottle.

It's true--the moments I treasure most are when the kids and I are out in nature together. We've been doing some biking this summer, a bit of cross-training with all the running. It's astounding how many miles you can cover in a short time with a bicycle. I feel like a caveman, discovering The Wheel. Ten miles feels like nothing.

Whenever there's a hill, the kids get there first. I have to stop and take cow photos, anyway. 

We've befriended all the dogs on our routes. 

We look for pink chicory. I make them sit down with it, because I'm remembering a moment...

And I'm blasted back in time to the first pink chicory we found, and the ten-year-old who posed for me. It was in the same spot. The plants are still there.  But everything else has changed a little since July 10, 2007. What a difference seven years makes.

She's growing up now, and she's going to go soon, and we're going to have to make sure Liam's OK with that, that he gets enough love without his big sister handy by. 

I watch her starting her real life, and part of me wants to go along. A lot of me does.

 Happy birthday, beautiful bird. These hills will be waiting for you when you come home.