Opinion - Illustration Friday

Thanksgiving is just a few days away and of course it is a time to count our blessings… to give thanks… I started counting mine a long time ago… I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful family… and friends… and I am so thankful for the creative gifts I have been given…

My job has taken me many places… this week the Museum where I work is closed for the holiday but are showing a film Thanksgiving evening… Trail of Tears : Cherokee Legacy… of course I am thankful that the native peoples provided life for the early European settlers… they taught them how to fish and grow corn and ultimately survive the winter…

So what's with the cows? I live in Jacksonville… named for Andrew Jackson our seventh president… and while I am certain that the USA would not be what it is today… or might not even exist… I am troubled to live in a city that is named after a man who championed Indian Removal… our record with the treatment of the indigenous peoples is appalling and continues to this day… Jacksonville has a long and storied history… and as a native Jacksonvillian… I much prefer our original name, Cowford to what we now have…

Happy Thanksgiving… God bless…

Illustration Friday - String

New sketchbook. New illustration. And you might be wondering what this has to do with this week's topic. Well, let me take you back…

Many. MANY years ago… when I was young… er… younger… I had a lot of time to explore the outdoors. Snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs, toads, bugs… all manner of things that hopped, crawled, slithered and scurried… these were the citizens of my domain. My father encouraged it for the most part and so did my mother as long as I didn't make her look at any of it of take it inside.

One of my fondest memories was taking a piece of string and tying it to a cicada and letting it fly. It was like the most expensive and fantastic toy ever. And I had a few of those gas-powered model airplanes that was a much more expensive, but none were ever as fun. And as much fun as the "Flight of the Cicada" was, I only did it once… then I untied the string and let it go.

Cicadas are a part of summer. Sometimes, you hear their songs long into the night. And while I am now grown with a family of my own, I still hear them, even though the leaves are beginning to turn and the days are growing shorter… even here in the Sunshine State.