ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood in The Carthage Press

BESIDE THE COTTAGE GARDEN

​OUR FEAST IS YOURS!

While our fickle weather entices and teases us—balmy warm and sunny one day, then blustery gray and chill the next—everywhere around us the harbingers of spring are proliferating inside and out.
 
Indoors artCentral is opening windows on pretty mornings, launching our annual Membership Campaign and delightedly installing our second spring Exhibition, Sandra Conrad’s WINGED WOMEN.

Outdoors the trees are loaded with buds aching to burst. The daffodils are waking to raise and nod their cheery heads. The tulips and irises are unfolding to show their graceful leaves. The birds are engaging in their daily feeding frenzies as they prep for courtships to come.
 
Though I’m not an expert bird watcher, over time I learn to identify a few different traits of our feathered friends. For instance, robins, when hankering after worms, actually stand quite still, cock their heads and sometimes sing a jaunty little ditty to call up their snacks from beneath the sod. Male hummingbirds, once they arrive from southern climes, dance in sweeping, singing arches when wooing their intendeds who sit quietly vetting their prospects. Some birds congregate in clusters, others prefer less social interaction.

​At home for lunch in my cottage, I’m standing at the kitchen window bird gazing into the backyard, when I see a most uncommon neighborhood sight collecting before me. First I spy one large flicker—scarlet crowned, black bibbed and mauve jacketed with dark dots all over. An aloof blue jay is nearby. Both these drop ins, who usually prefer to be on their own, are seriously going after their noon meal to be found in the brittle grass.

​Sipping my soup I see a wonder!  Appearing as though responding to a dinner bell, another flicker, 

Northern Flicker · Birds on an Urban Edge http://www.birdsonanurbanedge.com/

then another jay, then another flicker, then another jay—they keep coming until on my lawn are a flock of five fat flickers and too many jays to number. These are soon joined by dozens of various black birds all come by to dine. Oh, what a wonder!

At artCentral, like Mother Nature, we specialize in wonders. Come and be a part of our feasting including receptions, exhibitions and events; classes and workshops; quarterly newsletters; artCamp for Children; and much, much more!

The secret to artCentral’s vitality and ongoing success is your support. With your help artCentral continues to celebrate and encourage our regional talent and expand our horizons internationally, while we nurture our children and honor our elders. As a member, your contribution to artCentral today is a positive investment in the quality of life in southwest Missouri for all our tomorrows.

Your membership matters! Join or renew by phone, mail or online: 417-358-4404; artCentral, POB 714, Carthage; or www.artcentralcarthage.org/join.html.
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Our feast is yours!