It’s a Memorial Day weekend and on this early Saturday the sun is mottling the yard of my studio, filtering through the new foliage on the trees. Beautiful day. A stray cat came wandering up the driveway. Nice size cat, dark striped tiger. I watch him as he stops to drink from the small creek and wonder where he belongs, if he’s someone’s pet on an adventure or a stray. We don’t get so many strays as we once did, probably due to the coyotes that criss-cross our property. This guy doesn’t get a very warm reception either.
As he comes around the bend in my drive I see two turkeys coming from the opposite direction. Seeing the cat, they pick up speed and begin trotting towards him. The cat turns and walks back down the drive, acting very cool about the whole thing. The turkeys continue and get near him and he dives into the brush to one side and the turkeys continue on down the driveway. At this point I go out to see if he might be friendly enough to approach me. As I get out there, I see a doe, one that I simply call Mama Deer (she is a great mother to her fawns, very protective) trotting through the woods towards the spot where the cat has entered the brush. She stops and begins to stomp her front leg and I hear her loud snort. She takes another step and this poor cat pops out of the brush and heads back down the driveway in a slow trot. Mama continues over towards where he was, just to make sure he doesn’t double back.
I doubt that this poor guy will be back. Too bad…
This painting is called Call Ethereal and is another piece for my 10th solo show opening June 12th at the Principle Gallery. I like this piece very much and feel it really captures the essence of the Red Tree. I get a feeling of both contemplation and epiphany from this piece and having this dual feeling excites me. I think it’s very strong. Hopefully it will find someone who will have something akin to my feelngs for this piece…
Redtree Times 
