After giving birth to my first child more than 35 years ago, all natural, I felt so empowered that my first thought was, “If I can do this and survive, I can do anything I set my mind to.”

In 2015, while creating my collection of 50 state bird paintings, there were plenty of times I felt like quitting. Each painting took about 6 hours to make, plus post-production: professional imaging, digitizing, copyrighting, etc.

Then came finding the right printer to reproduce the images on the perfect papers, making the actual products to put them on, building a website, learning how to market online, and purchasing all the equipment to do craft fairs.

The number 50 became daunting to me, and then I learned that seven states honor the cardinal as their state bird! The challenge was to present cardinals in different poses, and in different settings, which meant researching the landscapes of the individual states. As beautiful as the red bird is, I thought, “If I have to paint one more (fill in the blank) cardinal, I’m gonna scream!”

The entire collection took about 9 months to make and was one of the hardest commitments I’d ever taken on because I have a wee bit of A.D.D., and the patience and focus required to finish the project made me squirm trying to avoid distractions.

The completion brought me right back to that feeling of giving birth: supreme joy and relief - accomplishment that comes from a place of deep love.

Here's to the beautiful winter red bird that we all love . . . Cheers, dear Cardinal!