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February 6, 2021 by Crow Johnson Evans 2 Comments

For the Birds?

Do you enjoy watching birds and figuring out which ones they are? How young were you when they first hit your radar? Were they objects in the sky or did you see living creatures? Did you discover them only after getting new glasses? Or learn about birds to attract the attention of a birdwatcher you fancied? How many times have you told the untruth, “Oh, yeah, I think I see it now.”

I’ve gone through so many changes of attitude and awareness of Avians (birds). In college, they were a grade in a Zoology course and an excuse to go out into the woods.

When I later lived in the Ozarks, birds became living creatures with personalities, and yes (I confess) I talked to them.

After marrying Arthur my viewfinder changed again. We started going on foreign birding trips with a guide as a small group of four or five. We’d often camp out at ecolodges or youth hostels.

If you are thinking, “oh, come on. A dove is a dove is a dove, so what’s the big deal?” Try seeing it this way:

You get off a plane, with a very small suitcase (3-4 changes of clothes, socks, boots, binoculars, camera, notebook, medicines, raingear, and snack bars). Need a bathroom? What language do these people speak? What time is it? How do you ask?

Crossing your legs while jumping around and looking distressed often works. (And I wonder how the expression “dumb tourists” came about?)

The very next day you are hiking through forests of trees you don’t recognize, feeling a different climate or elevation with each step. Being somewhere new, makes me expect to see new things–so I pay more attention.

Then.. look there’s a crow. Big deal, I’ve seen crows before. But wait there are around 40 different species of crows. They may look similar to you, but if you are in South India where crows are revered as spirits of the ancestors…you don’t shoo them away when they steal a packet of sugar from your table. And if you carry a plate of food for any distance, it’s a good idea to cover it with a large leaf or cloth–so you won’t be dive-bombed and robbed of a delicious morsel. In New Caledonia not far from New Zealand, the Crows can make tools and solve problems. Honest.

Being able to put a name on a creature, doesn’t mean we understand them. I’ve read The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman at least three times. It’s fascinating whether you are a birdwatcher or not.

On a trip to Sulawesi, an island in Indonesia that’s east of Borneo, I was completely entertained by watching the local kids watching our little group of birdwatchers! There’s a children’s picture book in those moments.

Have you thought that a bird you see in your backyard could have wintered thousands of miles from your house!

Filed Under: Blog, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing Tagged With: birdwatching, childrensbooks, Crow Spun, learning, noticing, Ozarks, Travel

January 2, 2021 by Crow Johnson Evans 4 Comments

Interview: Julia Cairns- traveler, artist, and….

Crow: Julia, I bought one of your note cards in Santa Fe a couple of years ago and I treasure it. Your contact information was on the back. I’ve been involved in music and writing.. and recently art. We have never spoken or met, but I can tell that you have multiple talents and interests. There is such energy (and joy) in your work. Thank you for being willing to do this interview.

You live in NM now, but tell us about your upbringing and adventures, please. (Oh, If only I could paint my memories of India with your skill.)

Julia: I was born in Oxford, England, a very long time ago (61 years) but grew up in a village outside Oxford called Harwell. I was the second of 4 children. My Mum was a single mother, which in the ’60s was very challenging. We had little money but we were pretty happy. I used to paint and draw on the kitchen table, somehow that creativity sustained me as it does to this day. I loved to ride and was able to buy a pony from the New Forest when I was 13 (they were auctioned off every year for very little money). My best friend’s father was a farmer and allowed me to keep the pony in a field with her pony. Riding became another pastime for me and got me outside a lot. When I was about 17, I bought a motorcycle and drove around the countryside painting. With my painting box, easel, and paints strapped to the back of my Suzuki 200cc I’d tear around looking for the perfect view. Using my motorcycle as a perch, I’d sit and paint for many hours.
At 18 I wanted to travel and left for a kibbutz in Israel where I stayed for many months. This created a wanderlust in me. Every time I returned to the UK I would set to work saving money so I could travel somewhere else. After grape picking in France, I headed to Kenya where I was fortunate to get a job working on a ‘ranch’ that was owned by a colonial family. There was a Maasai tribe living on the ranch and they were permitted to remain there as long as they danced every afternoon for tourists. It was an odd disconnect between an indigenous people and those of privilege but at the time I was not fully aware of this and enjoyed the interaction with the Masai who would come and visit me and the other helpers at the time.

This is where I began to draw seriously, I was fascinated by the Masai and their beautiful elegance. When we brought the tourists up from the Manyatta where the Masai resided and danced to the lush grounds of the colonial house, I was able to offer my drawings for sale. The thrill of having a complete stranger purchase a piece of my art was very exciting. From Kenya, I went to South Africa, which was a real culture shock. Apartheid was in full swing and in Capetown I did not see many Africans, they were all in their ‘homelands’ only allowed into the city to work. I got a job for a few months in an advertising agency and when I had saved some money, I took the train up to Botswana. This was the real Africa for me. I fell in love with the Okavango delta in the northern part of the country and vowed to return when I’d saved some money and could obtain a residence permit.


I did return, a year later, in 1983 when I was 23 years old, permits in hand and a case full of art supplies. From the first week I was there, I had many adventures but did end up back in the Delta where I spent the next 9 years. At first, I lived off the land with a friend I’d made, Sally, who was a photographer, we shot pigeons and fished the rivers, camping out on the islands that were surrounded by the waters of the Okavango. We got around in a dugout canoe, becoming adept polers, knowing where hippos and crocodiles might be lurking.

Every day I painted so by the time we left the swamps for the big city of Gaberone, I had enough work for an exhibition. From the exhibition came the commission by the Postal Service to illustrate stamps for the country. I illustrated 4 series of stamps over the time I was in Botswana. Besides regular exhibitions, I also published postcards and greeting cards which sold very well and kept my VW beetle gassed up.

I was thrilled that my work could support me and I was able to sustain a lifestyle that involved long periods of time in the Swamps followed by time in the city where I did my business. At this time I inherited a black labrador from a woman who had returned to the UK but could not take the dog. Nare (Naree) soon became my best friend, coming with me everywhere. He had an uncanny ability to swim underwater, a talent that saved his life when he was attacked by a crocodile. He lived to tell the tale and even accompanied me to the US when I came here in 1992. I also had a cat, Biggles who I found in the delta. She was not so fortunate as Nare and was taken by a leopard one evening when we were sitting by the fire.

It was in the delta I met my future husband, John Bulger, who was running a baboon research camp not far from where Sally and I had our little camp. On discovering we both had parasites, Sally and I poled our dugout to Baboon camp in order to radio town for some medicine. John’s friend Paul was visiting at the time so the four of us had a party, it was lovely to see some other young people after so long on a little island. John invited me to live at Baboon camp, which I happily did, setting up a little studio in one of the reed huts that was perched on the edge of the island. John went out to watch his baboons every day and I went out to paint. It was an idyllic few years. Eventually, John had to return to the U.S to finish his Ph.D. I was reluctant to leave Africa, especially to go to the States, a country I had no desire to visit, let alone live!

Eventually love won out. We married in 1992 in Kasane, a little town on the edge of the Chobe river in N. Botswana. Living in the U.S was a huge culture shock for me. I began to paint the Africa I remembered, creating stylized figures and animals. I met a lovely woman in Davis, CA, who owned a gallery and took my work on. She sold everything I painted and I was able to pay our rent for many months until John graduated.

We lived for 13 years by the ocean, just north of Santa Cruz, CA. In this idyllic spot, we raised two children. I continued to paint and found a licensing agent in N.York who took me on. My work found its way onto many products from jigsaw puzzles to shower curtains and gave me a ‘passive’ income for many years.

It was in 2000 that I got my first children’s book deal, with Scholastic books, a book entitled ‘The Spider Weaver’ which is no longer in print but gave me a leg up into the world of children’s book illustration. I have to date illustrated 12 books for children, the latest of which will be published in January of 2021.

We moved to Salt Spring Island in Canada for a year in 2007 but the rain chased us back to the U.S. We settled in Santa Fe, NM where the sun shines for 300 days a year.
Since living in Galisteo, a little village just outside Santa Fe, I have continued to paint. I began teaching shortly after arriving in NM, teaching classes in my studio and the local Community college. I also traveled to Canada and the UK to teach. Recently I’ve been teaching classes on Zoom which has been such a blessing.

Over the years I have traveled to Brazil, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Morocco, and India. Each culture has inspired me. When I return from my travels I am able to use my experiences to create a series of paintings.

Crow: Have you always drawn and painted? What other creative activities do you enjoy? Do you have a favorite kind of music.. or musicians?

Julia: I have drawn and painted for as long as I can remember. I am also a yoga teacher which I also teach online. My passions, besides painting and yoga, are swimming and hiking. We are fortunate to live in a beautiful place with many hiking trails. Both my children are musicians, my daughter plays the fiddle and my son the guitar. They do not make a living from it but love doing it and are very good. I do not have a musical skill but enjoy listening to whatever music they suggest I listen to. Right now I love the Ruen Brothers.

Crow:  Can you tell us more about your personal life and how you developed your style. If you don’t mind my being so curious.

Julia: I am 61, married to John Bulger for 28 years. I have one sister, two half-sisters, and two brothers. All except my younger sister live in England.
I developed my style many years ago, realizing that the background of a painting could be as important and colorful as the foreground. I love using negative space. Watercolor is perhaps my favorite medium although I have done a lot of work in mixed media and acrylic. I love to vary the themes of my work and cannot imagine painting the same thing every day. Even though I began painting landscapes, and still do, I love to use my imagination and play with color. I have not published any books about my style but have illustrated many children’s books.

Crow: What are the highest and lowest points you’ve hit? How do you get yourself back into balance after upheavals?

Julia: Highest point, probably bringing up the children in California and finding success with my work simultaneously. My time in Africa was also a high point, my memories and experiences are still very much a part of my work today. Low points, probably this year and the covid pandemic. My father died of covid in April and I have not been able to get back and see my family in England. (Crow: this is heartbreaking to hear.)

Crow: How has the pandemic changed your life? Have you discovered things that you might not have discovered without this global disaster?

Julia: The pandemic did bring opportunities for me. I discovered zoom and am able to continue teaching art and yoga on that platform. I also took part in 100 days project in Scotland where I did a painting a day for 100 days. That was a challenge but I did it and it kept me working when I could easily have just wallowed in the sadness of everything.  I have also discovered that people are basically the same everywhere, we all want the same things, and in that way are all connected. Our son has been home with us since March when he returned for spring break and was not able to return to college. He graduated on zoom. It has been wonderful having him around for so long (even though it’s driving him nuts!).

Crow: What do you look forward to exploring next? I sure want to follow whatever you are going.
Julia: I am excited about a project that I’m going to be working on with some people in L.A. I am not at liberty to say what that is but I’m excited to be going in a new direction with my work.

Crow: Thank you so much for sharing your life and work with us.  As I read I was saying “I was in London ’68 -72… and my degree was in Zoology, —  well, we are all connected.

Filed Under: Art, Blog, Travel Tagged With: Africa, art, childrensbooks, NM, yoga

December 17, 2020 by Crow Johnson Evans 9 Comments

My Blue and Brown Alpaca Gloves.

Ya know? Some gifts just keep going, opening up like rose petals. You can probably think of examples in your life. Here’s one of mine.

A friend in the Northwest Arkansas Handweavers Guild (NWAHG) gave me some left over yarn. It was baby Alpaca (soft and warm): a treasure. There were two small batches. One was a glorious blue and the other, dark brown. Combining them I had enough to knit a pair of gloves. So I did.

Not just a regular pair of gloves, the pattern required skills I didn’t own yet. And furthermore, I had to follow instructions start to finish- which is against my make-it-up as you go inclinations. The challenge was exciting. And the gloves were exciting and warm to wear.

This could be the end of the story, but it’s not. The following winter, Arthur and I went to China on a birdwatching, critter watching trip. Being out in nature in a foreign country for three weeks was wonderful. We were in Szechuan, a group of five camping-worthy Americans with an expat British guide.

I packed sparsely and well, including my blue sleeping bag with arms coat…and my blue patterned alpaca gloves. On the high passes it was solid snow. And the Tibetan Plateau was expansive and breath-taking. One morning we drove far into uncharted territory looking for a fox, I think.

A woman was walking the fence line was working  a well-worn mala, beads used in devotion practice. She had a weathered face and her clothes bundled her up. As we passed slowly, I realized that she wasn’t wearing gloves. It was no-kidding freeeeeeeezing.

We stopped the van and I went over to her. Using gestures and smiles…I took off my gloves and gave them to her. She was elegant, but looked completely baffled or stunned. Traveling off the beaten path, we encountered people who had never seen an American tourist. Most of the sanctioned tours are in huge buses with 30 or more people.

Here are pictures of her, as we pulled away in our little van. Our guide told me that I shouldn’t have given her the gloves, that she didn’t understand, etc. He didn’t understand that my spirit was gifted by the encounter. I love those gloves even more thinking they are in a yurt high on the Tibetan plateau.

Filed Under: Blog, Fiber Arts, Random Thoughts, Travel

November 21, 2020 by Crow Johnson Evans 2 Comments

Who Sparks Your Inspiration or Compassion?

Who are the people who spark your mind and stimulate your creativity?  I discover human gems around every corner. A treasure to me might be to you just a “what? I don’t get it?”  How can that be?

You can make a list of a half-dozen or dozen experiences in your life that changed your world forever. The list I can assemble may not share any of the experiences you list. I don’t know the joy of childbirth or grandmother-hood, of seeing my husband nurture a son or daughter, or having siblings to compare stories of our lives. You may never have cared for parents in their declining years, visited India three times, or tried to draw the emotion you’ve seen in someone’s face… or struggled to craft a song that carries the deepest emotions you have experienced.

We can’t compare the highs and lows in our lives, but I do believe that the intensity of your experience is no less earth-shattering or inspirational than those I have lived.

So who are the people who have lifted you?
I look forward to sharing some of mine with you. And vice-versa.

Do you remember the photo of the Afgan girl with fear and anticipation in her beautiful green eyes, on the cover of National Geographic Magazine, year?

That photo was burned in my memory before I had any idea who took the photo.

In the last few years I have followed the work and the blogs of Steve McCurry.  www.SteveMcCurry.com

 

When I was in India for the first time, I arrived in Mumbai in a taxi on a rainy night. A woman stood too close to traffic in the rain with her child in her arms and tapped on the cab window. She was asking for anything that I had, that I could give to her. My heart reached to her then and still reaches.

My watercolor study of Steve McCurry’s fabulous photo.

When I saw this photo by Steve McCurry, I became wrapped in that moment.

Steve McCurry’s amazing photo.

As a passionate later-in-life learning artist, I wrote to him and asked for permission to do a painting based on his photo. I will forever be grateful for his kind permission to let me imagine touching with paint… the moment of his photo.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Art, Blog, Random Thoughts, Travel

November 27, 2012 by Crow Johnson Evans

First Blog

Thank you for stopping by. I’ve spent hours trying to find something truly worth saying in this, my first ever blog. No earth-shaking truths have fallen into my lap, but I’ve had some great walks down our dirt road and spoken to the birds and the neighbor’s cows. Every second that passes we humans express our ups and downs on facebook, twitter, and blogs. What a mighty megaphone. Decades ago, getting a quarterly newspaper in the mail (the Zassafras Music News) was a group undertaking. ZMN cheered fellow singer/songwriters and held a splash of philosophical doodah and many hugs.

So picking up right where I left off…my life is going amazingly well. Arthur and I have both of our moms (88 and 90) living with us in our NW Arkansas home. I’ve been off the road for about a decade, just enough time to miss my music family and develop a passion for fiber arts-spinning yarns, weaving, knitting, and dying wool. The energies I used to put into writing songs has oozed out of me as short stories and essays. “Flights of Fancy” will be published before the new year (Mockingbird Lane Press).

The fabulous author/teacher/knitter Beth Brown-Reinsel will fly in tomorrow from VT for a two week residency at the Writers’ Colony in Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs. I’m still on the board of WCDH and stand in awe of the colony’s reach and significance. Founder Crescent Dragonwagon is teaching “Fearless Writing” there next week. Full circle and sweet this life.

And come to think of it, I could tell you about our travels…and…and

Very best to you and yours, Crow

Filed Under: Random Thoughts, Travel

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