I noticed blue jays when in June 2019 I was coming out of the church I grew up in. I had just attended a church service with my parents that celebrated their 50th anniversary. My husband and I had gotten married there two years earlier. When my husband and I walked to our car and looked up we saw a pretty blue jay by a pink flower. It was the first time I noticed one. Then I began to see more blue jays. They made me feel calm and inspired. That is when I began to draw them.

In March 2020 when we were all in quarantine due to the COVID 19 pandemic I began to photograph blue jays. I had almost forgotten about my interest in photography, that I had developed as a student in college and graduate school. I started taking pictures with a cell phone, then tried out several cameras and lenses until I was photographing birds all the time. I practiced on other birds until I would see a blue jay again. I was no longer photographing birds and nature to draw; I was taking photographs for their own sake.

My bird portraits often capture the personalities of the birds like my human portraits. These are two photographs I took this year of blue jays and turned into two drawings and one painting.