"Our Wild Hearts" - American Crows with Roses - Greeting Card

This painting is my love letter to the massive flocks of crows who call Portland, the City of Roses, their home.  I chose a wild rose bush for them to rest on to honor our namesake.

Because crows are often one of the most prevalent animals in cities they serve an important role as an easy entry point for getting to know the natural world around us – a “gateway bird”, as it were. They are almost always the first birds I hear each morning when I wake. I love laying out in my hammock on warm afternoons as they perch in the tree overhead, eating or preening or cawing across the street at their pals. Almost daily I’ll be sitting here working and hear them land on my roof. The tippy-taps of their claws as they strut across the shingles overhead is a small comfort reminding me that connection to the wider world can come in many forms that are accessible to us no matter where we live.

Crows have become one of my anchor to the type of world that feels most like home to me no matter where I am.