We had a sad day here in Southern California this past weekend. A very bad oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach infiltrated the water and destroyed many birds and some marine life. You may not know that about me but the beach is my favorite place of peace and joy and birds are a thing of beauty that have a special place in my heart...  and when they are destroyed in a preventable accident, this is a tragedy.

This all began when I was a little child in my hometown of Gdansk in Poland when my dad bought me three little ducklings. They were the cutest things ever and became my beloved pets… Afterwards somehow over the years injured birds started appearing in my life… a baby bird in the backyard fell from the nest and was being attacked by a neighbor’s cat… birds with injured wings or in some other distress, unable to fly, appeared on my walks in the neighborhood parks. My mom and I nurtured them back to health and we released them into nature. Those small encounters made a profound impact on me as a little girl and fostered my love for birds of all kinds … pigeons, ducks, wrenches, crows and seagulls.

Since I came to the United States from Poland, I only encountered injured birds a few times over many years so it was a surprise when a couple years ago, during my walk on the beach in Orange County, a gull got entangled in a kite rope up in the air. He was frantically fluttering his wings trying to desperately free himself only pulling the rope tighter and getting more and more entrapped.  The kite owner was watching the whole scene passively like a deer in headlights.
 
The moment I saw this, my instinct took over and I immediately run to the man flying the kite, pulled the kite string down to the ground, grabbed the bird and started to disentangle the seagull. There was no time to think… if the bird kept getting entangled in the string up in the air, he would have broken his wings - a traumatized by the entrapment but as soon as I grabbed him, his fear of humans took over and he started biting me which made the challenge of untangling him even more difficult. People around me were standing and watching as I tried to keep the bird calm with one hand and untie the string with the other. After a few minutes of this struggle, the kite owner finally stepped up to help me hold the gull so I could free him. The rescue was successful and I was happy and see the bird fly away…   I love birds 😊

Birds to me represent freedom, beauty of life and individualism which I value tremendously so I was very disheartened over this oil spill this past weekend and decided to pay tribute to our amazing birds that represent vibrant beauty and have captivated so many of us who marvel over their incredible nature. This new abstract above titled “Pink Bird of Paradise” symbolizes the beauty of nature and honors the birds of my paradise here in Orange County. As you can see, there are two birds on this canvas… depending on how you hang this painting. Let me know which one you like more.