I had just spent the previous week, before the shut down, out in the Wekiva Forest with my husband Tom Sadler creating work for the Wekiva Paint Out 2020. It was total bliss being in nature, around all of our art friends and painting.

The Monday of the COVID-19 shut down, I woke up and opened our front curtains to find a crow staring at me perched on the back of our Adirondack chair and not flying off. It really freaked me out because they are associated with bad luck and we have never had any in our neighborhood, much less on our front porch. It was staring me right in the eyes and stayed there for a bit. I ran and got Tom to see it but by the time he got to the window it was gone. We had quite a few crows in the neighborhood that March that hung around.

The rest of the week was crazy trying to shop for regular house goods since I hadn't bought food or toilet paper for over a week being in the Paint Out. I thought the world had gone mad! I couldn't stop thinking about the crow so I looked up what they symbolize and they are a superstitious type of bird. In some cultures they bring good luck! They are also very intelligent creatures.

As the pandemic and shut down wore on, art was selling! Things were selling like before the 2008 crash. People were hungry for art and wanted things that made them feel good.

Bill and Mary Sue Weinaug called and asked us to create a painting about our feelings with the pandemic. I knew I wanted my piece to be about my contact with the crow but I couldn't visualize what I wanted to say until this past summer.

The crow was bringing good news that everything was going to be okay, so I created the painting with him or her on the back of our chair with good luck symbols behind it. I added an elephant, lucky number seven, a horseshoe and the Anock (Prince's lucky symbol).

I hope I'm conveying something more positive during this negative time that I've had about the pandemic. It's been a very trying time for the world!