The promised bright greetings...

Finishing up my usual offering of birdlife art for an annual local holiday art show. This year, I went back to the Pacific Northwest for inspiration, where I was born and raised, and borrowed a bird or two. The Western Meadowlark is Oregon's state bird. Oregon grape abounds in the wild woodlands of the west coast states (a common childhood plant for me). Don't know how he'll be received by Iowans (we do get the occasional eastern meadowlark here) but bird lovers appreciate avian forms in general, no matter where they hail.

William Clark wrote a journal entry about the moment the Lewis and Clark's expedition spied the Pacific for the first time, "Ocean in view..Oh, the Joy!"

Perhaps it's what this little yellow songbird is singing about, too.