DECEMBER - A bitter-sweet end to the year.

Hello Friends,

It’s New Year’s Eve day and I’m scraping through with my last email letter of the year! It’s a short one.

Final Projects of the year

Thank you to everyone who has made the trip up to Squamish to see my show at the Foyer Gallery. Hidden Worlds is still on and runs until January 20th - so there’s still time to see those big owl portraits :) A couple of pieces have gone to their new homes and have been replaced with Starling and Magpies.

Birds ‘n Words is a fundraising project in support of the Squamish Environment Society’s Bird protection programs. Buy your tickets for a chance to win one of the 20 original bird paintings created especially for the 2024 Birds ‘n Words exhibition. Each painting is 25 x 25 cm (12 x 12 inches). Ticket prices range from 1 for $10 to 100 for $100. The raffle web page includes a list of participating artists and their paintings. I will be offering a special discount on prints of my painting European Starling & Grey-capped Rosy Finch for anyone who buys tickets.

Prints - new editions

There’s been quite a bit of interest in archival prints from my Wild Bird series this year. I’m working with Alan, my print service chap in Vancouver on new editions in different sizes and formats. Stay tuned for more on this early 2025.

Holidays

My Christmas was spent with my fabulous and talented cousin Marion Evamy, her husband Bobb and 2 dogs Jynx + Pablo. Winds were high on the Sidney side of Vancouver Island and so were the tides, so there wasn’t much beach walking. We cooked and talked, read and cooked and shared ideas. Chopin stayed home and was well looked after by a trusted pet sitter.

2024 Wrap is bitter sweet.
This little hero and Zoom personality made his transition to the spirit world on the New Moon, Sunday. We knew about Chopin’s failing kidneys, his hyper thyroidism and a little artritis which was normal for an 18 year old cat. But what I had suspected to be asthma turned out to be cancer in his lungs. When I got home from the Island on Friday, I could see he was struggling to breathe. I whipped him into the vet where he had chest X-rays. His little face was asking me for help and all I could do was let him go.
It’s so hard - I adored this little creature.

Sending love and especially to those who are missing loved ones this holiday season, keep their memories close and give yourself space to heal the heartache.

See you in 2025,

Take good care,

Zoë xo

From Mary Oliver’s poem In Blackwater woods:

To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Hidden Worlds runs until January 20, 2025!

Our Birds ‘n Words installation will be on display at the Squamish Valley Golf Club restaurant until the prize draw is held on February 14, 2025.

Buy tickets for a chance to win one of 20 paintings and support wild birds in Squamish!

Advertisement for a fundraising raffle in aid of Squamish Environment Society and the protection of wildbirds

Art display including 20 square paintings of wild birds, connected by branch patterns.

Birds & Words is a collaborative art exhibit showcasing Sea-to-Sky visual artists and poets, inspired by species seen in the Society’s monthly bird counts in the Squamish Estuary. This impactful art installation brings together 20 bird paintings and 6 poems in a cohesive mosaic, demonstrating how words and visual art can complement one another and convey an important environmental message.