"The Three Tenors" First completed work of the new year, January 5, 2022.

If you didn't catch it, this painting took more than a year to finish. There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is that this is a pretty large piece and I like to take my work outside. Not really an issue if I know I'm going to work from home. A pretty big logistical issue when we go on one of our adventures. The second is that although the world was still reeling from the impacts of COVID-19, I was very, very, busy, both personally and professionally. The good news is that I love my home. And while I pulled this piece out periodically throughout the year to add a line here or there, I really put my heart into it during my December 2021 staycation.

I'm a big advocate for reuse and recycling. Most of the things we own we've either built ourselves, refurbished, or picked up at a yard sale or thrift store. It's not that I don't buy or occasionally need new things, it's just hard for me to see people throw out things that are still useful. To that point, one of my favorite go-to tools are my sketch pencils, and those were picked up at a yard sale for just a couple of bucks. Also, this painting was painted over another piece that I completed years ago called "Accessorizing with Kat." It's hard for me to gesso over something that I've spent dozens of hours creating, but I'm willing to let her rest so that something new and wonderful can take her place.

While "The Three Tenors" was created at home, I found a lot of inspiration at local parks right here in Orange County, California. I have developed a crazy love for pelicans over the years, and there are some unique characteristics of the American White that have me giddily rushing back to my pencils and paints over and over again. There are two types of pelicans that live here, the California Brown and the American White. Other than the obvious color difference, the White is larger with a 9-foot wingspan and don't dive for food like the Browns. They typically forage cooperatively, hearding fish toward shallow water so they can easily feast. Also unique to the White is that during mating season, the upper mandible develops a laterally flattened fibrous plate called a nuptial tubercle that falls off when mating season is over! This is the only one of the eight pelican species that has it.

The water year 2020 was the fifth driest in recorded history, and 2021 was the second. California state reservoirs reached record lows, and state emergency proclamations for drought were issued; first for the northern part of the state, and then statewide. In October-December 2021, something happened that nobody was anticipating. We got snow and rain! A lot of it. The rain brought me back inside and also helped inspire the background for "The Three Tenors." It was a period for all of us on the west coast to take a deep breath and be grateful for the precipitation we so desperately needed. "The Three Tenors" reflects that sigh of relief and there is a peace and joy about it that I wasn't sure would come together, but thankfully it did.