Come Count the Bluebirds With Me

Come Count the Bluebirds With Me (Studio Original Sold)

Acrylic and Oil on Reclaimed Substrate, 2024

Part of my Reclamation Series, this piece breathes new life into a mass-produced cityscape found in a vintage gold frame at a thrift store. I transformed the forgotten canvas into a vibrant celebration of joy and memory, filling the space with a flock of abstract bluebirds in flight—symbols of the energy and rhythm of life.

The bluebird holds deep personal meaning for me, rooted in a song my father, an eccentric history professor, wrote and often sang while playing his guitar. Come Count the Bluebirds with Me weighed life’s fleeting joys against its inevitable sorrows and a bittersweet melody. 

Years later, I shared an old cassette recording of my dad’s performance—complete with an out-of-tune guitar and the hum of a window fan—with my husband, Darin Starr. He rearranged the song on piano, I wrote new verses, and together we recorded it at Lakeside Studios with producer Travis Wyrick, inviting my young nieces to lend their voices.  We published the song under the name our family had always affectionately called it, The Bluebird Song.

Now, time has moved on—my father is gone, and my nieces have grown.  Yet, the song remains a family treasure, much like the bluebirds themselves, carrying echoes of my childhood on a farm along Bat Creek in East Tennessee. This painting, like the song, is a tribute to those simple, wonder-filled moments—reminding us to pause, to cherish, and to count the bluebirds while we can.