Chickadee on Cherry Branch

Chickadee on Cherry Branch / oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68 unframed

sold

ON THE DRIVE out to Tubac, Arizona, where I am visiting my father and stepmother, I peeled an orange and tore my fingernail back a little from my finger. It hurt, especially because I got orange juice in the ripped place. 

I began thinking about fingernails, then, and wondering - if it hurt so much to have just a teeny tear between the nail and the skin, why doesn't it hurt when your nails grow? They grow from the bottom, not the top, so they must be ripping away from the skin all the time. 

The only answer I've been able to find is that it happens so slowly, it just doesn't register. Does anyone have a better answer than that? 

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For Today

"If I could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint." 

- Edward Hopper