Periodical

I don't think I've posted this print before. I created it specifically for my show in December, 2008. (print size: 12" wide x 9" tall - water-based ink on ochre mulberry paper)

2007 was the year of the periodical cicada for my region of the country. How do these insects know when 17 years have passed and it is time to come above ground and sing in the trees? It is a magic time.

The first time I remember seeing them was the summer of my 23rd birthday. I was engaged. My father-in-law was the caretaker of a local forest preserve. One weekend he invited us to go into the woods and see these little creatures. I was enthralled. They were everywhere! They were singing above our heads and crawling all around us.. so much life. It was as if they knew they had only a precious few days left on the earth.

Anyway, I was 23 and I tried to imagine what my life would be like the next time I saw the cicadas. I would be 40! What willI look like? Where will I be living? Will I have any children? What will life bring my fiance and I? Then it hit me: I only had a precious few years myself. Maybe I ought to live it like there is no tomorrow just like the cicadas.

In the summer of 2007, when the cicadas first arrived, I was 40. All the things I had wondered were now firm in reality. Now I wonder... Where will I be at 17 years from now? 57 years old. I could be a grandmother! My son will be 32. Life continues to march along. The cicadas make me stop for a moment to wonder what lies ahead and to appreciate where I've gotten.