Becoming a bird lover is not something I saw coming. Bird watching was and is my parent’s hobby and being the defiant eye roller that I was as a kid, their mention was met with my annoyance and subsequent vanishing act. I was a toot. There really is no other explanation.

When I was a teenager — barely an adult — I babysat for a family. Every day I picked up the girls from school, took them to their respective after-school activities, tried to keep the peace in moments of sibling squabbling, watched tv, or honestly did whatever they asked me to do.

I’m a bit ashamed to have discovering Maria Pymachenko’s art only recently. Her name was in the news when many of her works, housed in a Ukraine museum, were destroyed by Russian attacks. Between global honors, accolades from Picasso, being commemorated on a coin, and an asteroid named after her clearly I’m part of a minority living in the dark. She is so recognized that even a well-known textile brand copied her.