Paintings by Debora Young

The latest in a series of mobiles depicting the birds of Tandy Hills

Don, pen on paper sketch, 2016

A detailed image of the stained glass installed in the MacGorman Chapel at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Miscellaneous art work by Debora Young

A line drawing of the American Crow. They are year-round residents at Tandy Hills and have shiny black feathers. You will see them in family groups, acting social, boisterous & intelligent.

An old cartoon selfie of me doing yoga at home with my 2 friends; Eckers, the cat and Olive, the dog.

A non-migratory bird found at Tandy Hills and throughout the southwestern US and Mexico, the Greater Roadrunner, is a large, fast bird, approximately 23 inches long and clocked at a speed of 20 miles per hour. It generally prefers sprinting to flying. An opportunistic omnivore, it feeds on insects, reptiles, including rattlesnakes, small mammals, spiders & snails. An isolationist, except when breeding, they are monogamous and mate for life. Mating season is spring & summer. The male woos his sweetie-pie with a solo-dance perfomance and an offering of fresh-caught food.

A stylized magnolia flower at the MacGorman Chapel, Fort Worth, Texas, 2014. Sandblasting and photo of magnolia by Don Young.

A colored pencil sketch of my daughter, Abbey when she was seven & half in 1991.

Ten- 6 x 16 inch, leaded stained glass windows for the sacutuary doors at St. Mathew's Lutheren Church, 2011.

A sketch of my daughter, Mimi when she was 11 years old.

This 2011 comminssion to create a stained glass window for St. Matthew's Lutheran church in Fort Worth transformed the 1966 modern-nordic space. I drew 7 doves to represent the days of the week and creation. The blue ribbions at the top are the morning breezes, 6 representing joy. The amber and yellows show the sun rising, illuminating the sweet night.

It sits on my shoulder and within, fermenting and whispering the loss - until I release it within a howl of savage sound.

In the early 1990's I began an 8-year mural project for the library at South Hi Mount Elementary School. Our two girls attended school there. By chance, I decided to stop by on the first day of school to see how the mural was holding up. It was a pleasure to see colors are still vibrant and to know that a new generation of kids will get to enjoy the fruits of my labor of love. Part of the design included portraits of famous authors, scientists and public figures across the racial spectrum. One of those was Texas-born Chicano author, Tomás Rivera, pictured below. Wiki listing:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomás_Rivera

Another image I painted years ago from the South hi Mount Elementary School library mural. The library had a pet turtle that would interact with the students. He started out small but grew big both in size and importance. The turtle would nap, except when classrooms came into the library. He would gaze out upon the crowd of students, find and hold eye contact with a student, drawing that person closer to the aquarium. Perched on a stone, he would stretch-up encouraging contact. A soft touch on his shell or to those he was most comfortable, the top of his head, not all students had this privilege just a few.

One of the many kinds of birds seen at Tandy Hills, the Northern Mockingbird is the state bird of Texas. It's known as a mimic of other bird's songs, but can sound like squeaky gates, pianos & barking dogs! A loud and aggresive-territoral bird, the males croon day and night for hours-n-hours in the spring. In the fall both sexes sing to inform and defind their feeding areas. Their range is mostly southern United States and nothern Mexico but is moving northward.