✍️ Cranes-Not Talking

From My Personal Journal

This one made me smile before I even dipped a brush.

I had this mental image—two majestic birds, perched just inches apart, surrounded by calm… but not saying a word. No fight, no tension—just distance. A kind of quiet that felt so familiar.

We’ve all seen it before. Maybe even lived it. That moment where connection hangs by a thread of silence. You care. You’re close. But something's off. Something's unspoken.

That’s exactly what I wanted to paint. Not a scene from nature, but a feeling from life.

I started with the cranes. Elegant. Upright. Still. Each one with a presence of its own—but both ever so slightly turned away. That angle was everything. The way their bodies curved apart, like two thoughts headed in different directions. I painted their crowns bright with a soft, almost regal glow—as if they still held dignity, even in their silence.

Then came the branch. Twisting, tangled, aged. I imagined it like a shared history. Strong enough to hold them both, but gnarled with time, bends, storms weathered.

The blossoms were next—those bursts of yellow warmth. Tiny flickers of hope, still blooming despite the distance. They softened the scene. They reminded me that even in silence, beauty grows.

And then… the sky. That pale wash of gray with shadows creeping in. It wasn’t sadness I was painting—it was pause. A moment suspended in time. That space between words. The kind of silence that isn’t empty… it’s full. Full of meaning. Full of what we haven’t said yet.

I called it Cranes Not Talking not because they’re broken—but because they’re real.

To me, this painting holds that quiet tension we all know. Between lovers, friends, family. Between who we were and who we’re becoming.

And maybe, just maybe… it reminds us that silence can be sacred, too.

Sometimes what’s not said is exactly what we need to hear.

A STORY BORN FROM SONIA’S HEART AND TOLD BY SAM®, IMMERSED IN REIMAGINED LIFESTYLE SETTINGS INSPIRED BY THE ORIGINAL, AND BROUGHT TO LIFE THROUGH—SORA & OpenAI.

Original painting photograph by Studio Graetz, Montreal.