On the Way to Becoming

April 10, 2026

On the Way to Becoming

hallelujah chorus

spring peepers, eyes popped,
inflating their balloon throats:
yippee! let’s do this!

yippee!
           yippee!
   yippee!                          yippee!
            yippee!   yippee!
                 yippee!
     yippee!                                   yippee!
                            yippee!
yippee! yippee!

yippee!

—dotty seiter

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*On This Earth at This Moment*
6 x 6″; acrylic, watercolor and charcoal pencil, ink,
and collage on gessobord
*Make Yourself at Home* series
2026

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Notes about poem and painting:
• “hallelujah chorus” is a haiku that celebrates the small chorus frogs known as peepers that make themselves known as heralds of spring in the eastern part of the United States—to the great excitement of both humans and the frogs themselves. This is when the males set up a distinctive peeping and the females spawn their eggs, all to start a new generation on the way to becoming Pseudacris crucifer.
• On This Earth at This Moment is a distinct departure from the house images that have thus far taken up real estate in my current Make Yourself at Home series, a series that continues to be on its way to becoming whatever the heck it will become! On This Earth was an experiment—I started with a 2015 6×6″ acrylic painting on gessobord that I had subsequently painted over in 2021 with chaos layers. With the old iterations as a base, I used a photo reference taken recently in Newburyport, MA, to make an acrylic painting on sandwich wrap which I then collaged onto the gessobord. By responding to whatever emerged, one step after another—many of which dismayed me, this piece became a painting of surprising visual interest to me.

artist at play

chaos layer starts, make yourself at home series, painting over

Posted by:

Dotty Seiter

4 responses to “On the Way to Becoming”

carol lee

April 10, 2026 at 5:37 am

Peepers, frogs who would know! Always learning ! Yippee that spring is here!

I love your lovely house, which I see as part of the “Make Yourself at Home series”. Yes a new direction! Love how you have woven the simple house with the more chaotic background! Would love to visit and see who lives here “at this moment on planet earth”!

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  April 10, 2026 at 5:54 am
  
  Carol, thanks for your comments! So, no memories of peepers from when you lived on the east coast here in the USA? They are the best!
  
  This painting was an interesting experiment. I appreciate your attention to the simple house woven into the more chaotic background—I think that contrast is what makes this piece appealing to me. Your comment about wishing you could visit and see who lives here suddenly brought to mind a house about 3/4 of a mile from mine which I pass frequently; it looks semi-abandoned and the property is all overgrown and untended. It always makes me wonder who lives in that house on this earth at this moment!
  
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Joyful Puttering

April 10, 2026 at 8:13 am

The first time I heard peepers around the pond I used my Merlin app to see what birds they were. It didn’t pick up anything…clearly because they were frogs…not birds. Thanks for the nudge…I will start listening for the peepers now! Love your hallelujah haiku!

I am drawn into this house to make myself at home! I appreciate hearing about the layers and the process…and love where you have landed on this one! I adore the wild nighttime backdrop….and the hint of light in some of the windows. I always like driving or walking around in the evening and seeing the warm glow of windows….and I always WONDER what people are doing.

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Dotty Seiter

April 10, 2026 at 8:27 am

Hearing the first peepers of the season is SUCH a spirit lift! Another harbinger-of-spring frog is the wood frog whose mating sound is a soft chucking sound; sounds like quiet duck quacks : )

Oh, fun to hear that you feel drawn into this house to make yourself at home! Thanks for letting me know. You and I are cut out of the same cloth re looking into the interior glow from house windows, wondering what its inhabitants are doing. It is only with conscious restraint that I keep myself from knowing at doors and asking if I can sit a spell with those indoors!

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My Story

In 2014, I grab an unexpected opportunity to paint.

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In 2015 I start a blog—a diary of my life as an artist.

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