Sketches

Sketching party... goals for week two are to keep up with three sketches a week... here's three and one for last week and this week. I have two to go tomorrow.

Discoveries

Shoes.

Walking shoes.

Running shoes.

Big fat floppy boot shoes.

Kids shoes.

Singular shoes.

I have been seeing all kinds of shoes lately. A discarded shoe in the middle of the road. A forgotten shoe that perhaps slipped off in the wind while propped out the window. A boot, that fell out in the street while the passenger adjusted the door to seal tight. I have been seeing them everywhere. Never with a friend. Always alone. Smack in the center of the road, pointing north. Off on the edge, capturing my attention to see if it is a forgotten animal, but no, just a shoe.

I am beginning to think this occurrence is suppose to mean something.

Travel?

Motion?

I am unsure but find the number of shoes has me calling out the window, "I see, but what do you mean shoe?"

Lyme, NH

I find as I'm driving back home along the highway, this slight itch to just keep going. Drive right on. Wave my exit goodbye and travel north, staying in Vermont till the very tip and perhaps even then continuing on to Canada. Who would know? I could just keep going and follow the river, follow the fluffed out leaves, the pull, the tug.

And so, today, on my day off I did it. I drove north.

Often the highway 91 north drive reminds me of Trina, of interviews with Katrin, of gallery openings, of poking around at Dartmouth as a potential student, of laughing with a pile of friends as we drove aimlessly around Trina's small town looking for both the library and her house, so we could say, "We've been to the home of Trina Schart Hyman." (Similar to those, "Louisa May Alcott and Mark Twain" homes) Us doing loops in back country roads, only to have a post office worker take pity on us and point us on the way.

So today I went alone, art kit in hand, looking for some classic Vermont images to capture. Mind you, Trina did not live in Vermont, she lived in a small town in New Hampshire, right on the edge of Vermont. And off I went, pulling over with my SLR Camera to snap pictures of fences, of barns, of views that made me think of Ireland or just of something older than myself. Double fisting my digital, SLR, and sketchbooks, I abandoned my car somewhere up the road, and just walked along sketching the farmhouses, walked until I ran into the Connecticut River, the natural divide between New Hampshire and Vermont. And I thought about Trina, about this "character" I am biographing, and what it must have been like for her in this very quiet landscape. What drew her there in the first place, of all the places on earth? Is she buried here? Does she peek in on her donkey, lazily lying in the yard? What would it smell like in the mornings as she went on her walks? Ironically, this trip I was not drawn to her house, having met my quota of "seeing the famous Trina Schart Hyman's house", but enjoyed the sunny day, my pocket watercolors, the landscape that just spoke to me.

I drifted into Hanover, a place I once thought I might live for awhile, a place in which I was born (hospital for a month, not childhood) and how I always thought it would be cool and artsy, yet after spending the afternoon in the country, I was surprised to find I felt dissatisfied in the over money-ified community with sheek looking shops, people, etc. I felt drawn more towards the farmer, bending over his garden with a sun hat on, his wife, kneeling in the dirt, as I walked along towards the river. Towards the openness, the rolling spans of hills and sky. And I wonder how that fits in with the other parts of myself that I am beginning to unearth.

Starving Artist is BACK!

Night at the Starving Artist. Above are my mini sketches. My friend Kelley (www.kelleyscause.com & kelleyscause.blogspot.com) motivated me to set up a goal/reward system to achieve some personal goals I've had. I really like her system so I wrote up a list of goals with corresponding rewards and levels of difficulty. One of these includes my old art teacher's assignment of three to five sketches a week. With my new tiny watercolor kit, I've been having a blast with this "goal"... so while I was driving home, planning to paint in the evening, the lights were on at The Starving Artist, and I just relocated to that environment. My pal Adrienne and I had a nice long time to just paint/draw and chat about life, art and the gammots that follow in good artsy moods. Then a nice new guy Shane dropped in but you can't really talk too much with someone who's there to write... so we didn't quite get the bonding vibe yet. :)

Pureka Painting

Driving home from work, my vision fades, fuzzes, then refocuses. I shake my head. I toss my shoe off and prop my foot up on the dash to stretch my grumpy body. It's five in the evening; I am an hour from home, returning after a seven am shift that had me splashing fresh coffee in the old McDonald at five in the morning as I slip behind the wheel. Shoe up on the window, I reach for the window and roll it down, letting the wind counteract the heat from the setting sun, the sun that I know is causing my Irish skin the nice window batch of summer freckles to begin popping out. The window helps but I eye ball the "Scenic View" pull off thinking if it'd be safe to snooze there for a moment, while people jump out of their car to oogle the beautiful Berkshires.
I find myself instead pulling off in the town of Northfield, tucking my car behind an art gallery I have often looked at, with the neon "Open" sign always dark as I pass by. "Might as well stop by in some capacity," I say out loud cracking the wheel right. In a position I'm beginning to get use to, I throw the car in park, cut the engine, tossing the keys into my purse and without buckling drop the car seat back, plug in the time I want to wake up into my cell phone and this time skip removing my glasses because I am just too tired to care if the nose piece tries to relocate my natural nose position while asleep.
Minutes later my alarm goes off, I hop up, refreshed, do a loop outside the car to make sure I'm fully awake, stretching and glancing around to see if I had any observers noting my strange behavior. Finding none, I touch my toes, then climb back into the car to finish the drive home.
Letting the dog out, tossing food into her bowl, wrestling her for a bit, I inform her I'm going upstairs to sleep. It's six pm. I stumble into bed and sink in, not bothering to kick off my shoes or pull the blankets over myself. Yet, eyes closed, sleep doesn't come. Restful meditation yes, but sleep no, so up I get, hollar down to Chloe she's welcome to join me at any time, and proceed to have a delightful evening playing with my car and drifting to the painting calling my attention on the desk. Painting with Chris Pureka singing in my big oversized headphones, drumming with my paintbrushes on the plastic table cloth Mum made me promise to put down, I began to refresh my painting hands, my mixing brain and finally began to sort out the background to a painting from early last summer. What a nice evening.

Lost rolls of film

I just got my pictures back from a roll of film JP & I took in the winter of 2008... look what I found! (I also discovered a roll that slipped in my bag that was from a neighbor in Indiana's whole family vacation.... no clue how it got in my camera bag, but it made for a curious evening of trying to figure out who on earth I was looking at in the pictures...)

Graduation

As it is graduation season, I thought I'd take it upon myself to create a list for soon-to-be college graduates that would lay out the ground rules past the "Go Soar Into the World" "You're so talented, join the world" "Oh how far you can go" etc.s

1. Life, past high school and DEFINITELY past college is too expensive. Matter of fact, it's so expensive, you just can't afford it so toss out the thoughts of the picket white fence.

2. Food costs money. Food takes preparing. Food takes time to prepare. If you skip these, you'll join the "how we get chubby in America"

3. Healthcare will become the bane of your existence. Don't get sick. Don't have ANYTHING happen to you. (but remember you are not invincible so be careful)

4. If you do not live a linear life, you will find the path becomes even more challenging to walk. (ie. healthcare, shelter etc.)

5. Do not be surprised that you have no friends. They are not easy to make anymore because you don't have a big class to choose from.

6. Expected to get depressed. Keep your eyes open for signs and symbols. ESPECIALLY if you live an artistic life, or think artistically, or don't get a job.

7. You cannot in fact do anything you ever wanted. Student loans, food, shelter, money, low economy ect. all prevent this from happening.

8. If you don't want to get married, pregnant or buy a house, it's okay, there's still a place for you but it goes back to point #5. Actually, it goes back to points # 1-7.

9. Patience. It's all about Patience. I realize this is not a positive list, but I'll leave you with patience. Rumor has it, it gets better.

10. You're not alone in this. Don't loose faith. No one ever tells you this that's all.