Author: Sandy Webster

Okay, here we are again. So many days gone by since my last post. But none of them wasted. The other day while walking to tai chi I noticed how the fog could not bear to leave the cold ground. Somehow unable to move on.  Why not? More sun was needed…more warmth pulled it away. I suppose it is like that for some people…not wanting to let go… I have not been like that. Hunkering down in the past is not helping me to see what is coming, or worse, not letting me focus on the nows of my life.  And I am a bit fond of the nows.

After tai chi the fog had let go and the scene not near so evocative.

Remember these dining room chairs? The ones with the carved face of the Greenman in their backs? Well, they creaked and moaned, probably for years. But one gets used to certain noises over time. But this past Christmas, their continually whining and sounds of indigestion became a bit more than tedious. So when I couldn’t contact the fellow who refinished this table before I moved, I asked a woodworker in the poetry group.

And away they went that very afternoon. Wonderful!

I thought it a good idea to have them gone because I kept thinking that any minute the flooring men would come and start ripping up the flooring…in every single room and closet! But those chairs will be back in place before that happens.

I am not looking forward to the disruption of having everything that sits on the floor being emptied and moved as floor sections are removed and new boards put down plus shoe moulding. Spell check does not like that spelling of :moulding”. There are so few opportunities to pick the correct but not commonly used word, that it feels good to use the spelling that nosey perfectionist disapproves of.

Anyway, it is not the builder’s fault, not the floorman’s fault, but the product itself. Only having hardwood floors before, I was prepared to have something less than ideal with flooring on a slab of concrete. But not something this bad. There is no point in fussing over it. So what! I get to stay in my house while it is being done. Empty shelves and cabinets so the furniture can be moved, etc. Then of course put it all back in as soon as the new floor is laid in that section and the piece of furniture put back. My neighbor told me his took less than four full days. Using his place as a guide, I am figuring on six at least. The den with all those book shelves and books wedged into a very tight space will be a nightmare…but then so will my studio, bedroom, laundry room, and closet with Migun bed and file cabinet, and shelving units along the floor. But we will manage.

I am thinking that when the weather gets a bit warmer, I will sort out the garage. Get cabinets with doors and shelves and make decisions on what needs hanging onto. The rest off to good homes. With so much from my old studio still being in cartons and much already given away, I think I have already made those decisions.

At the poetry meeting I read “Social Distance”, a poem written during Covid times. We all need a reminder that it is not really over, yet. I passed out my copies and read from my artist book.

They’d never seen books shaped around the content of words and meaning. They asked if I could teach them how to make books around their poems. I said, “No.” My teaching days are done. Then could I teach a class on condensed poetry.  Same answer, “No.”  We all have a way of saying something that matters. We communicate in the best way we can. Like artwork, words and the form they take in poetry is unique to each of us. My way won’t work for those who study and work out the many forms poetry can take. I just have a feeling and respond to it with words placed on a page in a way to be understood while catching our breath.

My quick and negative response to their questions made me remember what my art teachers in under graduate school said after searching for the right words. “Sandy, we want to um, uh, thank you for your brevity.” At the time I did not know if it was a good thing, or bad. Twenty-five years later, I am sure it is what I always suspected….a good thing.

I am going through the twenty illustrations I have so far for Scrabble’s story and making them larger…about double in size. I recut paper and now feel I have enough space to get the characters inter-acting. At least so far….

Ten more to go and I can get back to the story where I left off.

Speaking of stories…I am reworking the short story about Joey the librarian. My writing about him seems best done at the bar over a Manhattan and wood-fired pizza. This one particularly good with gorgonzola and prosciutto.

Seems a glass of wine is in order.

Friends are coming down from Asheville area to visit and have lunch this coming week. They were so good at checking in on Lee and me during the hard times.  I am remembering all the Australian friends who kept in touch during those years and will have a Yellow Tail Chardonnay and say “thank you for being there.”

Monday I want to walk the river in Murphy between dental appointment and trip to Rare Bird and Lowes hardware. The flooring man will come when I get home to rip up a section of flooring to see how things are under the curling. Told my builder it was like walking on potato chips. So he came over to have a look and a glass of wine. He reminds me of the builders Lee and I had in Michigan and some of the ones here. Easy going and sympathetic in all the right places.

Til later….

Yesterday I was going through the photos on my IPhone and got caught up in some “used to bes”. It is not a good place to spend too much time. Things are so different now. Anyway I found this image from my old dining room table of things I was drawing into a sketchbook. “Dead things” as friends used to tell me when they’d see me hunched over something brown. So many of my sketchbooks have these types of drawings in them. Once while teaching in Alice Springs, a student brought me a pressed desert flower. She said, “I thought you might like something different from the dried out dead things.” It was a flattened pink bloom that I drew just as I saw it. And the poor blossom looked somehow deader than anything in my brown pile. Anyway, I thought of that as I moved this image to where it would be more accessible.

I love this picture of things that made me stop and look hard at their shapes, their colors, how I came to have them and who I was with when I brought them home to stay. They are good company.

So far there are twenty small illustrations for the Scrabble story. And it took that many for me to realize that they need to be redone…all of them. The good thing is that I am now more well-practiced with the colors I need to use. I think the pen is too harsh. I think they need to be drawn a bit larger in order to get the shading I am expecting. And in the more recent ones I have completely left out the native hen! But the good thing is that I am getting more familiar with the little fellows. So here are some more of the story in “preliminary drawings”.

The first attempt to make a boat.

How it is carried to the shore.

And its failure to stay afloat.

Starting over.

Heading toward the shore.

And failing again.

Earlier this week I took myself off to the bar with my short story. It was pouring down rain so no one was there but me when they opened at five. Good. Elizabeth fixed my Manhattan and I ordered a pizza after a spell of writing.

I need to make Joey’s story longer so will spend more time with him. I always get in the writing mood when it is close to poetry meetings. The next two Thursdays will be sharing words with others constantly putting feelings on pages.

Yesterday in the mail was a package from Australia. A friend thought I would like this apron with Australian animals on it. She was right. I love it and it now hangs right next to the flour canister in the pantry. I can’t seem to bake without covering myself with whatever is being beaten up in a bowl. It has to do with the false promise of a slow speed on a hand mixer. The first speed that one would think is slow,  covers me, the floor and the walls with its enthusiasm to get going.

BUT my son Patrick took home the hand mixer by General Electric that Lee had before we were married fifty-seven years ago. It had stopped working. So I had to buy the racing machine I now have. And the other day Patrick called to say it now is working just fine. The interior had a complete cast aluminum housing that he took apart to fix worn connections, and it is like new. those beaters know that the slow setting is slow, very slow. So I will have them back whenever he heads this way again.

Sorry, got side tracked. Here is that apron. Thank you so much Judith!

It is a dreary day. So I might get out of the studio and find a good movie to watch. And it is close enough to wine time, so movie and some wine.

I just had a thought, What if I stopped thinking of Beatrix Potter and did all my characters larger and in graphite, like the sketches in my large sketchbook. I can get so much more expression in their faces. What if the story was told in a much larger book? Maybe 10″ square…maybe bigger. I think it would be much more fun for me…and it is my story, my book. Why not? I might just tidy up the whole studio and start over. More on that later.

Did you know that the purpose of art is not to produce product but to produce thinking?

Anyway, I am off to pour a wine and pour over the movie options.

Til later….

 

The bitter cold has me inside more this past few days. Some of it admittedly streaming series that beg to be in the category of, “just one more episode”. I wanted to see how Succession ended. Then a few more Snowy Mountain MacGregor family episodes (even though they are a bit like Lassie episodes of Timmy down the well). The trees and scenery make it worthwhile. And last night a true story brought to life on the screen by terrific acting and compelling dialogue, The Man, His Wife and the Canoe.

But more drawings of the Scrabble story have been done…some a few times over….

And his friends sourcing materials to make a boat…

And three more rough drawings…

For some reason my Fastone Photo program has decided not to follow the instruction of rotating images, so this had to stay this way. I will research why this is happening later when I get this post off.

And while my basket making friends who also do lots of stitching, were gathered in Tasmania this past week I completed two more pages in the Gathering Book.

Each little scrap of fabric I pick up comes with a memory. Once they are connected to each other, I glue them down to a page and then fill the negative space with drawings of the things I have in the studio that have a connection to those at the gathering.

They have all returned home by now and I have closed the book until they gather again. Marla and I are going to gather things we no longer use in our work and send them down under before that next gathering for them to share with each other. They are wonderful at sharing and I like that some of my bits and pieces might be useful.

I have been asked to be a presenter for the Blue Ridge Writer’s Conference in April. It is all about self-publishing. Since I have muddled through six books this past year, I think I can share the experience with others asking questions about the different processes.

Poetry meeting is next week and since Covid is on the rise again, I think I will read Social Distance from the artist book I made with manipulated pages. I miss making books that take the form of ideas in the words. Remember all those Trump Books? Like the trump pincushion, they were good for relieving stress. Think I may need to get them back out.

And speaking of poetry, one of my fellow poets wrote this to me last week regarding my poems.

“….your particular talent of directness and complicated simplicity.”

Rather sums me up quite nicely.

All for now. I need a walk because it is near 50 degrees F. I want to wander through the lumber walls of my soon to be new neighbor and maybe send her pictures.

Til later….

It has been very, very cold and will be for another week. Here is this morning driving down into my neighborhood.

And the ice build up on the bamboo spout into the pond at 9 degrees.

Patrick gave the cats some sort of new cat addiction from Japan…a silver vine that seems more potent than catnip. It must be so because Sadie is easily addicted and Dilly, never,,,,but she loves her stick!

I made oatmeal/golden raisin/slivered almond scones when it got colder.

And yesterday a ham/green onion/parsley/cheese quiche. Very good for several meals.

I also have been busy with the drawings keeping up with the story of Scrabble. Most of Beatrix Potter’s illustrations were on paper the size of a modern day photograph…about 6″ x 4″. My papers are cut to 3.5″ by 5″.  Her soft brown ink outlines were likely done using diluted ink in a fountain pen. I am trying to make a rust colored ink roller ball do the job. Whatever happens will get redone if I become dissatisfied with the drawing.

He now has five new friends and tools in a tool belt. Pretty soon they will start building boats to get Scrabble back to sea.

This week friends in Tasmania are gathering for one of their holidays for the shear fun of stitching and basketmaking. I get out my Gathering Book to vicariously stay in touch. This morning I put some scraps together. Background is leftovers from beige linen pants I made last year, then an eco-dyed scrap of wool jersey I bought from Aujke on a trip down under, one of those tabs that hold sleeves up from a well worn favorite linen shirt, scrap of rusted paper done in Claudia Lee’s class, off white lokta paper with a piece of an old kitchen towel that was the perfect color so I lifted it from the kitchen when I was an artist-in-residence. The thread is from an old wooden spool of thick black silk bought in Australia many, many years ago.

It will be fastened to the page and drawings added around it. The opposite page will get another small something before they (we) all go back home.

I will also have a bit of this red that Patrick brought down at Christmas. I was introduced to this wine by Janet DeBoer on a very early trip to Australia to do workshops….maybe 2000 at the latest. Anyway she found herself stuck taking care of me as I traveled from one place to another along the Queensland coast. This bit of libation helped get us well-acquainted. I thank her many times for inviting me to come there to teach in ’97 and many, many years after that. I told Patrick I was not going to share one drop of it and save it for myself to smile and remember.

I will stay in even though the sun is shining…well, until it is time to bundle up and do my loop through the neighborhood. I check on Sandi’s house being built just four doors down. It is a similar floor plan to mine and so much fun to see take shape. She is an artist doing mixed media and Nature paintings so it will be great to see how artwork plays a part in her decorating.

Til later….