Slow Progressions

Posted on by Sandy Webster

No interior walls yet but windows put in place.

My bathroom window, den window and garage window in my studio space. So fewer windows in this house than what I am used to. But there is not that much to look out on in this subdivision. The roof has been closed in and I notice that several neighbors had those panes put in their windows. I am going for maximum light possible.

And this distorted elephant-like shape is the guest bath and shower combination. I did not peek around to see if it was grey on the good side. Probably not, probably white, probably boring. I will have to count on art work to make that small room interesting.

On the other hand, my shower tiles have been picked out. I love the stone patterned floor that will also be used for a decorative band about eye height. The caramel colored veined tile will be in 12″ x 24″ panels on the walls. I asked the sales woman that it not be put in with seams lined up because it would look too much like the interior of a jail cell. She assured me that they would be offset so I wouldn’t be tempted to make passing time marks on the walls.

I am thinking that since I am taking all my collected round stones from the house and yard, that I place a stack in the shower with me. A friend in Australia did that years ago and the serenity of that has stayed with me. She is the same person who inspired me to turn some of my rocks into a snake slithering along. She lived in a lovely cabin-like home among the Eucalyptus trees in Fern Tree, Tasmania. Her whole place was magic with all her creative additions in and around the house. It was late 90s but I should locate some of the pictures I took to share. Over the years I stayed with her maybe eight times and always drew her lovely turquoise tea pot in my sketchbook. She was one of the best hosts, always ready to take on the challenge of getting me from one place to another.

Anyway, back to the house…

Here they are working on the soffits at the back. I hope to incorporate that tree into a Japanese garden out back for me to enjoy from my small porch. The gym where I go is that brick building in the background…just a few minutes’ walk.

Speaking of walks. The dam over two days. The first a very frosty morning and then just the shore yesterday.

I love those colors. Something about them remind me of the works by Anselm Kiefer.

I started to commit myself to writing the story of Burke and Wills. Being such a visual person, I found it necessary to pick the right font and size to write it in. How odd. A children’s story does not become real to me unless it is presented contextually. And then there are the illustrations. I kept thinking they would be small additions in lower left of the text. But now with so many words going on visually, maybe the illustration should fill a whole page with background of trees, sky, and other things that visually set the stage for the action taking place.

Yesterday I thought it a good idea that Burk’s mother not just abandon her boy altogether, but look after him in any way she could. She plucks socks from a clothes line for the boys to use as sleeping bags. I needed to draw that.

And maybe there should be a patterned border around the page of illustration. Say, oak leaves and acorns…dandelions….whatever fits. It all adds to the time it will take. But this book is just for me and however many I feel like printing and binding.

Sketching, writing is simply a means of distraction for me living in a once shared space. It was never so true, the expression, “the presence of absence”. I always appreciated that expression when used in artwork where you can visually interpret what is missing and why. But actually living in the absence is an altogether different emotion.

I spent the last half hour searching out these pictures. The earlier ones from Tasmania and Barbara’s house in Fern Tree were taken with a slides or print camera. Pre-digital. But her snake and shower rocks were there when she moved to Melbourne.

And my most favorite tree ever that she introduced me to in Tasmania. Very much a visual interpretation of “presence of absence”.

One could hide in here and never, never come out.

Enough pondering for today. Time for lunch. I have a lobster red pepper bisque I brought home from take out yesterday.

Til later…..

 

Another Four Days Gone

Posted on by Sandy Webster

The other day I walked over to the Indian mound near the gym and then over to see the progress on the house. My place as seen from the mound. I has the red roofing.

While walking by the creek I found the perfect tree to use as a model for the Burke and Wills house.

Then at the house…..

My tiny 8′ x 10′ screen porch slab…just off the dining room.

And the tree out back is right in the middle of the three windows in the living room. I will try to extend my landscaping to it.

Another bird in the bird book….a phoebe.

And a few more drawings for Burke and Wills story.

Their tree house using the photo above. And the reason they can move in is because Robby Robin told them that Boris and Belinda, a river rat couple are going further south in search of warmer weather and leaving their house. (Robby Robin helps Burke find food.)

I am thinking simpler lines for the drawings…we’ll see how I go.

Signs of Spring at the dam yesterday.

This morning’s walk along the river….

And more drawings in the house building book.

These extra tabs between signatures are perfect for adding in bits and pieces I find in the construction materials and papers from the builder.

My lot is the circled one.

The folded up truss layout plan and papers from materials used. Views of different sides of the house.

A fork lift parked beside the house seemed like a fun thing to draw. Hopefully when I go back on Monday the interior walls will be in. I saw the builder yesterday and I need to pick out tile for the master shower. I am glad to use the same local flooring company that Lee and I used for every house we built here. I will see them Monday when I go back into town and pick up the three finished framed wood block prints.

A bit of snow is forecast for tomorrow morning. I will do laundry and draw in my books all day.

Yesterday I had the most delightful chat with a friend in Australia. We did it on our Iphones where we could see each other. She was having coffee while I was having wine. We will do it again when they are all together in the large house we rented when I finished teaching the workshops with them. I will get to see what they have done in their class and what they are working on while together. They will hopefully send pictures of the kangaroos and pesky cockatoos. …maybe even a live chat over their flat whites in our favorite morning cafe while I have an Aussie red here at home. Their workshop instructor is in for such a treat having this group of five in her class.

Not much else new here…trying to think of what I might fix for dinner. It is boring cooking for one.  Oh, I know…shrimp with spinach and pasta in a light tomato/cream sauce and parmesan. Sounds good and a breeze to fix. I ordered Milk Street’s new cookbook, Cookish. It sounds just what I need to keep it simple and tasty…six ingredients max with all sorts of substitutions.

That’s it for now…

Til later…

I Am Now Catching Up

Posted on by Sandy Webster

It was a beautiful day yesterday. I promised friends from Canada that I would have a scotch with them on the porch at five. The four of us would do that often when they were in town and then head off for dinner at the Copper Door, near where I am moving. These friends will not be back, but we can still share a drink.

It was harder than I thought it would be, This is where Lee and I would sit in the late afternoon and talk about Spring arriving, It is empty except for memories.

It was a busy few days. A walk at the dam.

The new house being closed in is very exciting.

A new drawing in the book.

The roof is now on. I will walk over from the gym tomorrow and take more pictures.

New addition to the Bird Stories book. A dispute over who gets the dead mouse…Vulture or Cooper’s Hawk.

Not many more pages in that book for birds….then onto something else…what, I don’t know.

But I did finally finish the stitching of scraps onto the large grey owl block print.

You know how you get an idea and you are so sure it will work. And despite doubts midway, you soldier on? Well this is one of those. I don’t like it. Mainly because I lost too much of the block printing black. An idiot would have known that would happen….but.

So I made the decision not to waste it. I will chop it into pieces to be stitched to other wood block prints that have a backing to take the abuse of a needle. That way I still have the print and can keep on stitching. Here it is with a freshly backed left over large wood block print that will also be cut up.

Before I came to this conclusion I lined the three prints up to decide which one to keep and maybe frame.

Ends up I prefer the first one done in chine colle. Before going to the expense of framing I might just try printing a couple more using this technique. It will require unpacking some papers but what else do I have to do? To be continued…..

I did a few more drawings for Burke and Wills.

Tea time.

A boat ride..

And more pushing Wills through doorways.

You can see the erased and smudged lines as I work out getting some idea across with nothing to look at but a strange picture in my head. I really need to get on with writing their story so I will know what illustrations are needed and how many more to make before perfecting them as best I can on better paper. It is a good challenge.

The encouragements from Australia and St. Louis friends have lifted my spirits over the past few years. I am grateful they read this blog and respond so positively. In a perfect world we would live much closer together, but I so appreciate them being there with such positive input.

This afternoon I will go back on the porch with another scotch and have a drink with all of you. Thanks.

And this morning at the dam again. It was blustery! Such a good word, “blustery”.

Til later….

 

It Is Wartime Again….And Again…..And…

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I am going to take this one small break from my usual blog entries of the things happening in my very small and somewhat protected life. It is a need to address another war.

I wish I could have found an image of the whole small quilt about the atrocities in Chechnya 1999. It is in the upper left and was a series of small engravings done on fabric of a woman survivor of this horrific war perpetrated by Russia. We see today how brutal they can be in war. This piece had nine patches where we see the mother holding the hand of a younger son as they wave goodbye to an older one going to fight against the Russian aggression. She goes to her church to pray for her son in another. She helps to feed those women hiding in the sewers of Grozny in another. She asks a Russian general if she can claim the body of her son left on the battle field. She buries her son. The last image is of her in a chair looking at a family album. It is all she has left of her son.

I don’t know if I put this small quilt pieced together with shattered brick images between engravings somewhere special or if it was buried with the other works of war. If the latter it is in good company. The entire series of coats made about the war in Bosnia has been laid to rest. Here are the letters I wrote during those four years that preceded the Chechen conflict….starting with my letter to Tom Squitieri, a journalist for the newspaper, USA Today. I had written to him about a young woman who he interviewed about the assaults on her by Serbs.

Here is his response to that letter.

 

 

One to President Clinton.

His response.

And another to the aggressors.

And those restoring order to their war torn country.

I recall following any news from the former Yugoslavia on those caught, tried at the Hague and finally dying. I remember telling a friend years ago that I would rather not meet his Serbian visitor and to let me know when he was gone. And even this past month feeling glad that Australia sent the Serbian tennis champion home before competing. Such arrogance reminded me of this body of work done years ago while watching the war unfold day in and day out.

And now we see it all over again.

I made a quilt about war and the need to separate people and construct boundaries not to be crossed. The Peace Dove comes in from the upper left with all good intentions of this time, this time it will work. Only to be shot down again and again.  The remains of these doves are placed in specimen drawers with reminder tags of why we are incompatible with each other.

And now we watch from our safe places as children are trying desperately to flee Ukraine. Much like the first busload out of Sarajevo I put on a gourd that felt so good in the hands as I cradled and glued their images down.

All of this bundled and buried with other work that mattered to me to make as an artist.

I no longer have the energy to create the depth of feeling I have for the lives needlessly lost to war. And I can only use this image for Ukraine…..

and hope that the Russian soldiers took the old woman’s advice and put sunflower seeds in their pockets so that Ukraine can rise again.

Til later….