Lee and I found this passion flower on the trail today. So it had to be the drawing this morning. Here are the last four days.
A few brown dead things
from along the trail and some
from on the driveway.
Couple more dead leaves
dried, curled, rumpled and holey
– just right for drawing.
A very ratty
mud-filled feather is cleaner
as drawn on the page.
The passion flower
remedy for sleeplessness
is difficult to draw.
I finished my sewing as far as I could take it the other day. Now the studio is cleaned up of all the scraps, machine, ironing board, iron, pins, threads, scissors, etc. I miss the needles as soon as I put them away. I might just have to piece together some scraps if for no other reason than to keep stitching.
On the idea of sewing clothes. The thing that I like the best when looking at those who are modeling clothes is the looseness of them. And yes, the models are thin and everything looks loose on them. But when you go to look at larger models wearing clothes, they all seem to be in stretched out to the max knits. Every shirt catches on their bum. It just does not look good nor comfortable. So given a choice, I am going for comfortable. The linen pants I sewed are loose so they create a breeze when I walk. The shirts are big enough to fall away in the back and not get hung up. I added asymmetrical bottom pieces to the short vests I made a couple of years ago. I like the two tone of them. I like how they flare away from the body. I like how they looked layered already. I am not sure I could find anything in the stores that looked like these things I sewed. And I really like how I have been influenced by friends in Australia who just keep putting pieces together until it can be worn out in public.
So once sewed, I threw them all in the new washing machine and dryer to see how that worked on the linens. Then I ironed them and put them on hangers together with matching pants. I think I might do that with all my clothes. Just hang them together so I don’t have to go looking for what goes with what.
I agree with the stories I hear about how Covid and isolation has caused us to become more casual in our clothing tastes. We want to stay with comfortable. Even when this is finally over I don’t see myself buying much in the way of new clothes or shoes. I know what I like and have made sure to have enough to get by. Lots to give away when I get out to give away.
Other things along the trail this past few days.
Bambi.
His mom.
And Thumper.
I found some more faces to work into the fairy book.
This one almost ready to fall off the tree.
One carved in stone.
And this one giving me the side-eye.
I did start another page in the Fairy Book. And wonder what to do when it is finished. If I go to edition a small number of them I may just try to do it myself. The Stoat Story cost me not only the printing cost but just shy of $100 to get the pages shipped from Asheville to here…..a two hour drive but something I really can not do right now with Lee. I also think I would like to use a more fluttery paper to go with the subject matter…we will see how I go on that.
The books I sent to Australia are beginning to show up now. So far they are pleased to get them and make donations to the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Center.
And then the other morning while waiting for Lee to finish up in the bathroom down by the studio before we continued our walk, I looked close at one of the pieces that did not make the burial. It is a forty inch square canvas with much stitched and glued to the surface. Lots of shellac afterwards. It was the original idea for Lost Peaces about our penchant for going to war. And while I was staring into the textures I took some close up pictures.
Here a peace dove is shot down.
He ends up in the specimen drawer with others, all have the reasons for failure tied to their stiff and curled feet.
And this hole. I love the doorway-ness of it. “Holes are for taking things out and putting things in”….I read that somewhere. I also think these colors are luscious. I miss the days of just picking up bits and pieces and sticking them onto a surface with the intention of telling a story. I do not do this anymore because there are enough stories out there already and we can only listen to so much before everything becomes a slow meaningless hum in the background of our lives. But this, this one small part of a bigger humming speaks volumes to me. It is loaded with memories of those who were telling big stories at the same time. The ones I loved sharing ideas with….the passions we had to make our own noise in our work. I miss them. I miss the feeling. I want to walk through this opening and return to then. I really do.
And this other bit. The fragility of cloth and thread and paper in the company of organized metal pieces. Hard nails and screws that have had a hard time of it. They all, every piece of this work, seem exhausted by the efforts of keeping peace. And yet some of us just pick up the needle and thread and try like hell to hold it all together. I need to look at this work more often. I need to see the hopefulness and not the destruction. As these times have revealed, some things are worth holding onto and others are simply not.
And a small note on how Lee is doing. He is traveling a bit more into his past. At least twice a week he will hide something he thinks is necessary for his trip “back home”. Yesterday he told me that the house had changed and nothing was familiar….he wanted to know where the other things were…where the other people were. I said, “Let’s fix dinner.”
And yesterday I also finished reading the Australian mystery, The Dry, to him. He does not know so much what the story is about but likes the sound of my voice describing other things, other places. Next I will read him the latest Louise Penny novel about Inspector Gamache. It comes on the first of September.
Thank you to those who ask and those who keep in touch by sending cards and newsy notes. Last week he hid the bag he keeps them all in so I know he values them.
Til later with more fairies, more clothes I used to wear, and maybe even a new bit of stitching.
