Snow and Anonymous Kindness

Posted on by Sandy Webster

The view out the front door today. And Sadie staying warm makes me warm just looking at her.

And earlier this week an anonymous card came from Tasmania. I keep it where I work in the den with sewing or doing my drawing a day or just watching TV with Lee. I pick it up and smell it. There is Eucalyptus in there. There is a flat white. There is just a touch of the Salamanca Market. There is the many friends who could have sent it. It is absolutely crowded with what I need right now. Thank you so much, “Anonymous”.

And look at this stamp!

If I went into the den right now and opened that envelope, I bet a kangaroo would hop out and I would hear laughing. But I am going to save it for later. I don’t want to let the magic escape.

That thought reminds me of one of my Zulu baskets. A friend wanted to take the lid off and look inside. I told her, “No, don’t. There is the smell of where it was made in Africa and the woman who wove it. If it opens up too much, I will lose her.”

Silly isn’t it? The ultimate hoarding ….of objects that hold the invisible of an overactive imagination  and make longings come to life.

I had Lee help me make pages for new sketchbooks. I am on the last one I made for my Drawing a Day/ Haiku books. It took him awhile to figure out how to tear them free of the spiral binding…but eventually he tore out enough for me to size into folios for four new sketchbooks.

He is wearing my old Arrowmont sweatshirt. It is his favorite and misses it when it is in the wash. I think I will write to them and see if they have another one for him. With the design on the front he knows how to place it to slip into.

And here are the last four days of Drawing a Day with Haiku.

Another pairing

from the many foundry molds –

one of them numbered.

 

This one’s a beauty

but its metal counterpart

would be so boring.

 

The two of us are

painted black and share the same

red painted number.

 

Finally! The last

of these difficult to draw

little foundry molds.

 

And here is a bit of the Wildflowers Bush Book.

And this morning after the trillium I drew in some acorns to be painted later. I think I need some things along the ground area of the book so will put in sticks, seeds, stones, etc….at least I think I will.

Years ago I was taking a class on how to use Caran d’ Ache crayons and my teacher told me this was the best eraser…Magic Rub by Prismacolor. I had always assumed it was those kneaded ones. But no, she was right. This eraser is the kindest to your paper and gets the job done. And if you slice off a corner you have a great little eraser to get in those tight spots.

The snow has stopped but it may not get warm enough to get down the driveway to go to our Sunday breakfast tomorrow.

Now I am going to bake oatmeal cookies.

Til later.

PS I did think I would have done more drawings in my Responsibility Hands book. I did get it brought upstairs from the studio. Lee is used to me drawing all the time so will not notice what it is about.

Slowly things are coming upstairs. I even bound three of the new sketchbooks yesterday. Bringing my tool bag up feels right.

Later.

 

New Starts

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I have finished my Bush Book and yesterday tucked into the triangle pockets the names of whatever was drawn on that page.

It is over ten feet long. Here is the last page.

And the one before that if I did not post it before.

I made a movie of it and posted it on facebook pages but the movie is too big to post here. Maybe later when I figure out a way to do that.

And I have started the new wildflower book.

The dandelion is the opening and the book will have dandelion seeds floating through. I may add more leaves and blooms to this page but you get the idea of where it is going. The very next page is a large Lady’s Slipper.

And I have started the last of the three Drawing a Day books that I made a couple of months ago using old linen pants for the grey covers. I will have to get busy preparing more cloth for covers on more DAD sketchbooks.

I am still working with foundry molds.

Very intriguing –

sort of a ballerina

of foundry mold world.

 

Architectural

forms are harder to draw than

the organic ones.

 

I had to draw two.

One was just too easy for

having its own page.

 

“Opposites attract.”

That is what we have been told.

But seriously?!

 

Yesterday we donated Lee’s truck to the folk school. That way we can wave to it each time we pass by. It was not difficult for him to let go. He thought the men who came to get it were very nice. Those same men told me that they would come over any time I needed something done around here. Very, very nice offer and I am keeping that on the back burner.

Someone I see every time I go to the gym asked me the other day how I was doing, really doing. And I told her that I now considered my job to be laying yellow bricks on the road in front of Lee and me. My job is to simply make things easier for both of us.

So for now we are following the yellow brick road but only as fast as I can lay those bricks.

I need to get back to the Responsibility Hands book. I will bring it upstairs here where I can work on it. Then I will photograph it for my next post plus some other things.

Til then.

And So It Goes

Posted on by Sandy Webster

As you will see I finished with the small collection of Indonesian carved bottles. So I went to the studio and brought up a basket of small foundry molds and other wooden bits to draw next.

My head rolls behind

the bookshelf and then gets stuck.

But not any more.

 

We cut some bamboo

into little serving cups

as seen in Japan.

Some of our more tippy bottles have to stand in these cups to keep them upright.

An interesting

foundry mold once constructed

for something. But what?

 

It boggles the mind

how metal parts from these molds

all fit together.

And the Bush Book is nearing completion. After the luna moth double page comes this.

A pileated woodpecker, mud wasp, crow and ground hog (wood chuck).

Now I am on the next to last double page. I started with the wild turkey, then a bullfrog, a kingfisher, red tailed hawk and coyote before that page is finished. I have something fun planned for the final section.

I will need to make covers for the Bush Wildflower book. But it is pretty well ready to start on.

Lee is slipping a bit more this week. I have had a person let me know they could schedule in some time for him. Our doctors office is sending a list of names of people who do this kind of work. Just sitting for awhile so I can disappear for maybe an hour or so.

I think I would love to go over to the apartment and just write another story. Find new friends on a legal pad to hang out with. Our friend from up north is coming down to stay for a week or so to take a weekend class and hang out with Lee. But that is not until late April.

In the meantime I take great comfort in the supportive emails and comments on facebook. The vast majority of those come from Australia. And it is getting close to the time I would be heading down there….but not this year. To say I will miss it is an understatement. The chatter of friends, the salads loaded with rocket, pumpkin and goat cheese, the perfectly poached eggs with avocado and crusty bread, the wine, the shops that always have the best little things that have been waiting for me, the feeling of belonging, being in a place where age is seen as “gorgeous”, surrounded by kindness……

Lee is back outside stacking rocks. We tried a new brewery today as our usual is closed for two weeks. It wasn’t bad. We’ll go back.

The other day Lee thought his electric tooth brush was his electric razor. Easy to understand as they are close to each other on the vanity. We both laughed when I showed him the difference. His comment, “Yeah I noticed it wasn’t working very well but sure felt good.”

A little humor in a week filled with sorry-ass Senators excusing an impeached president. Pathetic times here in the states and Australia when it comes to those given power over the rest of us.

More later.

More Drawings – More Cooking – More Kind Words

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Last week I made up a large batch of puttaneska and put several containers in the freezer Now all it needs is some pasta, Parmesan, wine and two hungry people. Beautiful isn’t it? Lee and I are taking our comfort where we can get it nowadays. Several kind emails lately that we appreciate, (or I do anyway). A friend who comes down from the north for Christmas has volunteered to return for a week in the spring to give me some time alone….just an hour a day is a dream at this point. She is very good at paying attention to Lee.

Still looking for someone to be that paid friend, but not much new there. I will check more places soon.

In the meantime I am preparing the twenty-eight page accordion book for painting wildflowers. It is now all stitched as much as I want with thread and fabric scraps and getting a good press in the studio.

And the Drawing a Day continues….

Wooden carved bottle

with head pulled out his insides

could hold anything.

 

Wooden head stopper

for an incised horn bottle

that holds some secrets.

I am the biggest

in the family of five

carved powder bottles.

 

Well actually

I am the biggest bottle,

and tilting to fit.

 

I rescued the fallen head of bottle number five and drew it this morning. Then this series is over. I will have to find some more interesting things ….. maybe a group of things down in the studio. I don’t get down there very much and forget the things that are there.

Lee and I went to the liquor store the other day to get him some more Southern Comfort. He likes this sweet drink late in the day. It helps with oncoming sadness.

I hear him whistling out in the garage. Things must have gone well with the relocation of rocks.

Til later.