Thursday, April 20, 2006

Ok, so I've learned never to preview the post until you're SURE it's exactly the way you want it. I just finished a lengthy post, previewed it, went back to make a couple of changes, and lost the whole thing. And of course it was a long one! So let's try this again.

I've begun reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger. It's a luminous book, beautifully written. She quotes a poem at the beginning of the book that I found incredibly moving. Here it is:

LOVE AFTER LOVE

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott


Part of today was spent at a local community college finishing up what I needed to do to get myself registered for fall for the graphic design program. Yes, I'm going back to school. Starting fall 2006 I will be a full-time student for awhile, after 25 years. Yikes, I'm getting old! But seriously, I'm excited to be returning to school and learning the skills that will enable me to be an artist AND get paid! What a concept!

Till then, I will be making as much art as possible, as I know once school starts, that will be it for awhile. Thanks to my Honey, I don't have to work outside the home right now, so I can focus entirely on my art and process.

This is the canvas I had so much trouble with, but has finally become what it was meant to be. It's called "Spring". Funny how some pieces flow right out, and some are a struggle start to finish. I wonder what that says about the interior landscape?...

2 comments:

Bridgette Guerzon Mills said...

I *loved* that book!! I read it on the plane from Baltimore to Seattle which is a looooooong ride including a layover. I couldn't put it down!! I always love books too where one of the characters is an artist.

I really like that poem too. beautiful and poignant.

Good luck with school. I love the top painting.

carla said...

The Time Traveler's Wife is one of the best books I've read in such a long time! I became so involved with the characters and their story that I was really heartbroken to have to leave them when I reached the last page! I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did. Your work here is absolutely beautiful...I am very drawn to your colors and composition, but also to the introspection and subtext I feel your images contain. How wonderful that you'll be going back to school! To me, that would be something of a dream come true! I'll be back...you have wonderful things here (including those totally adorable animals:>).