Tag: memories

Shy Sunflower

Today is my mother’s birthday – she would have been 106 today. From horse-drawn ice wagons to men in outer space, she saw a lot in her lifetime. She worked in television as a camera (wo)man during the 1940s in Chicago, broadcasting the Cubbies to the world and playing bit parts on live TV, to being a housewife with a bunch of kids. As a child, she was a challenge, and even when I became an adult she could push you. Now, as someone older and in my last loop of life, I really admire her non-traditional viewpoints and life she lived. Her independence of spirit and honesty and sense of justice are something not often seen when she was young, and nowadays. Thanks for being you, mom!

A Late Winter Afternoon

When I lived in upstate New York, the winters were marvelous! Hardwood forests and pine trees all worked together to create a magical land of light and shadow, rolling snow banks, and winter streams frozen and thawed and frozen again. The skies, too, were amazing in their coldness of light that could reflect so brilliantly on the snowy landscape.

As an adult, snow as a place to live, work, and travel in no longer holds much allure – great to visit, but don’t ask me to wade through it, chisel ice off my windshield, or shovel it just to get out of my house. Still, the memories of those magical winter days in deep winter always hold a spot in my heart for their crisp and intense beauty.

10×14″ Arches Rough, watercolor limited palette of umbers, quin gold, ultramarine blue, and a touch of titanium white gouache.

Memories of Rialto Beach

Several years ago Josh and I spent a few weeks traveling around the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington. It was such an amazing place! In particular I loved the Hoh Rain Forest and the beaches – vast, wide, wild.

The thing that amazes me about the northern Pacific beaches, ones in Oregon and Washington – as well as into Canada – are the sea stacks. They are tall rocks, worn away by wind and wave, but they are not barren. Pine trees grow on them – some have more, some have less. I think it would be a wonderful thing to live on one, in a warm cave (with running water and few other things!), to be at one with the sounds of the world . . .

More pen and color. This time I tried to have a more delicate touch with color. I inked in most of the drawing with a fine Micron pen, added color – mostly cool – and then drew more lines and dots with a thicker pen to outline and add textures. The sky was done after wetting the paper and dropping in color.

And that’s it!

Lost

Coming from a family where family history is lost or suppressed or deliberately forgotten, I always have a bit of nostalgia for old things and memories and stories. Life in the future seems forbidding and apocalyptic, especially these days, so looking backward to areas of familiarity feels good and safe. Good because there are good memories, and safe because I know what was what (as best one ever can), and even though there were areas of ambiguity or fear or confusion, familiarity can help. Getting older has the same effect – familiarity. Falling in love as a teen is not the same as falling in love at 40!

Anyway, I put the black and white capabilities of a digital camera to work. The original photo was quite gritty and really not interesting as far as I was concerned, but then I putzed a bit and thought that a sepia print – faded black and white – and a deckled border could do the trick.

Artistic impulse satisfied!

Nostalgia satisfied!

Good memories of esposo and pooches add to the mix, and here you are.