I should have taken the hint that things were all going astray when I was working on a new/old piece (started it in October!) I have been calling "A Shrine to the Whaler's Wife" which seemed perfect for the Hygienic Art Show in New London. After all, New London was at the heart of the American whaling trade for so long...
So I spent a little time planning how to do what was left...it required some special rivets...and I come back to claim the pieces and sure enough, there is Rosie, happily gnawing on the oh-so-fragile whale bone that was central to the piece. I found it on the beach at the Cape years ago and had finally found a home for it. In a few short minutes she chewed off the part where the fastening was to take place. I haven't adjusted to the new shape of it, so I set it all aside for now...the whale bone and driftwood, and the tin types of my imagined whaler and his imagined wife...the key to her and their story's home~ a triangular box that was a small drawer in its' former life.
NEW PLAN! Take something from my own collection I haven't shown. Sure. That's it! I have been dawdling around this for days. Donna and I shamelessly "Wiied" away our morning golfing in the living room and I had leaped in the shower, ready to roar out to the show. And apparently the blackberry went off. Next thing I know Donna is sailing out the door to work (an emergency with computer speakers?) and I am marooned. I suppose "marooned" is a strong word for it. I could go on by myself. Thursday my sister had provided Mom and I with the chance to see the musical "Lion King"~ the sets and costumes and lighting made me WEEP they were so fabulous ~ and my engine light came on on the way home. Now, I know most people would go ahead and use the vehicle...but I am not interested in risking being alone in the dark with in a not-running car an hour and a half from home when it is 25 degrees out. I know, chicken s--t.
So here we are. I have no dinner planned...the oven isn't working (don't get me started on my annoying appliances)and the whale-eating dog and I will just have to settle for a track-stuff-in-the-snow walk while we wait for the better half to be through with work. And this painting will just have to stay on the wall in the studio...no walk-about for it.
So why the Yellow Brick Road? After last October's Art Is... conference a bunch of us decided to make a deck of artwork. We are doing a round robin...make a piece on a card from some sort of deck of cards (I used flash cards left over from tutoring) and mail it on around so all 22 artists end up with a deck we all contributed to. The theme for this year's conference is Wizard of Oz and we all were taken with the idea of wickedness...so this is our "wicked deck". Sounds great, right? I went nuts perseverating on my start-up...the first card is always the hardest, right? I pulled together FORTY TWO rough drafts of ideas before I started playing with ruby slippers...and there are ruby slippers still all over the darned studio...once I narrowed it down I still made another 23 before I liked what I had, then I express mailed it out to the next person on the list so she could get it turned around before the next mail date. I must not be the only one who gets sidewinding all around...the robin had not rounded its way here yet!
Ah, the best-laid plans. And now Donna is already on her way home. She had to work just long enough for us to miss the deadline for submission for the New London show. I suppose if we had been just a little quicker out the door she wouldn't have been able to get back to help the person in need...by far the greater portion of our bread and butter.
Speaking of bread and butter, if we had gone along...we also would have missed bread fresh from the oven our good neighbor Fred brought to us. Win some, win some.
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