Decades ago I had an aha moment while on vacation at Takodah, realizing with sudden clarity that a vacation means to vacate—to leave, to depart from, to move away from—everything! All the things I'm happy to quit and all the things I love fiercely. So it is that I always try on the idea of leaving my paints at home.
But I never regret packing them, because each piece of art I create and bring back home—whether a sweet success or frazzled frustration—is a fully embodied memento.
For me to pick up one of those paintings is to return to the lived physical experience of creating it in my vacation setting—to the soft worn wooden cottage floor under my bare feet, to the bell buoy clanging north of the island, to the tang of late summer blueberries in my mouth, to the dry smell of late-August dust coming in the window from the lane, to the surprise of blue when I thought I'd loaded my brush with deep purple.
I can feel the brush in my hand, feel the granite gem of island that stands under me, feel the salt water that washes the island's every edge.
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| Sand and Shallows, Salt and Sawgrass 5x5"; watercolor and collage on canvas paper abstract 2018 |
