Mother spends most of her time out in the barn, woods and meadows marauding and slaughtering, as barn cats do. When she comes in to visit, which is often, she is quite affectionate and follows me everywhere. She has a special relationship with Maria, of course, and often presents herself for scratching. She likes it. Then back to work.
It is the role of the artist and the story teller to make sense of the light and images of the world, and to touch emotions. Create, create, create.
Bartleby and Lulu continue to hang out together. One of those inexplicable animal friendships. Today, things begin to return to normal. Going out to meet with Christine Nemec about the Creative Union show and also get some notecards myself. Might go to Quaker Meeting. Got to check on the animals – have sheep in all three pastures this summer.
We are considering keeping the donkeys permanently if Darryl Kuehne agrees. Maria and I are still talking about Bartleby and the sheep. I think the sheep need to go after Labor Day, including Bartleby. On a farm, one gets a different perspective on animals. I don’t really think of sheep as pets. Donkeys are different to me. Maria loves Lulu and Fanny, and so do I. They are intelligent, intuitive, and important to us. I don’t feel that way about all animals, nor do I really want do. The farm teaches us that emotionalizing and idealizing animals can be unhealthy and dangerous. And unnatural.
Lace curtains, Skene Manor, Whitehall, N.Y.
Maria and I are excited about the Creative Union: Affordable Art Show Christine Nemec of the Redux Gallery is hosting at her great gallery in Dorset, Vt. next month.
We are celebrating love, marriage, and most of all, affordable art – potholders, photographic notecards, cell phone cases, eyeglass cases (Maria is getting a bunch of orders for her new e-book bags, soon to be inscribed with quotes and titles. I admire the way she fuses art with contemporary technology. Functional.). Nothing more than $15. Notecards are my medium of distribution for the photographs, which I also encourage people to download for free and use any way they wish. I think they are nice as notecards, I have to say.
Maria and I will be at the show, along with a dog or two between 1 and 4 p.m., Saturday, July 24. Dorset is a great place to visit. The Dorset Inn, a wonderful inn and restaurant is right across the street from the Redux Gallery, and nearby Manchester, Vt. has great discount outlets and good restaurants.
Christine is selling them as single cards for $5 in limited quanities and five-packs for $15. We are introducing some new notecards – Donkeys, Rose at Work, Stonewalls. These are available for viewing and purchase on her website. People who can’t make it to Redux can still purchase this art by contacting Christine at Redux.
There is a point to the show, beyond showing and selling the stuff we love. This is a tough time for art and artists. Maria and I believe in changing notions about selling and pricing art. We hope to remind people that art is important. We hope to present it in ways that are affordable, and in forms that can brighten, inspire and life people up. I think this show will be a lot of fun. It is designed so that everybody can take something if they wish.
June 20, 2010 – It’s always sad when the honeymoon is over – it’s always wonderful to suspend life, step out of it and do what we love. But I think a perpetual honeymoon would wear quickly. We need the ups and downs, challenges and disappointments of life ( at least I do) so that it’s beautiful and wondrous parts stand out and have meaning.
I am still very much on the hero’s journey. Still seeing my expectations and plans go awry, still facing one challenge after another, still coming to terms with fear and it’s pervasive impact on my life. When I think of my life two or three years ago, I know I am on the path. I have worked hard in therapy, and it has helped me tremendously. I feel that I am soon coming ot the end of that work, and beginning another. This one has more to do with a spiritual self, a spiritual center. I see it as a bubble at the center of me. A therapist once asked me where I felt the fear was, and I said it was like a heavy blue sludge sitting on my heart. It is smaller, and another part of me – the “bubble” – a calmer, more peaceful part of me, is growing. I’m working on that.
I’m still trying to get things straight – money, bureacracy, technology, writing, perspective. But look at how far I’ve come. I am married to a wonderful and dear human being, and she and I share life together, fully and deeply. I love my photography more all of the time, and I am thrilled to be returning to fiction,to novels, short stories and children’s books. I think this is really my medium. I am happy to have animals back on the farm – a small number I can care for and get to know. I am happy to be staying on the farm.
All milestones on the hero’s journey, which continues. I like being a married man, it is a natural state for me. I like the commitment and solidity of it. I like fusing our lives together. I especially like sharing this place with someone who loves it as much as I do, perhaps more. Honeymoons and perfect lives to together in a way. They are defined not by what is perfect,but what isn’t. That’s what gives them meaning.
