Girlfriends, watercolor and crayon AEM for November 13 by Tammy Vitale
I started this last week, but never got around to finishing it. So I did the crayons this morning. It was an exercise in figuring out Girlfriends in clay as well as playing with color (no green grass), and, oh, yeah, not staying in the lines, even when I draw them. Has anyone noticed that today’s crayola crayons are not the crayons of our past – at least my past (1950s era). They are way more waxy and have way less color pigment in them. And even though their wrapers are different their actual colors are very very close together. And you’d have to use a whole crayon to get any real color.
I have place mats I made with my mom when I was small enough that I needed a chair to reach the counter. I can’t remember the whole process but the end was ironing the picture onto cloth which I managed to save all these years and worked into a still unfinished quilt top with pictures by my kids and their friends back in the 80s (goodness – that’s 20 years ago – where has the time gone?). I don’t know if I’ll ever finish the top, but am happy I have these generations of drawings. Maybe next year I’ll get grandson interested in drawing (he isn’t)(he’s 4) and get at least one panel from him and then finish the quilt top, throw a back on it and try quilting it by hand. That should be a project to keep warm for a few months!
This week I think I’ll tackle the floor in the cottage, finally. We got a quote on a contractor doing it and he wanted almost $2K to glue down tiles and grout. So….off I go. That could be AEM for one day! I have to finish the cottage wall tiles and grout the tiles I put up 2 months ago (maybe 3 months ago? where DOES time go?).
I want to get at least one kiln load in this week, finishing up the work I started last week. 
Then, if the weather co-operates, I want to get outside and rake because I’m jonesing for being outside. Even after the wind (WIND! it was not wimpy breeze) and rain rain rain yesterday some of the trees are still holding onto leaves but the yard is blanketed and, unless it blew all night long, too wet to rake today. Maybe tomorrow – but I have to check the weather. It still isn’t cold. We still don’t need a fire. And here we are halfway through November (and with 2 cords of wood stacked out back).
thought for the day: Calmly set in nine acres of autumn woods and bordering a monastery, the house glowed with reflected colors as all around red maples and amber oaks let go their leaves. Out my open window, I breathed in the sweet-rot perfume of fall trees and remembered that I, too, had a body with its own seasons, that it was time for me to turn inward and let go my work, even though I was here on business.
Gazing at the gloriously lit forest, I remembered that the reason leaves change colors is because the trees stop making chlorophyll so the true color of the leaves emerge when the green is no longer produced. I wondered, would I also grow more colorful and bright if I stopped producing – right in the iddle of this business day? Brenda Peterson, Singing to the Sound: Visions of Nature, Animals & Spirit
1 Comment
"Thought for the day" is so fitting. thank you.
Beautiful piece in watercolor and crayon. Ah yes, crayola crayons. have you tried caran d'ache neocolour ll (water soluble)? Once I discovered them I've said "crayola – what's that?" I've been reviewing your clay pieces and poetry. Fabulous all.