Yesterday, after a little work on the house, Martin and I began talking about boats-again. I had mentioned my continued desire to learn to row and how I was considering giving up the boat idea, which seemed too far-fetched due to cost and transportation, and purchasing a rowing machine. Martin told me again about a boat he had had his eye on for several years hanging out at Starkey Marina, where his in-laws keep their boat. He called up Jim at the Marina and inquired about the boat, expecting to be directed to a person who was renting the slip for the little boat. Well, Jim said he owned the boat and that it would be possible for us to come and see it, and yes we could rent it for a test row. Martin asked if he was interested in selling the boat and when Jim gave him the price, he figured they were speaking of two different boats. A quick trip to the marina was definitely in order and the plans to continue the sunroom project were quickly dropped in favor of adventure and opportunity. I drove out in the little Prizm and Martin watched the road the whole way while I recited my excellent driving history for him. I had never been out to the marina before and it is a wonderful drive to another leg of the lake that inspires my godson and I to utter the word “paradise” every time we are out for a swim. We saw many deer and spotted fawns and the views of the lake are spectacular. Not that I would know, I had my eyes on the road the whole way.

Martin led the way down to the dock and in a moment Jim was lowering the boat into the water. The boat was indeed the one Martin had seen and admired and had thought would be just what I was looking for. It is even better than I had hoped for. I think we were both feeling like the cat that swallowed the canary at that point. I know my anticipation was at an all time high when I first saw the sleek and clean lines of this boat. When it was lowered and I saw that it was already outfitted with a sliding seat, I was again astounded by my good fortune.

We talked about the price again and since it was absurdly low I agreed to buy it. Jim said he had built it from a kit and he fetched the instruction manual. It is the Merry Wherry, from Wayland Marine, Inc. I had never heard of a wherry. A little research on the wherry told me that wherries evolved into gentleman’s rowboats from cargo vessels on canals and rivers in England. They were also used to transport people from ship to shore and in Shakespeare’s time, over two thousand wherries transported patrons across the River Thames to the theatre district.

Jim and Martin floated it over to the open dock and steadied it for me to get in. It was not too bad getting in, although I required some direction and found the boat to be less stable than those I have been in before. I had to think too much about keeping my balance at first to do much rowing and then I had the challenge of getting the oars oriented correctly and figuring out how to get both sides of my body to pull with equal force. I placed my feet on either side of the seat rails as that felt the most stable. The sliding seat action will take some time in coming. The storm moved closer and as I left the dock the thunder began. As if I was not excited beyond belief already! Jim and Martin called me back after what seemed like just a few minutes to me but was likely much longer. Then Martin took a ride. He was super fast and had a wonderful long and strong stroke. I need to watch him row some more so that I can learn quickly. I want to be very secure before the cold weather comes along. I think of the rowing as my winter swimming.

Jim and Martin sent the wherry back to its place and I scurried after a pen to write the check. Martin and I left to trade my car for his truck to fetch the boat. It turns out that this boat is even better for my purposes than is obvious to the eye. It weighs only 35 pounds and I can lift it myself. I had fun talking with Jim about how he built the boat. He told me there were some modifications which he had thought he would make to the sliding seat to get it to sit lower in the boat and also to weigh less. As it is, the seat sits even with the gunwales and the whole rig weighs as much as the boat. He explained that he had purchased the plans for the sliding seat, used the seat of an old chair, and that there are some parts available that he had not purchased. He and Martin talked about stitch and glue construction and I fretted and teased them about taking care not to mar my boat. Once the red flag was hanging from the boat, Martin cautiously drove it to my house and we began to clean off the dust and reveal the beauty of the wood. Robin and the kids came out to view it. Martin and I arranged a safe set up for it and began to remove the waxy build up where the boat had been in the water. It took a little elbow grease but we were able to get a small area clean enough to reassure Martin that this boat would clean up and have a finish as stunning as its lines. It will. Tomorrow I will finish sanding it and Martin will take it to his garage for me so that I can have a protected place in which to varnish it. I”m also looking into a different rowing rig or modifying this one, looking for some wooden sculling oars which are affordable, reading about rowing, and considering names for the boat. I’m sure there will be many more pictures to share. I love my boat.

Of course, although I thought of my boat all day and did work some to clean it up, I had to persist with the tasks at hand. I completed the sunroom wall and it is an amazing color. I had my godson and his two friends all day and I played sous chef to Ryan as he cooked dinner for himself and his friends. He did a great job. I did some cleaning in the house, moved some construction debris around, and I uploaded a bunch of photos from the past two weeks so that I will be able to continue to blog about the house, this life in Eureka, my creative friends, the violin practice, and believe it or not, some new paintings. I’m going to have to slow down on the house once the sunroom is finished so that I can focus on painting. I have some shows coming up and when I’m not painting I need to keep up my practice with the violin. It seems I have been playing a C# when I should have been playing a C and that I need to do quite a bit more work on Minuet 1. And now, there is the boat.

Tuesday’s painting class with the homeschooled students took an interesting turn this week, and like most fun projects, the idea for the structure of this class came together from pieces of items which had previous uses and from the inspiration of friends. I had torn the ceiling tiles off the living room and split the ones in good condition into 12 x 12 pieces to use in painting classes. A friend dropped by for a chat on the patio and returned a couple of art books she had borrowed a while back. I had forgotten them and was happy to see them and so looked through them and came to the conclusion that this week the students would move into the study of lines in painting. As the days passed I realized I also wanted to break up the class with a different activity to keep things lively for all the students.

The day before the class, while working on the house (more on that wild ride is coming soon-I have pictures), I was talking about the ceiling tiles to Martin and, naturally, rambled on about the class. It was then that the idea to do string art on the tiles popped into my mind. Martin mentioned his familiartity with it, and though he and I have discussed and looked at images of fractals in the past,and much string art reminds me of fractals, that did not occur to me at the time. Probably because Martin mentioned sail boat string art and I was laughing so hard because when talking with Martin it seems all things are connected somehow to boats. (In my next post I will show you how this was a great benefit to me today and why this point seems so relevant.) I did some online searching and came up with a pattern for a sailboat. It was the simplest introduction to string art I could find as well as the best way to tie the project into our discussion of implied lines. Also, I thought I was cute to do string art with a violinist coming to be in the class that day!

The kids arrived being fed spoonfuls of peanut butter off a rubber spatula. They were still hungry so Robin and I fed them some chocolate muffins while I began the class discussion. When I announced there would be no painting that class one student cheered! I do think everyone was excited to try their hand at something new. We moved into a brief discussion about the importance of line to the composition stages of the painting process. The kids were able to give examples of implied lines quite freely and it was easy to see they had an excellent grasp of the day’s concept. We moved into the studio, the kids learned a little about copyright and inscribed the pattern authors copyright and website onto the back of their tiles with Sharpies, everyone’s favorite. Then they began working to pound finishing nails into ceiling tiles. All sorts of hammers were discovered and used, including rocks. Everyone chose their colors of embroidery threads and began the process of tying and wrapping the string. Rachel was freezing and we shut down the AC for as long as the rest of us could stand it. I noticed Wilson was taking a different approach from the others who had begun wrapping the strings. His strings were wrapped at the top of the nail and they cast a really fun shadow.

It is too bad that the flash wiped out the shadows in the photo. By now, we had to get the AC back on, freezing Rachel or no freezing Rachel. Fortunately, Robin came into the studio to view the string art and rescued Rachel by making a shawl out of some old palm tree pj pants. Rachel, donning her lovely new shawl, was finishing up her pastel boat as Robin was chatting with Mary, our guest student. Mary’s come to class once before. She is the girl who plays the violin and viola with her sisters. After Scott and I finished up the final few difficult knots on his sailboat, I pulled out my violins and Shannon and I played a little. Shannon is wanting to study the violin and she seemed quite comfortable handling it. Mary continued to craft the boat until the very end, but managed to squeeze in a helpful comment or two as she worked. Then Rachel, took the violin and had a go at it. She said it was her first time to play with it and she seemed to enjoy the newness of the experience.

It was another wonderful Tuesday in the studio with the homeschoolers. Tuesday is becoming my favorite day, not just because of these students, but also because it seems to be the day most of my friends have some time off work and want to play in the evening. This week after class I quickly finished the mudding of the new wall in the sunroom and painted a test patch on the exterior of the house. (OMG, I never thought I would want to paint a house purple, but I do, and I’ll get a photo up here soon so you can try to stop me if you think I’ve lost my mind.) Then I put on my swimsuit and sarong, Robin gathered food and drinks, and we headed off to Jerri’s for a pool party in honor of several our friends birthdays. I’ve got some silly pictures to share from that, too! I’ve fallen a bit behind on the blogging, but tonight it seems I’m attempting to at least catch up on the word count!

Could it be a fairy? It is certainly something magical.

It is a luna moth.

It lost a part of itself and that is why it looked so much like a fairy, I think.

I recently met someone who told me about a couple of astronauts who live nearby. They had viewed earth from space and wondered about this area of deep blackness by night and great greenness by day. They decided it must be the place to live and found out that they were viewing the Ozark Mountains. It is good to live here, among the fairies and stars.

Last weekend my best friend from high school was in town for a visit. She brought everything she needs with her- her family and her artwork. So, while her husband and son are lovely people, it turns out that I only photographed Heilbron and her artwork. Heilbron has been making wonderful creations for as long as I can remember and it seems to me that working with fabric, she has found her media. Her quilts are stunning.

In this photo you can see the work that went into creating this design, which she calls her starry night pattern. Heilbron explained that she cut triangles and then stitched them together into hexagons which use the motif to create a new pattern. It is evident that she enjoys math and playing around with geometry, but she seems to greatly enjoy discovering how some of the more subtle parts of the original design can become more dominant in the process. I think she is a human kaleidoscope which creates and then freezes the best combinations and stitches them into place to share with others.

If we are lucky, Heilbron will begin to sell some of her quilts on etsy. She is in the early stages of getting her business started. I know she will soon have some incredible handbags and super squishy and safe bookbags for little kids with lovely applique designs in her etsy shop, called ArtisanalLife.

The ceiling fell down! Martin and I were prying a very small piece of wood when all of a sudden a giant chunk of drywall came crashing down and I was covered in a shower of pink fluff. Unfortunately, it was fiberglass insulation and I’m still a bit prickly. Fortunately, the hole provided great access to the wiring we needed to relocate and I was able to both move the light switch and remove the ceiling fan and its switch. This happened in the area of the old hall which will soon be a part of the kitchen. I’m logging off to visit with my best friend from high school, who is in town with her husband and son, and lots of gorgeous handmade bags which I will show you later.

Things are changing rapidly around the house. After I moved all the stuff around again and got things organized and Robin took a bunch of stuff to the Dogie Shop thrift store, it just seemed right to tear off all the drywall and make a big mess. So now the future hall has been opened up as well as the wall between the living room and absurdly large old hall. I will move the wiring soon and a new beam will go up as the old studs come down adding 6 feet to the area and joining the kitchen with the living room.

The wall where the sofa bed is will half disappear and to the right is the new hall. BTW, that sofa is both the best and the worst piece of furniture to have! It is quite handy to have two extra beds in the house and it is neat to be able to nap on the sofa so comfortably or to pile up a bunch of people on them to watch a movie, but it is a beast to have about the house and always looks untidy, like a bed.

This is a view into the new hall. It was a closet, large, but in an awkward place, which at one time held nothing but a bed for Ryan and stuffed animals. That explains the night sky painting at the top and all the holes where the stars were pulled off. It will be opened up completely and have a door to each of the bathrooms and each of the three bedrooms. I am still trying to decide how I want them all arranged. I may make a sliding door panel for the hall opening. I want lots of sound barriers between the areas.

The work on the sunroom continues to progress. i finished the wiring and got the new ceiling fan and light in. Thank goodness Martin came and made the support for it. His son, Hendrik, fished the wires through the attic for me. In this picture, looking through the new door, you can see that I am ready to paint the trim and I have coated all the walls with kilz just because I’m nuts like that. So nuts that now, I am going to paint the trim. It is one am. I love summer for all the energy it brings me.

My friend Peggy, also Martin’s wife, lost a dear coworker and friend quite suddenly to a car accident last week. She was a mother and a grandmother, a physical therapy assistant, and a curious, open-minded, loving, and generous woman. She also loved to go canoeing. Peggy told me she had always wanted her coworkers, her 2nd family, to gather at the river with her and today they did just that. Peggy is a grief counselor and she, I know, is very creative with ritual and healing. This morning, in the pouring rain, Peggy was in the middle of the river waist deep in a skirt launching this lovely canoe filled with flowers, remembering her friend, and hoping a little kid will discover this canoe and turn it into a toy of joy.

She called Martin Monday and asked him to make a boat so they could send flowers down the river at a memorial service. Martin, true sailor that he is, asked what type of boat, a steamer, a tall ship with sails, a passenger ship, a barge…?. Peggy got back to him after some consideration with the request for a canoe, in keeping with the spirit of her friend’s life. Well, this is the little boat which Martin whipped up out of an old closet door. You know, those hollow core doors, with the thin skin of pliable wood. Martin explained that he cut 2 pieces for the sides, drilled holes at each end and made little wire stitches. Then he pried the two sides apart and fitted in the bottom and poured epoxy into one end and then the other to seal it well. Using some leftover composite decking, he created what I guess is like a rudder for the bottom to stabilize the boat. He coated the entire craft with epoxy and it glistened. I loved seeing this project when it was done and hearing Peggy’s tale about its adventure today.

I was accepted into the Fayetteville Arts Festival and this will be the first time I have done this show since they moved it indoors. Last year I missed the application process altogether, finding out that it already had been juried by listening to other artists grumble that they had done it for years and now were left out. I asked to be put on the mailing list and the committee sent out postcard notifications to apply online this year. You know I love that! I am really thrilled to have been accepted because this is a fantastic regional event with great sales and wonderful artist amenities. It will be a pleasure to set up indoors at the end of August. The preview party is the 29th and the event is the following Saturday and Sunday. I’ll post again as the event approaches. I chose this painting to show with this post because it is one of the five which I submitted to the jury for this event and because it is about gratitude. I’m grateful to have great opportunities coming my way. I feel lucky.

The homeschool students came for another painting lesson today and it was almost like last week’s class. This time they worked with a palette of analogous colors to create paintings of anything they chose. I added the stipulation that they must paint a background and that if they chose to add a touch of a color outside their analogous scheme they had to have a strong reason for doing so. As you can see, they all did quite well with the assignment.

As you may also notice, they chose different painting locations again, with the boys working inside at the tall table and the girls out on the patio. We had a guest in today’s class who was a lot of fun to be around. She lives on Saipan in the Mariana Islands and was quite knowledgeable about her island home. I enjoyed hearing her descriptions and I especially took notice of the great respect she communicated when talking about her teacher back home. She flowed nicely with the other students and she was a pleasure to have in the class. I suspect that she liked the end of class best when they all painted the table some more. Here is a picture of that.

Lots more happened today after class. A friend came by with another bow for me to try for my violin and sheet music for he and Robin to play. I made a recording of them playing together and that was fun. They are so good. I’ll have to figure out how to share my recordings sometime. Then the work on the house continued with walls coming down, a friend dropped by to show off a little bitty canoe he made, and another friend called to say she and her family will be coming for a visit in a couple days. I will post pictures of the house so you can see some more of the progress there and I am really hoping my friend sends a photo of himself and the tiny canoe so I can share that.

This photo shows the new opening between the living room and the sunroom where the pair of windows were removed. The smaller, former doorway seen here will be closed off as will the large opening to the third bedroom/office.  The next photo shows the white paint on the ceiling and a test of the yellow paint that will cover the walls. I have already painted the paneling that will go up on the bottom section of the walls and I am really enjoying this color and thinking about how I want this room to feel.  Since taking this picture, I got the wiring done and the ceiling fan/light is in and working.