We skied up to the lake this morning and the conditions were prefect. Just enough fresh snowfall to refresh the trails. Along the way I kept thinking, “what can we do?”
I keep hearing that now is the time to get active. See something, say something. Peggi went to a meeting at the Universalist Church downtown, something sponsored by Metro Justice, and she took notes but she was really surprised that people there, representatives of politically active groups, had no practical first steps that lay people can take now. So we’re left to stew. And the stewing is unhealthy. Our friend, Pete, stopped by for a visit this afternoon and he told us he was at his doctors and someone mentioned Trump and his blood pressure soared. I simple change of thoughts brought it back down where it belonged.
We drank coffee and talked about art and eventually wound up looking at the pile of watercolors my father did. I took a painting class with him for twenty years and so many of them were worked on in class. Constructions, corrections, emphasis and direction were all worked out in the open and now I have the privilege of revisiting that, of learning by looking, again. I’ve am almost finished photographing and cataloging them and have decided to organize a show of them somewhere. They aren’t for sale so it would have to be a not for profit space. They are beautiful as paintings and a marvel of draughtsmanship but I think they would be of real interest to anyone who who has lived here for some time.
My father loved to get out with his paints. He’d bundle up and sit down near a construction site, moving closer and closer as the crews got to know him. He was featured in the paper when the Can of Worms was being being rebuilt. Bausch & Lomb bought a bunch of the paintings he did outside their headquarters when it was being built downtown. The construction of the O’Rorke Bridge and the new Freddy Sue are thoroughly documented. The Charlotte lighthouse held a special fascination with him and he painted it many times each time quite differently. I plan to get them all online soon and I will find some place to show them.
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