week 36 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:
The far northern edge of my map – the high tension lines. There were wild blueberries around the lines and a rocky stream that ran down a long hill. I dug clay out of the stream bed and made useless little things. The stream had a little haphazard bridge over it where it intersected a well used path through the woods and on the other side of that became a little swamp with lilly pads and white lotus flowers.
week 35 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:
The house next door with it’s neat row of forsythias and and my mothers magnificent pink rose bush.
week 33 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:
Small progress on my rosebush painting – just begun really.
week 32 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:
A sketch for a painting I’m going to begin tonight – my mother’s marvelous pink rose bush and the house next door.
week 31 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:
There was a strange little pond, deep in the woods behind Hennessey’s Grove, good for ice skating and tadpoles and salamanders. It sat at the bottom of a steep hill covered with mountain laurel and purple trillium. I remember the long walk home, up that hill, towards the sinking sun.
week 30 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:
Another little section of map – the substantial blackberry patch of the people across the street, and the burned shell of a house – set back from the road, black and charred, the lawn overgrown with grass and sumac, next to the far swamp, perfect gloom. And here it is in the context of my growing map.
(click the image for a larger version)
week 29 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:
Milkweeds grew behind the house, by the bulkhead – a perfect spot for finding monarch caterpillars and observing the wondrous transformation in a mayonnaise jar. This time of year always makes me think of it.
Regarding my tardiness this week: I missed my Wednesday post deadline and I’ll tell you a little bit about why. I’ve been super busy all spring and summer, no breathing room at all, dancing as fast as I can. A few weeks ago a new project came up that I so wanted to work on – couldn’t not work on- so I did. I finished this week and it was really, really fun and worth the extra effort. I’ll tell you a bit more about it next week.
week 28 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:
(click the image for a larger version)
This is another little section of what will eventually be one big map. The end result is going to be much, much larger – even though I’m working as small as I possibly can- and more detailed than what I pictured when I first started. I can’t bear to leave anything out, not the dirt pile or the aluminum lawn chairs, or the raspberries or the poison ivy or the big rock or the little gate on the corner with a fancy latch or the tree near the asparagus patch where my mother so famously saw a great grey owl.
week 27 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:
One day a huge hot air balloon passed over our house – very low – you could see the people and details of the basket and hear the whoosh of the flames. We all stood on the back steps with my mother and watched it float past. It terrified the cat.
week 26 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:
I finished my painting of the little depression era mini land fill next to gingers barn today. It was a do -over – after struggling for weeks with my original effort I scrapped all progress and started over. I’m happier. But not thrilled. I’ll take that though – progress.
week 25 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:
I remember wanting the dollhouse for a very long time. I remember getting a full sheet of quarter inch plywood for my birthday, the hours and hours spent with my father in the basement on winter evenings working on the house and the importance of having a plan and measuring twice and cutting once etc, etc.
It had real wood shingles and flower boxes under windows with a diamond lead pattern made from tiny and precisely cut strips of black electrical tape on rectangles of plexi glass that fit perfectly into each little window opening. It was carefully decorated and furnished with things either made by me, purchased with saved allowance or acquired on birthdays and holidays – every bit of it treasured and wonderfully fancy and precious and magic and small.
I still have much of he furniture and little things I made – I used some of it for the bird production of red riding hood.
And here are a couple things I made. The chair is made from a mini cereal box and an old bathrobe – I made it with my brilliant Aunt Rita on a summer I spent with her that was largely devoted to creating things for the little house.
