Listening…

4 August

A shout of celebration to our nephew Neill who has a birthday today. Haven’t seen him in a while but we are thinking of him and sending him lots of hot air to blow out those candles !

I have started each of the last 5 days by heading to the easel to get back to work…but the muses have had other plans. Spent three of those days in the garage workshop making some bookcases and benches for the studio out of the walnut boards which Jamie had milled up for us at an Amish sawmill after he cut the dying trees down from the studio yard a couple years ago. It felt absolutely wonderful to be picking up the hand tools again and I consider the blistered skin on my uncalloused hands to be well-earned.

Mid-way through the first day I heard an unfamiliar sound and stepped out of the swealteringly hot garage to find that the barn across the street was getting a new roof. A couple of Amish woodworkers were dancing across the rickety rafters and tapping the shingles off so fast that they sounded like woodpeckers. The sound I had heard was the long swish as each shingle came loose and slid down the length of the roof and sailed onto the lawn. Here are a couple photos…

Did I complain about being in the heat ? They don’t even appear to have broken a sweat.

Took an even rarer afternoon to visit with friends and we soaked in Saren’s pool for hours and solved all of the problems in the world. Fortunately there were no cameras at that event, but the sunburn lingers and so does the camaraderie.

So while I was working at the computer today, I found my way via this WordPress blog site to one of my all time favorite authors… Laurie R. King. Here is her website and blog  http://laurierking.com/index.php .       It prompted me to finally write that note of thank you to her for captivating my mind and imagination for years. I listen to audio books while painting and since that can be as much as 60 -70 hours in a week there are few books in our local library that I haven’t read…twice. The first book of hers I read was Folly . It took my breath away as it felt like she had been looking over my shoulder writing my life. I told her I borrowed her title for the painting I was working on at the time…you can link to it here at my website to the painter’s notes to read more about the impact that book had, continues to have…as I bring it out once a year or so to enjoy the details and spend time with the characters again.

She has written several stand alone books and two other series and every single one of them is now a favorite. As a lover of mysteries, well written stories and gutsy female characters, I can highly recommend her work and encourage you to find your way to her books. I may just dust off my copy of Folly and join you.

It’s getting late. Bob stopped by a little while ago for a visit and we sat outside on the studio porch rockers until Pat got home…now the two of them are finishing their frosty mugs and the sun is setting over my shoulder here in the office. Time to wrap it up and re-enter the real world.

That’s enough time off…tomorrow it’s back to the easel for sure !  We’ll see…   HN

2 thoughts on “Listening…

  1. Heather,
    It never occurred to me to listen to a book while painting. I used to listen to books on tape while commuting, delivering your mail, etc. I tend to listen to bizarre music. Thanks for sharing something that could enhance my art!
    Anita

  2. I discovered a while back that listening to books, aka reading while painting, somehow occupies the language/logical/verbal portion of my brain which frees up the visual/imaginative areas. Music doesn’t do that for me as it makes demands on the visual side and becomes a distraction.
    Which is funny because I have taken on the huge project of loading all my music CDs into the computer to use on my new itouch…so music still drives my soul and feeds the imagination…just not the act of making art.
    I heard a great explanation of this last week but can’t remember whether it was on NPR or PBS…so there’s a whole other area of the brain that needs feeding.
    Now go and paint something… HN

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