The Night Crew

Three years ago I sketched something similar to this after waking from a dream

Each spring I came across it and half halfheartedly thought about looking

on the supermarket shelves for those egg dying kits I remembered

but got distracted… and another year passed.

Then I found this basket in Jane Slater’s shop in Menemsha

and brought it home to the studio and set another of Aunt Imy’s teacups on top

and Susan came up with the exact McCormick’s egg dying kit from the 60’s I was looking for

and Pat drove in to town to rendezvous for the drop off

and I rooted around in the white cabinet in the log cabin

to find every single rabbit related item we own

and boiled up the eggs and filled four cups with hot water

and caved in and added the vinegar after all

which I thought was superfluous but which, it turns out, is the only way the dye will take

and then I set it all up on the studio workbench and started sketching.

And THAT’s when the muses stepped in

all of a sudden the setting sun shot through the front window and that magical shadow appeared.

Had I started five minutes later I would have missed it.

I love it when that happens.