Vineyard’s Folly

2002

18" X 15"

Oil on Panel

In the Artist's Collection

I have been watching a robin nesting in the front maple tree for a couple weeks.
In the first crook, which is low enough for me to peek in and see.
This morning Gulliver and I were eating breakfast on the porch and there was a tremendous racket over there.
A squirrel was attempting to steal the eggs and mother robin was attacking with all her might. I grabbed the soaker.
A weapon designed to discourage the neighborhood cats, it was loaded with hose water
and had a range of fifteen feet. The squirrel’s breakfast intentions were soon history
and now I was invested.
The wee babes were born and in a blink they flew the nest
which I harvested and brought up to the studio.

The local library provides me with audio books which I devour.
That is my painting background and allows my mind to wander through mysteries and histories and frees up my eyes and hands to focus.
The title of this painting comes in part from the book which revealed a new layer to the sand and the beach stones and the sea beyond.
“Folly” by Laurie R. King.
I loathe people who reveal plots to books and movies.
L. King ( in an interview with the Books on Tape folks) described her heroine as a woman
who moves to an island off the northwest pacific coast and in the process of rebuilding a home there rebuilds her life.
(Apologies here because I have long since returned the tapes and am only able to paraphrase but you get the idea.)
This book was a ten.
There is a mystery thread which is interesting but by far the more compelling
is the detail with which she draws her main character. I melted into the descriptions of her woodworking and
battles with depression and family stigmas and mastery of her fifty something womanhood and
whoa be it to me to say more or even try to equal L. King’s brilliant command of the english
language and human existence….
It is a rare book which I was sad to hear the end of.
But when I look at this painting now, through the grace of synesthesia, I can travel to her island.
And start with a pile of beach stones
and a nest of possibilities
and dream my biggest dream.