More thumbnails

Whew! One more crazy-busy week to go and then I think things will slow down for a while. Of course I always say that and I'm almost always wrong, but I do keep hoping.

The opening of "Underfoot, Overhead" (or, as I accidentally called it on my invitation, "Overhead, Underfoot") went really well, although I learned that hiring the Darling Man to play music during receptions means that neither of us has time to hoist the camera for photos. D'oh!

I've an appointment with "the media" to visit the show again on Wednesday, so I'll try to remember to take some photos then. The Paquette Gallery space is nice... a large enough room that one can get back from each piece and get a sense of the exhibition as a whole. And they've put up a nice little slideshow on their website! (Only two of the images are from this exhibition... oops. I had to turn in images months ago!)

After the chaos of last week it was nice to move rather slowly yesterday. In the afternoon I took my sketchbook down by the Arkansas River, still trying to get "caught up" with my 100 Thumbnails project.  I wandered around, settling in one spot for a few minutes, making a sketch or two or three and then moving on. The river park was busy on a Sunday afternoon... people strolling, reading, poking around on the banks, and two young women with float toys drifting down a short stretch, then hauling out and walking back up river to do it again.

I had been sitting on a rock for about 15 minutes when I looked directly down and discovered this little fellow at my feet. Oh yeah... I am a keen observer of my surroundings. It's a wonder I didn't step on him when I sat down.

"He" was so obliging for this complex pose that I started to worry I might be drawing a dead snake. I gently poked the tip of his tail with a stick and he slowly curled it out of the way. Whew!

Already the discipline and exercise of making these little sketches is producing unexpected rewards. Time spent in the company of a wild creature completely undisturbed by my presence is a marvelous thing, especially with all the other activity swirling around us both. As I was making this drawing a woman's voice came over my shoulder. "Do you actually see that snake somewhere?" she asked me. I smiled to myself because I couldn't decide if she was curious or just nervous about where an unknown snake might be. "Yes," I said, "it's right here below me." I heard a soft intake of breath as she saw it for herself... and then did a little slithering away of her own.

Tonight I'll be making sketches indoors, as today's outside time revolved around errands and a little yard work. I'd like to start a new print this week, but I'm undecided about size and whether it should be a lino or a woodcut! I'm still feeling the urge to work on a larger format, but not feeling that I have the "perfect" image to keep my attention through a potentially long carving process. In the meantime, back to those thumbnails!