Twiggy

There are a lot of conversations about sticks in this house these days. The DM plays a curious instrument called the Chapman Stick... so you can imagine the sorts of confusion and innuendo that goes on around THAT. But this is an actual stick from an actual tree: the perpetually shedding willow in the side yard. We picked it up weeks ago, and I always intended to make a sketch of it. I just love the gesture and grace of that twist!

Of course, the sketch didn't happen right away, and the twig was put in the box of "stuff" that I cart around for students to draw. Out of sight, out of mind.

And so it remained until last week in Crested Butte, when one of my workshop participants pulled it out of the box during a sketching exercise. She promptly declared it "harder than I thought it would be," and back into the box it went.

Today I lost patience with all the other items on my "to do" list, so went hunting for The Stick. That subtle, delicate twist WAS quite a challenge. I don't think I really got it quite right, but it felt great to try.

Pocket Treasures

I don't know about you, but I have a rather compulsive tendency to collection. Bones, stones, sticks, leaves, dead insects, sticks that LOOK like dead insects, seed pods, shells, carapaces.... if it fits in my pocket, it often comes home to join my shelves of found treasures.

From time to time this habit has come back to bite me... as in the time I filled my pockets with Florida shells, only to discover one still carried remnants of a dead-but-not-forgotten former occupant. Discovery came, of course, AFTER my jacket took over ownership and proliferation of the accompanying odor.

Doesn't stop me, mind you.

For a while now I've had an idea to record this bounty, with a thought towards what might be an interesting exhibition of the collection. Guess what made it to the list of Articulated - And - Therefore - Obligatory-2008-Goals? Yup. The "Pocket Treasures" project. Now you all know about it, too... so I am quadruply obligated.

But it's an obligation I feel quite happy to fulfill. (I think of it more as an excuse to actually DO this little project, which here at its inception has no purpose except as an exercise in making little studies.)

As a testament to my project commitment (and as proof that I am not just goofing off here in Ohio), I submit to you Pocket Treasure #1: A perforated leaf from the trail along the Rocky River. I'm going to have to look it up, unless someone out there knows from which tree it comes. I have a theory, but not much along this river is familiar to me, particularly at this time of year.*

Next up? Who knows! I have to wander around to find out. And how good is THAT?

* Verdict: Northern red oak, Quercus rubra.