Milestones

Untitled Acrylic

Every man's memory is his private literature.  ~Aldous Huxley

To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward. ~Margaret Barber

Twenty years ago on August 8, we came to this area in Northeastern Washington--at a confusing turning point of our lives--to visit friends in Northport; we decided to stay here and I am still here. Who would have thought these gypsies would have settled here of all places? It was smoky that day from fires and it was very hot--but the landscape was--and still is-- breath taking. 

The Day's Leftovers Acrylic

Looking over my life I see that the important milestones were just ordinary days at the time so I didn't mark them by taking a picture, but I still have the pictures in my mind.  As an artist I observe--drink in what I see, actually--and the pictures my mind records come out in my work or they come back to me when I take time to reflect.  Once I was showing some paintings at an art show and a woman walked up and pointed at one and said, "I know where that is!"  I didn't tell her that it only existed in my mind, but maybe it doesn't. Maybe the scene is really there somewhere and I saw it, absorbed it and it came out in the the brush. 

Where the Moose Walks Acrylic

I am at another turning point in my life and it is just as confusing to me as that day 20 years ago, only now I am without a partner and I have to face it with courage that I don't know that I have.  Today may be another important milestone that I will look back on in years to come or it may just be another ordinary day, but you can be sure I will be taking pictures,  if only with my mind.

Sunrise at Bob's Place