I have been enthusiastically collecting river stones since I got to Washington, as well as for years before. I remember the pebble beach on Hydra that my sister Marian and I went nuts poring over, picking up, putting down, ultimately bringing a few multi-colored stones home to remember that place. There's a small shelf over the sink in my bathroom with stones from a number of special places and trips. My friend, show-partner, and fellow stone nut Melissa Bridgman more recently turned me on to both heart shaped and striped stones. She gave me one of each in a hard place last year, and they have been talismans for me since. She says stones with an unbroken stripe around them bring good luck. Both are in profusion here in Washington. I have never seen so many heart shaped stones in my life.

Yesterday Jude took me to a national forest with a gorgeous boat ramp/pebble beach at the confluence of two small rivers. I was charmed and brought home a handful of stones, and he later wrote a poem about it. You can read the full poem on his tumblr site. Melissa has sketched lovely river stones in her journal and made pottery in their image, but the poem gave me a new twist to use instead of just copying her idea. I've had a full day of printmaking but wanted to do something fun for myself, as well as celebrate this beautiful poem.

My friend John Reed is a poet in Memphis, and there is a documentary being made about him and his work. For part of the project, artists have been invited to create works based on his poems. I have been enjoying painting from other poetry and jumped at the chance to be included in this project. I've always loved John's poetry. Plus the Mr. Darcy blog has me enjoying mixing text and images again and working in foutain pen and watercolor together.

I knew exactly which poem I wanted to paint from, and I made a trip down to the coast on a sunny day to visit an overlook where I could see the coastline laid out beneath me. I did two journal sketches (below) on site and then came back and used them to create the triptych. Each panel is 6x8", since I work in modest sizes in watercolor, but the three together hold a nice space.

Here's what it looked like laid out on my work table.

And here is John's award winning poem, which he was kind enough to say I could share here.

​The Cartographer's Proposal
I've set their names on maps, but never found
the things themselves. Vainly, I sought escape
in Mystic, Concord, Providence, New Hope--
a gazetteer of irresistible lands
each marking a potential journey's end.
Always a stranger, I never learned the ropes
and wasted time exploring tourist traps,
missing what I'd come so far to find.
But look: a place explorers have passed over
and mentioned only in this arcane chart,
pristine and fraught with possibility.
No human plan's imposed on plain or river,
but mail addressed to Mercy, Healing Heart,
will reach us there, if you will come with me.


John Richard Reed
River Styx 97

I went up Mt. Erie (to the mild dismay of my hill-challenged Prius) on a rare gorgeous morning to sketch the view. I'm hoping to do something from these sketches, but even if it doesn't pan out, it was a lovely site to visit. I was huddled in a down coat as I worked. I keep hoping spring will arrive in Washington. We've seen a few lovely flashes of it, and the wildflowers keep coming out, so perhaps I will be able to sketch without chill here soon. In the meantime, I have plenty of indoor work on the prints going along as well.

Most of my working time is going to the book project, but the sun coming out the other day necessitated a break to enjoy that rare event. I'd been wanting to sketch the carpet of dandelions in the meadow at Rasar State Park anyway, so Mr. Darcy and I took a break and headed there. It was windy enough to make painting difficult, but it was lovely to sit in the sunshine a bit.

Friday we went to Deception Pass beach. It's the third absolutely stunning Washington State Park I've spent time in lately. It's a rock beach (and I love those) with a gorgeous view. We walked and rock hunted, and I sketched two quick watercolors. I'd love to go back on another nice day. Part of the joy was just sitting in the sunshine after so many rainy and cloudy days.

Jude Dippold took a photo of me sketching that captures the color and pattern of the place, as well as the peace.

As well as Rockport, my early love of a park here in Washington, I've been taking walks at Rasar State Park. It's about 8 miles in the other direction from Rockport, so both are quite easy for daily walks. Rasar has more changeable scenery and is flatter, which lets me do my brisk powerwalking without as much danger of turning an ankle.

The topography goes from wooded trails to river beach to mountain meadow, all of which are lovely. I stopped and sketched along my walk the other day, and I will definitely go back to paint further as the weather allows.

I got a perfect afternoon in the Badlands of South Dakota today. I'm heading across the country to Washington State, and it was a gorgeous afternoon to stop. Plus it was early enough that almost no one was there. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful afternoon. The place is transporting. It's hard to believe it can exist even as you're standing in the midst of it. To top it all off, and afternoon moon was hanging low over the rocks.

Mr. Darcy has been unsure about this whole traveling thing, but he's decided he likes having his own hotel bed, and he was utterly fascinated by the prarie dogs today. He also just looked good against the backdrop of the Badlands.

I got to spend one lovely night at one of my favorite places on earth recently and catch up with old friends there. It was great to sit and paint the mountains before breakfast with a pot of tea.

WKNO fm, Memphis's local npr station, hosts a daily arts interview show called Checking on the Arts. They are kind enough to host me to talk about my shows even when I'm not exhibiting in their lobby, but they certainly saved me space on the calendar for this show, "Autobiography," and Kacky Walton interviewed me last week. She and Darel Snodgrass both do serious homework for these interviews, look at work, read websites, and come in prepared to have a great discussion, which is a huge boon for those of us not professional at being on the air. I had a great time with Kacky, and I appreciated her kindness talking about this much more personal than usual work I've been doing lately. Here is the interview with some back story about the exhibition in case you'd like to listen.

It took me all day Wednesday to get the show on the walls the way I wanted it (and to tape the radio interview about it, which I'll post in a day or two), and it took another two days to recover. But I'm really pleased with the result. The space is lovely -- high and clean with tons of natural daylight. It's a lovely space to have art. And it gave me a natural flow for the show, which has a bit of narrative element built in.

The show is open to the public at WKNO during business hours, and there will be a closing reception on Friday, March 31st, 6-8pm.

I'm off to dance and celebrate this weekend, but here are a couple more pieces that are in the show, as a preview.