Challenge from our local arts group: purchase for $15 a small sketchbook, fill it up and return it for a Sketchbook Show in September. I considered, decided no, and then, partly because of my vow to enter every show this year, relented. I had also come up with an idea.
The sketchbooks are made of plain paper, not great for either painting or collage. Thus, my initial hesitation. I decided to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: make a book of lists. So I’m off. La!
So far I’ve made a list of lists. I’ve taken paint to every other page, scraped on with credit cards. This is a thing I love to do. Then I shall handwrite the lists over or facing the painted pages. I might put in odd little drawings or . . . ? That’s the rough outline and anyway, once again, this little world is my oyster, so I can do anything I want.
I feel that with lists, one can go anywhere. Things Miles Likes to Eat. Favorite Books. Attributes of the East-Facing Window. Odd Words and Their Definitions. Dogs I’ve Loved. People I’ve Lost. My Thoughts on Death. Things I Do Every Morning. Things I Do on Sundays. Complaints. Worries About the World & My Little Piece of It. My Best Attributes. Things I Feel Guilty About. Etc.
Since these books will not be for sale (I don’t think) mine will make a nice compact record of this time in my life. I’m pretty excited about the project.
The books will be hung on the wall, open, so that patrons can look through them. The idea is to show your process as an artist. I don’t sketch, generally, so mine will show my process as a thinker. I do, as you may have guessed, have many thoughts.
The next show, actually coming up before the Sketchbook Show, will be “Lush,” meant to “celebrate the richness and vitality of the natural world.” As I typed those last few words, I heard a noise outside and turned to see a young spotted fawn cavorting across the yard. A doe and her two fawns are often out back, as well as a pair of barred owls. Yes, it’s pretty lush out there right about now. And this morning is cool enough to have the house open, leaf shadow dancing across my desk. Ahh. Richness and vitality, indeed.
“The list could surely go on, and there is nothing more wonderful than a list, instrument of wondrous hypotyposis.” ― Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
“We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death. That’s why we like all the things that we assume have no limits and, therefore, no end. It’s a way of escaping thoughts about death. We make lists because we don’t want to die.” ― Umberto Eco
“Forget your to-do list and create a to-be list.”― Frank Sonnenberg, Listen to Your Conscience
“I love lists. Always have. When I was 14, I wrote down every dirty word I knew on file cards and placed them in alphabetical order. I have a thing about collections, and a list is a collection with purchase.” ― Adam Savage
If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. If you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.
Thanks for listening,
Kay
P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”