Two weeks later....

Wow... It was two Thursdays ago that I wrote the last post. I've done very little art since then. I did get a start on the Caldo painting and last Thursday I spent the afternoon teaching 11-14 year olds how to draw in Wimberley, TX at an afterschool arts program. I've been spending my time cleaning. Organizing. Mulling, swirling in place, ruminating. I'm reading Caroline Myss' "Sacred Contracts" and doing the work involved to tune in more clearly on what I'm here to do.
The woman who lived next door to us when I was a small child, Charlotte, and who adopted my sister and me as her surrogate daughters (as she had a houseful of boys), died last Friday. She was 83 or 84 and had been living with a neurological disorder which appeared in her late 60's and which incapacited her left hand (she was left handed) and finally kept her from walking or calling people. She'd asked to die at the end, I'm told. Three years ago she'd told me the story of having gone to visit her mother's grave when her children were small. She experienced a visitation from her mother while there in the form of the feeling of a hand pressing down on the top of her head so strongly it resulted in her feet leaving indentations in the ground, as a way to answer a question Charlotte was asking in her mind at the time about how her mother had felt dying and leaving her children behind. We talked, too, about her other experiences with the spirits of people she'd lost. The Friday she died both my sister and I were thinking of her. Patty was in Africa at the time. I heard days later Charlotte had died that day. I feel pretty certain she wafted through to say goodbye on her way home to her mother.
The last two days I've been digging out the studio getting ready for two artist friends who are coming in the morning to paint much of the day. We work together at the River Art Gallery and are looking forward to playing in the oils. Both of them do watercolors primarily. Donna worked in oils for years but hasn't in a long time. Mary's newer to oils but is taking to the medium easily, in my humble opinion. I love being with these women and am looking forward to playtime together. Tonight I bought fruit and veggies and flowers to see what sort of still life arrangements we can make.
I checked my blog fairly often these last two weeks for comments, but with the exception of Darling Becky, you all who dropped in were stealthy. Please leave a comment when you come by! I promise to reply.
'Night All.