Thursday, January 21, 2010

Honoring

I've been asked on a couple of occasions to write an article about an artist who has recently died. Although I didn't know these artists, I always interview those who did and try to find a kernel of their artistic life to pass along to the readers. The latest is in Go Triad today, a watercolor artist whose "day" job was that of a commercial artist in New York City.

Although I never met Carl, for my angle in the article, I conjured an image of a quiet studio on Saturday afternoons where he would paint, away from everything except for the memory of a beautiful locale. He did it just for him.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Relocation of My Little Desk


I am a water person. Never made any bones about it, from the days of my childhood spent in the pool overlooking Kure Beach to the way the black rocky ribbon of the Catawba River underneath the highway can make my eyes water in the space it takes to drive over it just after dusk on a deep August evening.

So it is only fitting that B. and I have packed up the little desk and our overabundance of grilling spice mixes and headed again for the coast. B. has always loved the beach, and although the bright sands of our beloved Florida are too far a drive from family, B. discovered I've fostered in him a love for the marsh and the way the grasses turn deep green after a long golden winter dragging the tides of brackish water between their reeds. It also seems that we didn't realize how much we missed the simple joy of driving past the skies reflected in marsh on a simple trip to the grocery store, a friend's house, or a workaday morning.

So here we are, relocated again, back to the coast where we can hear the tide reports on the evening news and smell the salt (along with pluff mud and depending on an unkind breeze, an occasional whiff of the paper mill) in our little spot on James Island, back to the island and the city that I love.