Here is a quick sketch that I did of a clay figure sculpted by artist Maria DeCasto.  I found the photo in the book “500 Animals in Clay“.   I like drawing from other artist’s work, especially when it is not fiber.  It is a way to appreciate and celebrate what another artist is doing as well as to think about the basics of medium.

I fiddled with photo in my very rudimentary graphics package and now she is a ‘snowbird’.  Today’s fiber class will be devoted to doll-making and I’m going to try my hand at rendering Maria DeCastro’s avian scuplture in cloth.  I am not anticipating copyright issues because there is no way what I make will resemble hers.  Should I be concerned?

Perhaps I could ask the wise, enduring copper beech in my neighbor’s backyard.  I am lucky enough to see this massive and glorious tree out of my kitchen window (right where I stand to do prep) and out of my bedroom window.  I often turn my head to look at it, first thing as I wake.

When I woke up on the day after election day, relieved and tired, it struck me that this tree has been through so many elections, so many changes, tides, upheavals…  I’m pretty certain that it was alive during the Revolutionary War, more than 200 years ago.

What a thought!!  I wish that it could talk to me.  Perhaps I am not listening hard enough?