Revisiting a Friendship

I've had a house guest since Sunday and we've had a great time together. We knew each other in the 60's (college) and 70's (marriage and children) but then after divorces for each of us lost track of each other for some 35 years. We found each other again after Emma saw my photograph and feature article in Cloth Paper Scissors and tracked me down via the internet.

We talked on the phone and I was reassured by her voice. We arranged a visit. It was amazing. The same 2 people but 35 years of experience and change behind us. As a sociology experiment nothing could be more interesting. Each of us showing the signs of age and yet the same sense of humor, the same sharp observations of life, same political positions, same - same - same.

We romped around Portland visiting Powell's Books, the Goodwill Bins (oh goodness did she load up! We had to UPS her treasures home as there was too much for the plane), lots of restaurants, home cooking, art making, plaster smearing and chocolate eating. She loved John and he pronounced her "a good soul".

During her time here I created the painting on plaster in the photo above. I'll have it at Artfest but not a whole lot else. What can I say? I'm not spending enough time in the studio. But that has been my choice. People first. Honor the goodness of wise women and men who surround you.

Of course there was a lot of Mexican food involved. Emma and I knew each other from Mesa, Arizona, where we both attended school and where her father was a teacher. We have some stories between us.

She looks pretty innocent, doesn't she? You would not believe what is behind that little look of innocence. She's the live wire she ever was.

That was then. Both photos taken around 1967. We had matching haircuts and somehow she got me in a 2 piece bathing suit at her house.

She's one of the few people that can talk ME hoarse. We stayed up late partying and kept busy in the studio. She deconstructed a stack of tins with wire cutters and was game for every kind of mayhem; she's been antiquing and arting all these years while I've been painting and whatever it is that I do.

We each made an altered book to commemorate our reunion. This is mine. She found the cutest little skeleton transformer that I coveted so I made a mold and cast mine in plaster off of hers and painted it to match as well as I could. So we had sister momentos. The little fence is a piece of train track that someone gave me in a trade at Artfest one year. Everything else is plaster, paint, the usual suspects.

After I took Emma to the airport I spent the day going from art store to art store gathering supplies for my classes at Artfest. Since I am driving I have the luxury of hauling 3 gallons of gloss medium in addition to a load of other weighty stuff. Now I have a few days to organize and pack everything. I haven't had time to read blogs or feel caught up but that's where I am right now. Calmer days are coming but not very soon.

More than ever before I feel like I have to do all the things I put on hold to have a family, security, and to prepare for this moment. Now this moment is here but alas! time has moved on. It is a poignant truth; we only have so much time. So in this pensive mood I leave you; thanks again for honoring me with your presence here. Ciao.