The summer is always a slow for me as an artist. As one fellow farm worker said to me, our attention turns to the earth and growing things. I am doing less farm work than in the past due a shift in Lindentree’s operations and my decision to spend my workshare energy over at neighboring Drumlin farm. Tuesday I spent time at Drumlin planting beets with volunteers, crew and workshare members. Matt Celona is a very impressive farmer. I was amazed at how rich and fluffy the soil felt as we put the tiny fragile baby beet sprouts into the ground. When I got home the dirt easily washed off me. It is an interesting contrast to Lindentree where despite the focus on farming organically the soil has been allowed to compact and become hard. Meanwhile the planet is burning. Torrential rains are falling. It is crazy how much worse this is than what Al Gore showed in his movie “The Inconvenient Truth” and how foolish we were to ignore what scientists were telling us back then. And still nobody seems interested in doing the work to stop the train from careening over the cliff. It is capitalism. We are all addicted to shopping and buying and shopping and our cars and planes. Nobody wants to stop. Nobody is willing to stop.
All the grand babies are now no longer within walking distance. We are cycling regularly out to Bedford to see Roen and Maeve (and of course Shira and Nick as well) . I miss having them all nearby. Last week we had Isaac and his girlfriend here and that was so nice. I don’t miss the cooking or cleaning associated with feeding everyone but I definitely miss their constant presence.
Trying to force myself to work without falling into the habit of just drawing flowers. I have so many flowers this summer. I take a painting I am not happy with that features dried and dying flowers and I wipe an area away and put an image of myself in a “Lush Prison” (title courtesy of Sally). The painting feels right for the moment.
