It’s at this time of year – in the dead of winter, buried by snow – that my children start talking about summer. They start formulating plans about when to come. The first mention I heard was June.
June? Will the lake even be unfrozen by then? This is my perspective as someone who can’t even imagine a view of water, not snow, out my window.
There are so many things I can’t imagine. Many that I can imagine and don’t want to. But then… sometimes imagination can be fruitful.
Years ago, when Ariella was working for one of those hard driving think tanks in Washington, DC, she had the idea of my doing an art show there. I believe the space – the space you step into when you get off the elevator – had been designated as an art gallery already, and I just needed to “win” their approval to be given a show. Ariella encouraged me to take this small ten piece hanging to share.
I did and… I got a show. The approval came in fall for a show that spring. My proposal was to cover a 30 foot wall with hanging pieces of silk. That entailed dying the silk in the traditional (very long) Japanese process, making sure the dyes progressed from color to color so that the sense of light would travel across the piece, and … endless sewing.
I was here in NH. Who did I know that could sew? No one. I called Rhonda who had helped babysit when my children were young. She told me: I’ll help, but I don’t know how to sew.
I don’t know whether I didn’t believe her, or if she learned on the spot. She came over afternoon after afternoon. We rigged the hanging. We put it together piece by piece. She would take home pieces, I would sew at night. AND still we were cramming by the time April rolled around.
We packed the many pieces, all sewn together, into a small box and I loaded the wooden hangers in my car.
Luckily Samsun flew to NH to help me drive and to help Ariella and I actually hang the show. Along with the maintenance man, it took a lot of hands. But then – there it was.
Actually; far beyond what I could have imagined when I started the project.
As I grapple with this business undertaking that I unexpectedly got handed last year, I wonder if those few small pieces – that little bit of knowledge I had at the start – can have such an optimistic outcome. It was my kind daughter Ariella who opened the door, yet again.
RIght now, I’m definitely in the hard work phase. Winter. Come spring? Summer?
Who knows.
“just imagining” – Peaches
