The power was off all day, yesterday. A long, empty Sunday was ahead of me; a day of leisure to fill without the usual political talk shows. No music, no radio, no computer, no television; couldn’t water the gardens or the yard. Car needed washing… but no could do.
Of course, the outage was necessary and I acknowledge that it was certainly much better than losing power in an unplanned way in the middle of winter. I applaud our local public utility district for its’ forward thinking and planning, a quality very often seriously lacking in most every other entity, here in this very rural part of California.
But the void: what to do with myself for 13 long hours? I took a long early morning walk, kibitzed with the neighbors and then had a nap, but even that didn’t last very long.
Out came the portable watercolors, a nice graphite pencil, the pens from Florence (yes, Italy) and the sketchbook… more scribbling… portending lots of happiness. Daylong pleasure. It took a few pages to get the blood flowing and to quiet the restlessness. But then, finally and without warning, figures poured forth as responses to a stack of older drawings from my visual notes taken in recent modeling sessions. Firing up the right brain, as it were. Movement, memory, line and then colors.
To fill in the vastly quiet sounds emanating from the forest, I sang to myself as I worked. A song from the very end of the “Sex and the City” Episode entitled “The Domino Effect”. (Oh, how I miss that show!). I have no idea what the song is called or who plays it, yet it sticks in my mind and I love it enormously just the same:
Do you believe in what you see?
Motion is sweet,
Nothing is real.
Wasting my time,
In the waiting in line…
Do you believe in what you see?
Everyone’s saying different things
Different things to me
Everyone’s saying different things
Different things to me…
Everyone’s saying different things
Different things to me
Everyone’s saying different things
Different things to me…
Do you believe in what you see?
Hum along, if you know the tune. Love the background music, even electronically generated, as it is. So rich and warm. A fabulous tune, whatever its’ name…
My cat, Skinner, enjoyed our private howling/crooning session and purred deeply as I indulged in hours of the multi-media luxury of art making (ie. singing and drawing). Multi media or multi tasking? You decide. (Both methinks).
The power came back on 45 minutes early and after 12 plus hours of inconvenience, I was thrilled to be able to flush the toilet and heat water for tea in the microwave. The day had been peaceful, musical and best of all, I had been productive, all by myself.
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