CrossRoads Farm

Art Group

25 June, 2005 - 7:37 am

From My Art Blog March 3, 2004

When a man takes one step toward God, God takes more steps toward that man than there are sands in the worlds of time.
-The Work of the Chariot

I was really quite nervous this morning. Off to meet the art group for the first time. I had all those irrational thoughts that one has. “Will they like me?”
“Will I just be an intrusion?”
“Will I like them?”
Add to that concerns about one’s own art and will it measure up, and I was pretty nervous.

I headed over to the church at 10 past 9. Five minutes later I was sitting in the parking lot. Parked between to cars. There was a man listening to the radio in one car and a woman with a sketchpad in the other. Well, I guessed I was in the right place, but I was early. I was too nervous to stay so I found a place to take some pictures and relax for a minute before heading back. It is incredible to me how having that camera in my hands calms and delights me.

When I got back there was a third car there and everyone was standing in the lot. Deep breath, girl. I got out and introduced myself and told them why I was there. Well, they were glad I was there and invited me to come on in and see what it was all about.

The only folks there this morning were Tom, who seems to be the ringleader, Bruce, and Kate. All painters. All with there work up on the walls in the church basement. Kate does incredible watercolors. I’ve already picked out one of hers that I want for myself. Bruce also does watercolors and Tom works in oils. All three were very nice and even apologetic that there weren’t more people there today.

They have a delightful sense of humor and goodheartedly tease each other. I asked lots of questions and watched Kate work for a while. She didn’t mind because she also teaches.

They asked me lots of questions. And I told them about the places D and I have lived and how we came to Vermont and a little bit about my art. I told them about my kids and that I may not be able to come on Monday mornings for very long because I’d have the kids with me. “Nonsense!” The consensus was “bring them and bring extra paint!” That kind of surprised me, and they haven’t met H yet, but we will see how it goes.
I’d brought a sketch pad and some pencils, and the altered book I’m working on. I explained altered books to them. They were really interested, though Kate seemed somewhat skeptical. So I sat and storyboarded my next AB page while we all chatted. I told them how frightening it had been the first time I took a paint brush to my AB. Tom, he’s in his late 60’s, said, “Oh, you should have seen me with my first pad of 300 weight paper…took me six months to make that first mark.”
“Six months!” Kate chimed in. “Remember that box of pastels I got for Christmas? Took me two years to get even one of them out of the box. I had to bring them here.”
Here Bruce picked up the story, “Yes, I remember, Debbie – you’ll meet her soon enough, kc – Debbie picked one of those beautiful crayons at random from the box and snapped it in half. Poor Kate turned white as a sheet and Debbie just said ‘well, now they aren’t perfect anymore….start drawing.’ Huh Kate?” Everyone was laughing. But not as Kate’s expense. She said to me. “Get yourself a box of pastels. Not a big pretty wood box, just whatever they have in a simple cardboard thing. Bring them home and open the box. Take all the labels off and break them all in half. You’ll be halfway there.”

Then an interesting thing happened We just fell into working. Tom picked up on a large painting of flowers he is doing for his daughter. Bruce worked on a watercolor of a farmhouse. And Kate took the sketch she was working on in the car and started a watercolor of that. I was scribbling along on my pad. It was quiet but not in the uncomfortable what-do-I-say-next way. It was….companionable. We worked that way for a bit and then Tom, right out of the clear blue, said, “kc, do you like to sing?”

“I love to sing, but I don’t generally sing in front of people.” We talked about that for a while, and then Tom said, “Well, we have a choral group that meets at the school on Wednesday nights. You should join us. Bring the husband, bring the kids. I intend to get you involved in this town. You’re a good egg.”

Well, I was just….astounded. Here it is. The universe just doling out the things I need in my life. Straightening out the bullshit and getting me on track. I’m a day behind on my reading for the Artist’s Way but I don’t even care. I’ll get to it tonight for sure and things are really looking up. Not to mention the other issues in my life that seem to be straightening themselves out in a positive way.

It’s been a damn good day.

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