Autumn Leaves I
But the Open Studios visitors were delightful! Although the weather in Boulder was cold and snowy this weekend, we still had quite a few people who visited the studio this weekend. Overall, it was a great experience, and well worth the effort. Help from friends and family was really essential. Thanks so much, Alex, Anne, Barbara, Cindy, Courtney, Robin, Susan, and Tom (especially Tom!)!
I spent some time this week working on small paintings of autumn leaves. Around here, most of our fall color is yellow, so I particularly appreciate finding some red leaves. I’m glad I spent some time with the leaves this week; our snowy, cold weekend finished off a lot of the fall color.
I’ve been listening to the new Dan Brown thriller, The Lost Symbol, this week. No, it isn’t great literature, but it has certainly kept me glued to my ipod. I always enjoy books that are set in places that are familiar to me, and since we lived near D.C. for about seven years, we spent quite a bit of time there. The reader did a good job with the different voices, but he mispronounced ‘disoriented’ several times–I rarely hear readers mispronounce words on audiobooks. I enjoy all the discussions of symbols and their meanings in Dan Brown’s books; I think most artists use a lot of symbols and metaphors in our work and our thought processes.
I’ve also been reading Tongue Tied by Peter Griffiths, a multi-generational family saga set in Wales during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Although Tongue Tied has little in common with The Lost Symbol, a symbol (a small Welsh dragon) plays a central role in the story. The story was engaging and immerses the reader in Welsh life and culture. . I had not been aware of the tensions between north and south Wales, and the conflicts that arose due to the decline of the Welsh language. I know that some of my mother’s ancestors immigrated from Wales during this time period; I wonder whether or not they spoke Welsh. Tongue Tied is a first novel, written by a man who was born in Wales and now divides his time between Denver and Wales. The book could have used a little more editing, as Griffiths seems to occasionally try too hard to create parallels and connections between the lives of the two families. However, the characters and the setting came to life for me, and I felt transported to another place and time.
And now I’m back in Boulder, bundled up against the cold, and watching the Rockies on TV!