december

Nearly a month since I last posted anything here, and a month and a day since I last drew anything other than what relates to my work in kitchen, showroom, and product design. Not that I haven't thought about it every day and felt guilty or conflicted about the lapse in discipline. I've been, I think, refueling. Saying more than that would get us into what one of my close friends calls "oversharing", or as many lonely people do on facebook, offering up the mundane details of one's daily life. So instead, there is this tree down by the river, where I was in the habit of walking nearly every morning earlier this year. I don't know why it attracted my attention today, but it did. Its gray bark, the open wound in its trunk cauterized by many seasons of baking heat, cold nights, ice storms, and the Susquehanna overflowing its banks. An interior riddled with insect borings, bleached of all but a hint of life. Surrounded by dead leaves, looking dead itself. But still it stands.

standing tree trunk by the Susquehanna, 5 x 8, Faber Castell water soluble pencils