The weather in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania on this late June morning is like a day out of the fondest carefree memories of early summer vacation when I was about ten years old. Vividly blue sky, hair tousling cool breeze, perfect for a bicycle jaunt on the country roads. Getting out later than usual translated into quiet roads mostly deserted of cars rushing to work. Being my own boss at work allows me this flexibility of schedule, for which I'm very grateful. Halfway through a pleasantly strenuous ride, though, I wasn't grateful when my rear wheel began to bump, letting me know that my tire was flat.
I had a spare tube, but no gas cartridge to pressurize it with, and since I was only a few miles from home, I called my buddy Tad Herr and asked him if he'd mind driving out to the spot where Musser Road and Trout Run Road meet to give me and my bike a lift back. No problem - Tad is also a one man show, doing graphic design and illustration out of a studio next to their house.
While I waited, I leaned my bike against a utility pole at the edge of a corn field, sat down cross legged on the ground by the roadside, pulled out my pocket sketchbook and popped open my tin of colors. The barn drawing I'd done on Sunday morning left me with constant daydreams in the background about filling pages with drawings of local farmscapes, and the day was too perfect to waste, so I drew what was in front of me.
Tad pulled up a little while later in his wife's Volvo station wagon, and after we jockeyed my disabled bicycle into the cargo space, I asked him if he could wait a few minutes while I finished my sketch. So we both sat in the grass, talking about watersoluble colored pencils, the year I've spent filling sketchbooks and posting the results, his hankering to break out some watercolors, and the happiness that paying attention to one's surroundings and responding by making art can bring. On the short drive back to Marietta, we continued the conversation. I almost wished that home could have been an hour away. It was a rare moment of sharing as artists and friends, made possible by the occasion of a flat tire on a country road on a beautiful morning in June.
farm at Musser and Trout Run Roads, 5 1/4 x 8 1/4, Derwent Inktense pencils