Friday, May 31, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Every Day In May #22: A Map of Betws-y-Coed
Assignment #22 was to draw a map, so I decided to finally come to terms with Betws-y-Coed, Wales, a place that sends my internal compass completely out of whack. Whenever I've walked there, if I feel like I am going East, I am sure to be going West. I think it's because I can't get used to mountains being south of me. I grew up with them in the North. I was happy with my map (colored pencil on tea-stained paper) up until I decided to show the forested areas by coloring them green. Why oh why couldn't I have stopped right before then and taken a picture at least. Is there a cure for always taking a drawing one step too far?
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Every Day in May #26: Corkscrew
I can remember this strange gnomish corkscrew tucked in the top drawer of the mahogany buffet in our dining room when I was growing up. When I went away to college, I found it among the box of kitchen things my parents sent with me, where it proceeded to open many a bottle of cheap wine. Only in drawing it today, did I notice the word "Quebec" etched in the wood. Vague memories resurfaced...of stories they once told about a trip to Quebec--how they stayed at the Hotel Frontenac in a hot room way up under the eaves, how they toured the countryside by car and visited the Basilica of St. Anne de Beaupre, where hundreds of abandoned crutches hung in the ceiling, and everywhere, the smell of hot bread baking in hillside ovens. All this from a little corkscrew I rediscovered today in a drawer of our own dining room cupboard!