Bit by Bit Packing

I am an early packer. Before I leave for a trip, I usually leave my suitcase open in my bedroom and plop things I need in there as I think of them. So far in my Vermont bag I've got blank cds, a few titles scribbled on different sheets of paper, some postcards and reading (the Believer, old New Yorker essay on Gillian Welch and David Rawlings). By week's end I'll have washed my clothes, but I won't need to pack many. I usually wear the same thing in the studio under my "super suit", a red worksuit for summer studio time (in image of self portrait posted).

I went to a show at Cheekwood yesterday with my friend E. It was of William Christenberry's work. I missed his lecture a month or so ago, but am glad to see his work. he's a southern multi-media artist. He makes large format photography and sculptures based on his Alabama memories and home. Both E and I discussed how refreshing it was to watch him speak (in a video) about his work. He the picture of uncool, he looks like he could have sauntered in from the Sale Barn in my hometown in Arkansas. He knew his work, both formally and theoretically. But he also knew his personal and heartfelt impulses for making his work, he told stories about the landscape. In a time when we are surprised at talented people like Susan Boyle, it's refreshing to see someone committed to one's work over years, someone who understands that art is about process, excellence and connection to one's practice rather than fast track, MFA, skinny legged jeans art-stardom (much respect to my buddies who happen to have both a larger understanding and skinny jeans).

So I'm in a better head space than I was before I saw his show. I'd been regretful about the summer events I'd be missing in Nashville: my container tomatoes turning pink then red, a friend's surgery, a hopeful wedding. And I'll miss those things. But I'll gain two short but sweet weeks in which I'll reconnect with the process of my life's work.

More packing...leaving Sunday.

PS- Y'all remind Felix to water the garden and, in particular, my tomatoes.