DAY 243
12.03.07
TREE 167
I went to the Mary Anderson Center again today to finish up preparing the galleries for the upcoming show. I stopped in at the clay studio first to see if Norman was around but he was not. I called him cause Lloyd was up in the master clay studio. He said he was at Sarah Frederick’s doing work on her house. So I went to the Loftus house to get to work. There wasn’t a whole lot to do. I got rid of the pin holes on the wall, brought up some furniture and took other stuff down. Then I got a paint brush from Emily and found some acrylic paints in the attic to cover up white spots on the green wall. In between all this I went to climb a tree. I looked out to the field behind the house and for the first time since I arrived in April, the woods looked bare again. And a white bark sycamore just called to me. It was right on the edge of the field and it amazed me that I had never noticed it before. I walked over to it and there were some nice low limbs I could just step onto to get started. Then I pulled myself up limb by limb up to the very top.
Once I settled into a good position I looked around. It was a beautiful clear day.
The sun was bright, the sky blue, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
I tied my pink ribbon and took out my camera.
I took a bunch of shots at all angles.
One was looking back into the woods.
Since there were no more leaves the trees cast shadows to the floor of the woods. I spotted my tree and there, at the top of the shadow, was my shadow. It looked so funny. A person’s silhouette on top of almost nothing. Only a thin line of shadow. I took the shot hoping it would come out in the picture. [Pictured at top] I swayed a little after I put my camera away and I just enjoyed that sun and thought about the place. It’s funny how I thought it would be so hard to find more climbable trees here. But I did, and right behind the house. Then as my hands began to get cold and I had more work to do, I climbed down. Sycamores truly do have the coldest bark. I am not sure why, maybe because the bark is smooth and not rigid so my hands come in contact with the entire surface. But with such a intense physical activity, by the time I am back on the ground, I am warm for quite a while afterwards. I really do love to climb back at the place where the project started 243 days ago.
12-6-08: After I left my residency at the Mary Anderson Center in September of ’07 I wasn’t completely finished. They had hired me as gallery tech for the duration of the show cycle. That is why I was there fixing stuff. I haven’t been there since they shut the house down. I should make a visit soon. Maybe I’ll try to make it for the next kiln unloading.
Last Tuesday night Drew, Norman and I went to Morgan’s place off Bardstown Road for a potluck. Tim and Natalie were already there with Morgan cooking some food and the three of us brought wine, black bean hummus, and portabella poppers. They were damn good. We realized we were going to be short on drinks so we threw our coats back on to make a beer run. While Drew and Norm went into the Value Mart in Mid City Mall I went to climb a tree. I first walked over to this massive tree by The Back Door. I was struggling to get up past the first branch when I looked down and there was a cop approaching me. I said, SHIT! and dropped down just waiting for the questions to start. The cop, who was actually a security guy says, "couldn’t get up it, huh?" and just walked on. Damn, he didn’t care at all. But I wasn’t in the mood for some huge challenge that would take for ever and get me all sweaty so I walked on around to the other side by Baxter Theaters. There was a small but climb-friendly tree in the median of the parking lot.
It was my tree and I made a bee line for it. Four people were waiting outside the theater and a few branches into my climb I looked over and they were all staring at me. I waved and they didn’t respond. I went up a few more branches and I was soon as high as I could go.
I was very near a very bright light and it made for some good shots.
Thankfully, when I started to take pictures the group of people had left.
If you are gonna watch, be nice. Don’t just stare and not wave back if I wave at you. Anyway, after taking my shots I climbed fast down hoping I could catch up with Drew and Norm. I ran around to the store and met them in the check out line. We walked back and had a really nice meal and good evening.