This had better be quick. In case I hadn't realized it yet, our departure to Italy is one week from tonight. You may be the organized focused sort who has it all together before a three-week journey but, I, on the other hand, do not.
OK, my suitcase is packed. (That, I know, is crazy. But Rick Steve, my new travel guru (along with Anthony Bourdain) says pack it all and carry it around for a day to see if you REALLY want to haul all that stuff. All of the less pleasantly anticipatory tasks are not (complete). And to compound the craziness, we launch the Botero Family Days for the public library system this week, and I am fine-tuning the art projects, buying supplies and organizing for that afternoon event at Landa Library. (For those of you in San Antonio, stop by from 1:00-4:00 for Colombian music and culture, collage, painting and sculpting inspired by Fernando Botero's work.)
So what did I do yesterday? Took a five hour drive through the countryside to Marble Falls. It was business-related. One hundred pounds of foundry clay awaited me at Dan Pogue's sculptor's studio -- at a better price than having it shipped from Dick Blick, especially if I did the schlepping. Of course, this involved a few sidesteps: a stop for pork ribs at Ronnie's Pit Barbeque in Johnson City, avoiding a round trip route by taking a side trek though Lady Bird Johnson country and a short little step in at Wild Seed Farms, and then a two-lane highway alternative to the interstate between Fredericksburg and Boerne. All this with a few roadside photo stops. In otherwords, an errand morphed into a pre-vacation vacation, just in time for sanity.
Meanwhile, in the email inbox, June Underwood's Ragged Cloth Cafe post about right-brained acendency for the future. Finally. Seems like I've had to endure round peggedness thoughout the square holes for not jsut the Industrial Age, but the Information Age as well.
I won't repeat her post, you can follow the link, but in short, the book by Daniel Pink just moved to the top of my wisl list. In short, though, what the world needs now (and will be looking for) are those of us with right-brain skills and experience. We in the well-enough-off American and other First World abundence may actually have enough stuff. Our hunger is for experiences packed with emotion, creativity, story. Just those things we artists happen to be good at delivering.
So, rather than see my escape yesterday as a flaky artist's escape from the calendar countdown, I prefer to see it as a refreshing palate-cleansing course in this particular life's banquet. The green was calling, the flowers were strewn along the roadside ever so much like magic carpet, a swirling, breezy tapestry of golds, reds, orange and blue. The gallardia, Englemann's daisies and blue mealy sage were splendid and so were the pork ribs. I am sure my right hemisphere is feelling nourished and saited with spring. What's on your plate today?
