Abstract and Landscape
“Harry Rich has been showing up at his studio (every day) for 71 years,” read the first line of the article, reprinted from a 2021 issue of Art New England Magazine that I’d picked up at the gallery entrance. I browsed through the rooms of the gallery, having the same reaction I always have with… Continue reading Showing Up
For a minute and a half when I wake up in the morning, my chest feels normal and I can almost take a normal breath. The minute I sit up and try to take in anything resembling a deep breath, however, sharp pains in my chest cut it short, reminding me that plenty of gunk… Continue reading Reckonings
Thing1 texted today that is spring break return this weekend will be the beginning of an extended stay as his schoolmoves to dance learning to respond to this virus that the world health organization now calls a pandemic. The University, like so many other organizations, is recommending “social distancing“. I often think we have too… Continue reading Get Closer
We lost an hour of sleep on Saturday night. I couldn’t fall asleep until after midnight on Sunday night, and I had to be up by 4:30 on Monday to drive to a teachers’ workshop in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. I was excited, but, for once, I wasn’t nervous. When I worked in IT,… Continue reading Ladies (and Gentlemen) of the Club
The girl had received bad news for the umpteenth time in the last few months. Her sobs of despair reverberated down the hall as she asked the powers that be, “What’s the point?” “You’re the point!“ The cosmos answered in the form of a lanky young man charged with keeping order the school. “People like… Continue reading Better than Before
I let myself get stymied on Day 3 - 'Bait.' Tonight I got caught up. Day 4 - Freeze Day 5 - Build Day 5 - Husky
It’s two day before Thing1’s graduation. I’m on hold with the pharmacy for the third time this week trying to find out what’s happened with the most expensive of his five prescriptions. The insurance company won’t approve an increased dosage. I’m scrolling through Facebook while I wait, stopping to like a friend’s post about a… Continue reading What Kind of Mother
We weren’t late, but we weren’t early enough to Thing2’s band concert to have a good seat selection. The elementary school band is small, and I was surprised by the crowd. The concert program revealed that the middle and high school bands would also be performing. It’s a small school system, so I was still… Continue reading Come Together
Whether you think it’s allegory or history, you’ve heard the one about Adam and Eve eating that apple from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. For years, I’ve felt like the bulk of the knowledge I gained has been that of the evil humanity commits against itself and against its only known… Continue reading The Knowledge of Good
I love to stop and ponder the headless statue whenever I go over to Bedlam Farm, the home of bestselling author John Katz and artist Maria Wulf. This weekend I was there to participate in their semi-annual Open House, celebrating Rural Art and the creative spark that lives in all of us. I love the… Continue reading Head in the Clouds
Saturday & Sunday I went over the mountain to help with and participate in a blog workshop at Pompanuck Farm in Cambridge, NY. Sunday I got there early to have a little time to paint, but I had been up till 5 in the morning nursing Thing2 through a fever, and I kept nodding off… Continue reading Postcard from Pompanuck
Rachel Barlow Art 