I'm not feeling very communicative these days, having returned from the quiet of the forest hills of Tennessee and North Carolina. I have to tell everyone who welcomed me back how good a time I had, and it becomes a pre-packaged soundbite. Not that I didn't have a good time, but I somehow wish I could do the verbal equivalent of a mass e-mail so that I didn't have to repeat myself. At least they noticed at work that I had been absent.

I'm back in the noisy city with the helicopters roaring overhead bearing their dignitaries and military brass and police to their important destinations. I'm back at work hearing howling pop singers rather than Appalachian bluegrass. I'm back to struggling with a high-fiber, low-fat, low-calorie diet rather than greasy salty delicious Southern food. And my dwelling is now strewn with stuff that I brought with me or brought back with me, that I haven't put away yet. And it's still winter.

I also brought back with me some art opportunities. My friends in Staunton introduced me to some people who are about to start an art gallery next to their frame shop downtown. They were eager for me to contribute some Virginia-themed art for the new space. I won't be doing a show on the scale of my 2007 show in Falls Church, but they have asked for a few medium and small-sized pictures. The gallery opens in March so I have a month or so to produce them. I wish I could just go back to the Blue Ridge and spend time in a quiet cabin making art, this time without Internet access. But at this point my studio is still buried in STUFF from the trip or from two weeks of mail that I have just retrieved.

Posted at 3:56 am | link