Monday thoughts

After Breakfast

Watercolour and marker

on watercolour paper

8 1/2 x 6

Barbara Muir © 2014

We had a wonderful family dinner last night -- absolutely delicious,
and both of my sons contributed part of the meal.  Today is a holiday,
but it has the usual Monday feeling of urgency. I'm reading a book
recommended by my friend, the wonderful artist Marcia Labelle.
Chemistry by Weike Wang is funny and brilliant and a super
novel.  I got it out of the library on my iPad this morning, and I'm
one third through the book.

I found this piece I wrote last year about our feelings about the
inanimate objects in our homes, and how our feelings change
over time. I still love everything in this painting, although I
don't think I still feel the same way about the spoon in the 
painting. We human beings are incredibly specific in what
we like and don't like.  Yet our tastes change all the time.
So the purple hair, and shark tattoo we might have liked one
year, might not spark the same joy in the next. Part of the
reason for this is that the cells in our bodies are changing all
of the time.

Here's what I wrote about this last year:

"Why do we like specific things in our lives more than others?
I have a drawer full of spoons. Every single relative that ever
moved gave us spoons. But when I look in the drawer at night
to pick out a spoon to eat my night snack with, there are only two
that appeal to me.

And why does that change over time? Why do I now like a mug
that two years ago I would not have used for my hot chocolate? And
why do I want one mug in the morning for my coffee, and another
in the afternoon? I think about this frequently. Not all the time of
course, but it occasionally makes me wonder? Also why do I have
a cabinet full of antique china that I rarely use? What am I saving it for?

Perhaps this is the power of still life. I admire the tenderness we feel
for objects that came from people we cared about -- how every time
I put flowers in a beautiful crystal jug a friend gave me, I say her name.

What I love about still life -- my paintings of meals on vacation -- is
the untold stories that try to get your attention. 

Have a loving the treasures in your life day."