Good Trip

It's been a good trip.

Thomas Fredrick Wold

...

December View

This.

 SLO town.

 Marriott from Motel 6.

 Nature nearby.


...

Non-objective Art

 Tanya and I were in the fast-growing town of San Louis Obispo for the last couple of days and while she went to some work-related meetings I made these "non-objective" pictures.

 I am so  accustomed to record what I see while drawing that it is quite a shift of gears to draw without referring to the usual aspects-- but since cell phone cameras are so ubiquitous for capturing images, it is fun to make pictures without reference to the natural world.

I have heard and even made the criticism regarding non-objective art that "any child could do that", and maybe they could--but for me as an experienced old-fashioned draw-what-you-see-and-the-most-realistic-one-wins kind of artist--this is not exactly true.

...

New Direction

Hello.

Here we are in December 2015 doing what we do.

Tanya practices the piano, bakes and cooks good food and cuts hair--I sub teach, play with papier mache and paint, eat and sleep, Its a pretty good life.

This seems to be a new direction for The Imhotep Construction Company,

Glad you are along for the ride.

Best wishes,

T&T

...

Pop Leaves His Body

Mom and Pop, 50th Wedding Anniversary

In his early eighties, Pop "left his body", as they say, in his paid-for small A-frame house overlooking the dry Ventura River valley between Ojai and Ventura CA while I was on pilgrimage in Italy.

My mother and brothers took care of everything--I was far away and out of touch--and when I returned from my long pilgrimage, I stayed near Mom, living in my camper pick-up truck parked in front of that little house perched on the steep slope of Laughing Mountain for a couple of years.

Mom had a white Toyota but lost her driver's license because of poor vision.The Sky High house was miles from Ventura or Ojai, so I became her chauffeur.

We drove to weekly portrait painting classes from Carlisle Cooper at Ventura Community College--sometimes we would walk on the Ventura beach by the pier. I rode my bike (a gift from, the Coopers) to the Krotona Institute to visit their library once a week or so and took part in the musical activities at the Lutheran church in Ventura where, because of my good parents,  I was a tolerated if hairy peculiarity.

I worked the night shift at an Alzheimer's care facility in nearby Casitas Springs. There I saw how tenuous is the grasp on "ordinary reality'' for elderly people with this condition--how they can mentally come and go--in and out, from moment to moment

Ah, life, life, life. How strange it is.

 ...

Set New Course

...

Pop's Question

They say that memories of good and bad times are like "writing on water" which  can only remind us of the impermanence of everything--and the constant ups and downs of life, and this is very true, I think.

But I remember those easy afternoon talks with Pop (as we brothers called our father) during our Children's Hour as some of my most pleasant family experiences as an adult.

Sometimes I did the talking when we were together and sometimes Pop asked me questions about my life and travels.

For example, sometimes while I was making a pilgrimage, I was living very free.

I didn’t pay much attention to personal economics or money transactions.

Whatever little cash I had in my pocket or whatever I earned was OK.

I didn’t wonder what would happen if I ran out of dough or if I would starve of if I would never get rich or anything like that. Ithopught at the time I was "living in God's pocket" as used to think of it--in a totally safe place in other words.

For a while I even had the policy of giving whatever money I had away every night so I could start every morning fresh and empty—you could say, “broke”—though I didn’t think of it that way at all. For me it was just kind of an experiment in living.

Pop asked me why I had lived that way.and I said : “Well, a long time ago you told us kids we shouldn’t be overly concerned with money.”

“Yeah,” he replied, “but I never thought you’d believe me!”

...