December 2, 2022 Weekly Musings

Christine Alfery

Posted on December 02 2022

Announcements:

A Black Bird's Journey and Visions Are Like Maps Juried Into Exhibition

“A Black Bird’s Journey” and “Visions Are Like Maps” have been juried into the 2023 Arizona Aqueous XXVII Juried Exhibition at the Tubac Center of the Arts in Tubac, AZ.

Juror Jackson Boelts is a Professor Emeritus of Art at the University of Arizona, and has been a Visiting Artist at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Professor Boelts taught watercolor and drawing in Orvieto, Italy.

Dates: January 6 – February 19, 2023

Musings:

Royce Ave

Featured image: Royce Ave

When I was six, I lived on a street named Royce Ave. My family had a small red house with a front porch and a garden in the back of strawberries. There was a little white fence around our yard. One of my most memorable memories of the house on Royce Ave was the sidewalk that went from one end of the block to the other end and around the backside to where our little red house was.

I learned to roller skate when I was six and those magical wheels on my feet took me lickety split down to my friend Sally’s house and back. I didn’t have a bike back then. For the longest time I couldn’t go beyond Sally’s house and Sally’s mom always knew when I was coming. Pretty soon my roller-skating territory went to the end of the block and back. The sidewalk wasn’t all smooth back then – there was a huge bump in the sidewalk where the one block heaved. I had to be careful and sort of hop over the bump. I learned that the hard way when I fell and really scratched up my knees and broke my nose. There were no knee pads or helmets back then.
The glory of moving quickly and getting down to Sally’s house and eventually around the entire block, and the liberty and freedom I felt was wonderful.

Fire in the Fireplace

Featured image: Heading Home

Fire in the fireplace
takes away the winter chill
A place of shelter and love
home.

While I was 6 years old, I sat on a very tall stool watching my mom get supper ready. It was a beautiful day outside. The kitchen was filled with sun, warmth and love. We had a very small island in our small kitchen. Our house was the size of a small cottage and painted red on the outside. It was home.

That day my mom had asked me if I wanted to make a cake for dessert. I had never made a cake before – let alone cook in the kitchen with the big oven. I had gotten a very small oven that ran on batteries for Christmas once. It came with some tiny pans along with small boxes of cakes and cookies to bake in the oven. I felt so grown up using that little oven. I baked all of the tiny tiny little cakes and cookies that Christmas day. They just needed some water added to them before I put them in the small oven. I shared them with family members when they came for dinner that Christmas day.

But to make a real cake, in the big oven, wow that was special. I chose to make a marble cake because I couldn’t decide between a vanilla cake or a chocolate cake.

It is incredible how many of life’s roots happen in the kitchen. This kitchen was home. This red house was home. It was a place where I came home after school, a place with many memories filled with love and security. Home has always been a private sanctuary for family and memories.

Finger Lines in the Sand

Featured image: Beach Sand

The purpose of creation, in my opinion, is just to create. Creating shouldn’t be for a purpose, but rather, creating should be just to create. You create because it is fun, playful, and freeing. If you are truly creating, then you are not governed (controlled) by anything. When you create, you are grounded to all things “ you” and to the earth and all things natural and spontaneous. Think of a child playing in the sandbox – before they make castles, they dig their tiny little fingers into the sand and feel the texture as they watch the lines that their fingers made. There is no need to label and have it represent something. It is just sheer pleasure and delight.

Creation is that way. It should be that way. But for many that is hard – it is hard to create an empty space where you can just be, and for you to just create finger lines in the sand.

Pumpkin Pie

Featured image: Pine Cones

Creation is that way. It should be that way. But for many that is hard – it is hard to create an empty space where you can just be, and for you to just create finger lines in the sand.

Sense of Smell

Featured image: Yellow Honecrisp

Our sense of smell? Does passion have a smell? Does the sublime have a smell? Does silence have a smell? Or does smell have to be linked to so many other things in order to be defined? Hmmmmm...