OCTOBER 22, 2011

I am adjusting slowly to still life. I have been cleaning, organizing and planning. Yesterday I made myself a new tool chest for my planes and chisels, using my rediscovered dovetail skills as taught to me by Rob Chamberlain. It needs a hinge before I can put it up. What is cool about the cabinet is that it is made from a tree I planted on Arbor Day over 40 years ago. I have been carrying this birch tree around for ten years but it was always too precious to use. My trip taught me about the uselessness of stuff unless you actually do something with it. Those boards will be looked at everyday by me in the form of my tool chest, holding the tools of my trade (which for some reason I revere so much more now than before I left on my trip). Maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder. The tool chest will represent a full circle, from planter to woodworker, a metaphor for the circle of life (or production woodworking). This week I went to an opening at Mass Art and reacquainted myself with old friends. I also went to SOWA for a day and helped my colleague and friend Judy Haberl hang her wonderful new show, Dystopian Dreaming at the Gallery Kayafas. I rode my bike both places, which really lifted my spirits. Jenn and I are meeting a couple of times each week to get our new project underway. I am really excited about it. It is a project that is an extension of our first. You will all know about it soon.