From The Sketchbook

For Rusty ....

This is Rusty with her son David, the sweet gentle soul that cared for her through all of her later years and was there tending her, loving her until the end. This is how they were - inseparable companions, thought of as one Rustydavid and kevetching devotees of each other. They are and were some of my best friends. They supported me in all I did often traveling out of town to see my art shows, writing long letters to me when they traveled around the US and Europe. I mattered to them and them to me and I will miss Rusty the rest of my days. Amazing woman, great friend, encouraging soul, laughing, twinkling eyes; a person not given to the modern un-friending of someone on facebook, a woman devoted to peace who would even from her wheelchair protest the wars going on now. A woman who went to college and received a degree at 60 and a masters in psychology a few years later. She raised 5 children after the loss of her right hand when she was a right handed individual. She learned to write, paint, nurture and everything a person needs to do, with her left hand. I am in awe of her.



Rusty as a young mother.


These are the handset poetry chapbooks that Rusty published herself with ONE HAND from her Sagittarius Press. A press that used handset type letters and ran with sheer brute strength with a hand turned wheel.

Rusty and David as I first met them. Rusty and the twinkle in her eye, the soul that was always smiling and encouraging.


Several paintings that Rusty did were placed around the foyer of the church. This landscape piece with its beautiful bridge made me think of Rusty crossing over into a beautiful garden and it gave me a great deal of peace. As if a painting she did years ago, was really meant to comfort and reassure us today.


A painting that Rusty did of a backyard playhouse.

I thank God I knew her and met her in 1976 and for all this time and all the time to come, I am honored and deeply privileged to call her friend.

The Boys !

This is Eric and Heather's beautiful place in Vermont and a day or two just shy of the peak fall colors. Eric is Phil's oldest son and lives with his wife, Heather and their two children, Eleanor and Isaac on a family farm in Starksboro. Next year, I am planning on going to Vermont in the fall, too. I want to knit and sketch where the trees are so beautiful!



Here are all the boys hanging out under a tree; Phil, Eric, Jacob and Isaac. What a handsome bunch!

Around Town - Film Fest 2010

Port Townsend's Galatea fountain all dressed up for the film festival. I particularly love the town's version of palm trees! We almost look like Hollywood! Most intriguing to me was the reflection of the statue's flowers in the water at the base of Galatea. Dyan Cannon was the fest's special guest and although I did not get to see her I heard from other shopkeepers how nice she was and so tiny a person.

Tonight's gonna be a good good night....

The sky tonight as I was driving out of town after work was incredibly beautiful. The clouds hovering above town, so artfully pasted into the sky, were like angel wings. I kept thinking " angel wings spread over Port Townsend. " Then, upon my arrival home, I glanced at the sky again and had to stop, dead still in my tracks as the clouds were painted the softest pastel pink and centered in wispy blue gray bigger clouds. Beautiful! Was my camera handy? Almost, but I did not want to move or stop looking at the sky and the dance of clouds long enough to retrieve it. So it is with words not even barely adequate to describe the evening sky that I leave you and wish you a good, good night.

Fiesta Fall!

Beautiful beach, light and shadow, sun and water. The grass still green from the wet, short summer. Fall has arrived.


A beautiful fall noontime at the beach in Port Hadlock. Perfect way to spend the first day of fall. The sun was shining and the air clean and blue.

Here is one of my favorite view points, Skunk Island, from the marina at the old alcohol plant looking towards the Wooden Boat Building School.

This Day

After running all the errands that have been accumulating on my " to do " list today, I sat down to finish some rosaries for the shop. All the sterling silver centers and crucifixes are pieces that I cast from antique pieces. Nothing relaxes me quite like the gentle zen act of making a rosary. The studio is quiet, no music or television, and as I turn and wrap and link I think each bead is made with a prayer uttered from my lips and certainly from my soul.





When I sit in the living room late in the evening as everyone else is sleeping or off doing their own thing, I ramble in a doodle. My mind wanders and the pen leaps at the chance to put the thoughts down on paper. You can see all the ramblings here. It's always a surprise to me when sometimes days or weeks later I look back at these doodles and wonder where my mind had been!