Two Shocks

The first shock occurred when I opened WoodCarving magazine, which had been laying on the living room end table for a couple of days.  When I got to page three of the magazine, there was a huge image of my very own wood carving illustrating the article about this year’s competition!  I was so amazed I got that jolt of electricity in my guts, exclaimed out loud, and slammed the magazine shut, which quite startled my dear husband.  Upon further mutual scrutiny we discovered I had actually placed in the competition!  What an honor and what an affirmation.

The second recent shock was not so much fun.  I trucked up to The Huntington last week, armed with canvas and enthusiasm, to find the cactus I had worked on for two weeks, the one featured in my first acrylic painting on site, was gone!  I looked away and looked back.  Gone.  I checked to see if I was in the right spot.  Gone.  I had that jolt of electricity in my guts, but it did not feel good.  I spent three hours, in shock, trying to continue the painting by looking at cactus that were similar to the forms I had drawen on the canvas.  Every time I looked up I got disoriented.  It was very hard not to take it personally when I looked around and it was the only cactus that was missing in the group.  A fellow Artist Guild member happened by and I told him what happened.  Shortly after, one of the gardeners made it a point of coming to tell me how it had rotted.  It was not until yesterday, when I chanced upon my original drawing, that I realized how much the cactus had changed from the original drawing to the first painting.  Then I remembered thinking, as I began the painting, those cactus have moved an awful lot.  I will go armed to The Huntington next Tuesday, canvas in hand, ready to adapt, no longer in shock.  Onward and forward.