I haven't lived with cats in over a decade. Now my gal and I have moved in together and she has two cats, Tex and Ralph. My stalwart daughter soldiers on despite cat allergies.
How different from dogs could these guys possibly be? For one thing, they're nocturnal, which means they like to wake us up as much as possible during the night. Ralph loves to come into our bedroom and shake extension cords or rattle a shelf, trying his best to roust us out of bed and towards the kitchen to feed him.
Tex is tightly wound. Maybe a tad neurotic. He startles easily and is wary of almost everything.
Ralph, on the other hand, is really large and long-haired and easy-going and somewhat comical. He's a Curly of the cat world. He's loves getting into paper bags and boxes. He gets up on hind legs when you're at the kitchen counter and he bats his head into your leg to let you know he wants what you have. When he gets too matted and has to have his hair shaved he resembles a small lion.
Ralph is a character. One of a kind.
Being a self-employed artist ranks up there somewhere between Popcorn Specialist and one of those guys seen foraging for who-knows-what with a metal detector.
I've been a full-time Decorative Artist for almost twenty years now and the roller coaster ride has been truly something to behold. I've made a grand in a day and less than that in a month. The recent economic tsunami has not exactly been smooth sailing when you're working in the luxury trade.
So, my pal Sue has come to the rescue of late. She's on a roll and has been hiring me and another artist. Sue loves traditional mediums and is a specialist with lime plaster. I first learned this craft from her almost a decade ago. It can be grueling and tough on the old limbs. Unlike many modern water-based wall finishes, these plasters are - more than anything else - extremely subtle. They don't "shout". They hold their ground....beautifully and elegantly.
We just finished a master bedroom using Grassello, which is a finer-grained version of Venetian Plaster. This finish has a plaster stencil embedded between two coats of Grassello. Then a burnished wax finish is applied.
Lime plaster is a centuries-old technique. It can be used outdoors. The layers chemically bond in a tough-as-hell surface. I like that it is so old. In my studio I'm doing paintings now in acrylic rather than the oil I've used for decades. I like it. But I love the ancient stuff, too. Old is good.
Out with the old and in with the NEW!
I have left a sweet place with a kitchen the size of a closet and moved to a truly sweeter 100-year-old Victorian house with a really large kitchen. We occupy the second and third floor.
Today I got the curtains up in the kitchen and things blossomed.
Tex took advantage of the unusually warm winter weather and climbed onto the window sill.
Finally, I feel equal in a living partnership. Equal with ease and joy and anticipation.
At any time of life the unexpected happens. There ain't no script. It takes recognition and appreciation of those wonders that meander into our spaces.
Who knows?
I have been absorbed into the Middle of the World, working on restoring what is now my new home. And moving there, of course. Moving residences shakes up everything, exhausts ya and allows one to see all the stuff accumulated over the years.
I have posted very little. Life has posted much.
Clouds surround and change and twist and illuminate and cover and move on
as I have.
Clouds overhead. No Heaven. Clouds.
