Superior Painting

At a certain point in our visits to Lake Superior, the urge to paint things becomes overwhelming.

I am thinking of repainting the wings from our ancient, now disintegrating into the earth, totem pole which had been installed by the previous owner and stood as a landmark for decades before we came upon the place. It fell over in a storm on the 25th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, nearly a year after our first house here burned down. The rest of the totem is doing an ashes to ashes thing but the wings are still intact.

In the past when I got to this “I must paint” phase, I would simply paint the house. But we had it professionally painted last summer and there isn’t even a tiny area where the wind has done any damage. Painting over a perfect paint job would put me in head case territory even by my low standards. So, I’ve been casting about for other potential projects. Hence the wings.

Today, I painted a new birdhouse. This required coming up with a design as well as doing the actual painting. My first thought was to draw a bird on each side so I watched a video claiming to be for 8 year- olds on how to draw a bird. I sketched it out on the side of the birdhouse but the bird got scrunched and then, in my fantasy mind, I determined that drawing birds on the sides might scare away actual birds. (This is what a long sojourn on Lake Superior will do to your reasoning.)

So, I opted for sky and grass and flowers. It’s the first arty thing I’ve done since I painted a daisy on a rock about 15 years ago. I think it’s fabulous.

Tomorrow, the wings.