Living in the Past

My husband likes to reflect that when our house was built, California was still scarcely populated. It does make a contrast living in a place where almost everything evokes a distant past. I like to think that the buildings in our village have witnessed countless stories as generations have come and gone over hundreds of years. Nowadays it's hard to imagine craftsmen building structures that will last long into the future. Any futuristic visions in our time seem to involve other planets, space ships and distant galaxies. I guess writers can't conceive of our own world continuing. Certainly this was not the case in the Middle Ages when most of the buildings in our village were constructed. People were willing to spend a lifetime building a cathedral. And they must have expected it would stand almost forever. Time must have been experienced in a completely different way. I like to imagine what it was like living during times when the rhythms of days were organized around the sun and the bells from the church steeple.

I usually spend my time making etchings, but sometimes I miss the ease of drawing and painting. Lately I have brought back out my prisma colors and am enjoying the directness and freedom they give me. This drawing is made with watercolor washes and colored pencil.