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The Artist’s
Almanac
January 2009
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Resolve not to be poor; whatever you have, spend less.
Samuel Johnson
Money has displaced the weather as a
subject of conversation. Talk today turns to the price of
gasoline, mortgage rates, the disappearance of central banks, zero
interest, bankruptcy, job losses, corruption in our governments
and investment banks, and the price of groceries. The vortex
swirls. We enter a new era.
Our traditional resolutions on
weight loss morph into mulling our shrunken portfolios. Perhaps
instead of losing weight we should store more fat for the lean
times to come.
The strictest New Year’s resolutions
generally come to naught. We are notoriously irresolute, and who
of us can plan with any certainty even one day? A telephone call,
a virus, a change of weather, and we are off on another track. As
a poet once observed, Great actions are not always true sons of
great and mighty resolutions.
As to weather, January offers us all
kinds, and some of the best for long walks in the country. A week
of frost and snow, another of sodden rain, but almost invariably
we have a January thaw, with mild, still days, when from a hilltop
we can see the countryside for miles around in brilliant sun, the
stately oaks, the white sycamores, the sparkling creeks, the
glittering lake, and the faraway hills.
Above Bledsoe Creek – David Wright, artist
What the artist loses in fair
weather sketching outdoors, he gains in quiet studio time, for
thinking and for painting. Indoors or out, whether writing,
painting, walking or reading by a cheerful hearth, January is a
month of long views. See though we may the distant hills, none may
measure distant days. A dear friend writes to tell of a
metastasized malignancy and our hearts enfold him. And the days
dwindle down to a precious few....
All animals, except man, know
that the principal business of life is to enjoy it, wrote the
English novelist, Samuel Butler. The worst sin against January is
to waste one of its precious quiet days.
Hope is a cardinal virtue and one of
life’s purest enjoyments. We are ordering new roses. During a
warm, dry spell last week my son’s family laid off and plowed a
large garden for next spring. I am invited to help choose
radishes, beets, and tomatoes, and the seed for turnips are
already bought. There will be fresh eggs. Wintersweet blooms in
the fencerows and the earliest turnip greens make their appearance
during the January thaw. Even during the Great Depression the
folks living in the countryside ate bountifully.
I hope a blessed and bountiful new
year for each of you.
Upcoming Events
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Gallatin Junior Service League –
Tenth Annual Art In Bloom Show – March 27-28, 2009, Bluegrass
Country Club, Hendersonville, Tennessee
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