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The Artist’s
Almanac
August 2009
download and print this installment as
a PDF
(you will need Adobe Acrobat reader to open this file, you can
get
it here free)
Here at the fountain’s sliding foot,
Or at some fruit tree’s mossy root,
Casting the body’s vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide.
- Andrew Marvell
August 5th and at 8AM the
temperature stands at a cool 69 degrees. Summers in Tennessee
can be brutal, but not this year. Every day has brought us a
good rain and in July the mercury topped 90 only four days – the
highest being only 92. The National Weather Service tells us
this ties the all-time record since records began in 1871.
Temperature fell to 57 on the 19th.
August may yet change all that, with
its customary heat and humidity. But maybe not this year. If you
are lazy and there is a breeze, a chair in the midday shade is
comfortable now and sitting out at night to hear the katydids
and watch the lightning bugs is cool. Later in the month comes
the spectacular Persiad Meteor Showers, while directly overhead
Cygnus the Swan flies down the Milky Way. The stately oaks tower
high in their well nourished robes of green, while Dry Fork runs
like an Appalachian trout stream. The abundant light is
painterly and August is awesome.
Bridge Over August
Even the springs are flowing. Water is our
most urgent necessity, yet here in Tennessee, where we have so
much water, we take it for granted. Spring branches, wells,
ponds, creeks, rivers and lakes lace the land to make this one
of the greenest areas of America. Today pure water comes from
the faucet with as little thought as does food from the
supermarket.
We use water not only to drink, but to cook,
bathe, cool our cars, fight fire, nourish crops, cool our
industrial plants, provide our recreation, and to make steam for
turbines to generate electrical power to heat and cool our
homes. Scientists tell us our bodies are mostly water and the
very air we breathe is saturated with water, the universal
medium. We use it in science and in our religious ceremonies. It
is a favorite metaphor in literature and poetry and even in
song, as in when David the Psalmist says... All my fresh
springs are in You.
Water is our universal medium. As children we
run to it and as grownups the sight of a sparkling stream or
waterfall gladdens our hearts. This week I attended a farewell
ceremony for an old friend in a lovely setting above the mouth
of Bledsoe Creek. The tales of a life well lived were told by
his family and friends and included his days as a B-54 pilot
over Europe in WWII. They spoke of fishing trips, golf and
bridge games, daring aerial stunts, dances and of the happy life
he and his wife of 64 years had shared.
Now they were to be reunited, for at the foot
of the slope below his fish camp where his boat awaits, his and
his beloved wife’s ashes are to be mingled and scattered on the
water he loved so well, where he grew up, laughed and spent some
of his happiest hours. Bon voyage, old friend.
Upcoming Events
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Fall Into
Art – Third Annual Art Show benefiting Hendersonville
High School’s Academic and Arts Program, October 2-4, 2009
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View the
prospectus for our book due out September 29th,
The Founding of the Cumberland Settlements, now available for preorder at
www.cumberlandpioneers.com/volume1a.html. Prepublication
discount expires August 31st.
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