#302 Surviving in Maine

Like a fabric woven from the people who live there, the foothills in Maine are unique - there's no other place like it. When I married in to Maine, it was the people I loved the most. And then I fell in love with the land and the farms I passed on my drives every day that were growing food and raising critters - still a big part of life in Maine back then.

Today there's a movement afoot to protect those farms and get them producing again. I hope the young folks who are making a go of it can make a decent living. I hope too, that they continue to insist there is a way to survive doing what they love to do.

Surviving in Maine • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250

#301 September Summer Conundrum

I sketched this house I found on North Haven over the summer because, well, it's summer again. My garden is looking like something out of an August issue of House and Gardens - I have a flower that bloomed in July, dried it's blossoms in August, and then shot up a new shoot of flowers a week ago. It's not supposed to be doing that.

And whereas my brain is getting anxious to see fall colors, and my body is starting it's hibernation process, there's no way anything is evolving in that natural direction. It's hot, it's humid, and so it's summer, again. It's what I would call a September summer conundrum - do I love it, or am I alarmed?

September Summer Conundrum • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250

#300 Mountains on Fire

When the fires and the mountains

and the rivers and the trees

and the animals and the flowers

sacrifice their lives

to teach us everything they know,

will we still take for granted

their return

to teach us

all over again?