{"id":3967,"date":"2016-02-06T21:03:51","date_gmt":"2016-02-06T21:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=3967"},"modified":"2016-02-06T21:04:51","modified_gmt":"2016-02-06T21:04:51","slug":"defining-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=3967","title":{"rendered":"Defining Moments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life took a strange and dark turn 2 weeks ago, and I left Florida to fly home. \u00a0I went home to be with my oldest friend as she entered a very dark period of her life. \u00a0She has lost someone very dear, someone who was dear to me as well.<\/p>\n

During the past weeks I have watched my friend navigate very troubled waters with a strength and grace I did not know she has. \u00a0You can always learn something new about anyone, no matter how long you’ve known them. \u00a0She has become an inspiration for me. \u00a0Life throws unspeakable challenges at us, but I’ve learned a lot from my friend’s deep, still waters.<\/p>\n

Along the way I’ve finished reading The Paper Garden<\/em>, a biography of the 18th c. female artist, Mary Delany. \u00a0The author, Molly Peacock, was known more for her poetry than her prose, until she wrote this book. \u00a0The book is so popular now that the British Museum has had to limit access to Mary Delany’s paper collages in order to preserve them from the sudden rise in people requesting to see them.<\/p>\n

My friend has been an artist since before I met her. \u00a0Growing up together, she painted and drew while I wrote things and dabbled in handwork. \u00a0Later she began sculpting and got her fine arts degree in that medium. \u00a0This quote from The Paper Garden<\/em> makes me\u00a0wonder\u00a0where my friend’s artwork will go next:<\/p>\n

Black pigment is made from charred organic matter\u2014and that includes burnt bones. This chilling fact contributes to the black background of Mrs. D\u2019s Rosa Gallica\u2026 Not that burnt bones necessarily produced the pigment that Mrs. D. used to create the black backgrounds of her flowers\u2014her pigment could have been made from tar, pitch, lampblack, pine soot, anything charred to get a noir so deep it looks as if it came from the mouth of Hades. But whatever the composition of the dry crystals she ground with a mortar and pestle, then mixed with liquid and adhesive, its source is something burnt. Carbon. Organic. Ashes. Is being burnt a requisite for the making of art? Personally, I don\u2019t think it is. But art is a poultice for a burn. It is a privilege to have, somewhere within you, a capacity for making something speak from your own seared experience.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, for me, regular life begins\u00a0to lurch along once again. \u00a0I am back in the Bahamas with Bob, in a beautiful spot that we have not visited before called Great Harbor Cay. \u00a0When we left the harbor for a short sail yesterday, three dolphins found us and played in our bow wave.<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

The sunsets have been stunning, the Bahamians are the friendliest people I have ever met, the cruisers have been pretty friendly too, and Bob is letting me rest. \u00a0The days are warm and slow.<\/p>\n

\"2-4-16b<\/a><\/p>\n

My biggest wish is that my friend could switch places with me. \u00a0I would take a couple weeks of her grieving and the growing responsibilities she has taken on to care for others in her family, while she could spend some time here– healing. \u00a0Life is so thoroughly unfair….<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life took a strange and dark turn 2 weeks ago, and I left Florida to fly home. \u00a0I went home to be with my oldest friend as she entered a very dark period of her life. \u00a0She has lost someone very dear, someone who was dear to me as well. During the past weeks I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fine-craft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3967"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3971,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967\/revisions\/3971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}