One year on, a newknee story

Posted on by dkmercer

Today is the one year anniversary of my partial knee replacement, and I’m happy to report that I am totally pleased with the result! Several falls when I was young damaged the cartilage, and my long ago first year in SoCal – with experiments in downhill skiing, roller-blading, disco dancing (you get the idea) – exacerbated a long history of occasional pain. So major surgery (before they were doing arthroscopics) in my twenties scraped the minisci and gave me another 45 years of bearable mobility. But it was time for the last resort last spring, and my doctor did a fantastic job.

In three weeks my sister and I will be off to Scotland and Yorkshire, and my newknee will get a true test on the challenging hills of Edinburgh. And with our travel and accommodations booked, it’s now time for the fun stuff: organizing our painting kits and choosing wardrobes. We often travel together, including Ireland in 2018, and are very compatible “on the road”. We both enjoy “urban sketching” and “plein air painting”, so Scotland should be a perfect inspiration for our creativity: green mountains and lovely lochs, castles and historic city views. Check back for samples of our artmaking!

my new watercolor travel palette
Art kit and trip log

What happened to February?

Posted on by dkmercer

Lately time seems to lurch and lag like a student driver trying to master consistent acceleration. I have lots of time in my under-booked retirement, but still it slips away. Suddenly a month is gone and I’m not sure where it went. Days turn into weeks, and our home routine becomes a rut. Maybe with this past weekend’s annual launch of Daylight Saving Time and its longer days I will get my slow car in gear and punch up my productivity.

almost finished hostess gift

I read some good books and did some painting and embroidery last month, so it wasn’t a wash. But I did notice my calendar was depressingly short of excitement. Anticipation is ramping up now, however, and providing more fun tasks. The 2020 Covid-cancelled trip to the UK is back for this May, and Cathy and I are happily planning our adventure. We’ve sorted the flights, hotels, trains, and tours and are busy making hostess gifts and figuring out appropriate clothes. My biggest challenge: buying walking shoes for my problem feet. Amazon offers a wonderful solution with “Try Before You Buy” and I’ve spent way too many hours online-searching tennis shoes! Shoe shopping in stores is hard because you can’t tell in three minutes whether appearance (“what a cool color!”) is trumping comfort. So far I’ve returned eight pairs at our local Whole Foods that didn’t quite work, but I’m hopeful the latest candidate (in periwinkle blue!!) is the ticket!!

An unexpected highlight of my quiet life in 2024 is the slow blossoming of Paola’s Christmas gift, an amaryllis bulb. Coated in bright red wax, all that it requires is sun and time to grow a stalk, buds, and then fabulous red flowers with white centers. The first was the slowest to open, then more and more unfurled such beauty that I’ve taken many photos and painted a couple versions, in oils and in watercolors. This particular coloration is called Minerva Amaryllis, sporting glorious goddess finery. Yes, I appreciate the little things in life!

Multi-tasking

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My current embroidery project, based on an painting by M.S. Merian,
while listening to The Paris Apartment

Our beloved father was keen on efficiency, also known in his era as “time and motion study” and what today is sometimes referred to as multi-tasking. Or at least, that’s how I understand it. I’m not sure if his original interest was personal or related to his work, but we three kids became one test group for the practice. The popular book Cheaper By The Dozen provided lots of fun ideas for his experiment. From Wikipedia, “Cheaper by the Dozen is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, published in 1948. The book tells the story of time and motion study and efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth, and their 12 children.” I think it’s time to reread it. I remember laughing at the crazy exploits, and then minding a little less the chores we kids were assigned around our house.

The habit of being productive and managing time stuck with me, and I still feel a wee twinge of guilt when I’m not. For me audiobooks provide a wonderful means to double-task. I can drive, embroider, or clean (if absolutely necessary) while also listening to a book. I’m sure Daddy would approve.

Almost One Down…

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The first month of 2024 is dishing up real chilly temps and pesky expenses. LA winters are usually mild, but we’ve had extra cold nights and rainy days, and will finish out January with 80 degrees today and a return to wet cold by the 31st. I’m not complaining, mind you. The rest of the country has suffered deep freezes and dangerous extreme weather. Even Portland, OR, where our daughters live, had multiple ice events this month that kept residents indoors and stores closed! And San Diego to our south had a flash flood that wiped out homes and forced a neighborhood to flee in five foot deep water. We are thankful for our new roof and distance from hillsides and waterways…and my plants are very happy for the extra watering!

The aforementioned pesky expenses were not unexpected, but still untimely. My car tires were warning me for weeks with “low pressure” alerts. Firestone said yes, you have a nail, but no, the tire is too worn to save. So Costco installed four new shoes and now we’re ready to roll! In fact, we cruised up to Ventura yesterday to take sister BJ to lunch on a gorgeous warm Saturday. We ate tacos on the pier and basked in the perfect sunshine with lots of lovely doggies on parade.

The Ventura Pier, damaged in recent extreme surf event

I’ve had fun school groups to lead on tours at the Getty this month. Kids say the craziest things, and even the security officers get into the act. I’ll include images of some current art on view – always something new to see at my favorite place! Here’s a link to a story about the 3-year conservation project Getty just completed on the Adam and Eve (which belong to Norton Simon Museum): https://www.getty.edu/news/lucas-cranach-the-elder-adam-and-eve-getty-conservation/

Painting of Holy Family by Gerard David, Adam and Eve by Cranach restored by Getty Conservation, Sudanese Man by Cordier is amazing combination of marble and bronze!

Hairy Anniversary

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I cut my own hair, and sometimes it comes out great and sometimes not so much. As I tell friends, there is usually one day between trims when it looks just right. Today is the day, and par for the course, I’ve got nowhere to go! It’s a gray cold day in SoCal (the humidity improves my do) and the only thing on my calendar is getting a leaky tire checked. Doubtful the Firestone team notices old lady hair!!

Today is big on the calendar not for good hair, but for a hairy anniversary: 30 years since the 1994 Northridge earthquake!! We were shaken awake on that fateful night, with our recently-added second story swaying and things crashing throughout the house. First reaction was to grab our young daughters and gather downstairs, but we couldn’t find the 9-year-old big sister in her room! Her bookcase was overturned and fear clutched us until we remembered she was sleeping over at a friend’s!! Telephones weren’t working so we jumped in the car and drove the four miles in pitch dark with no street lights or traffic signals. We passed several police cars cruising slowly, checking the freeway underpasses, an eery sight. The sleep-over kids were excited and scared, and we brought our girl home to a structurally intact but topsy-turvy house. We lived on a north-south street – Coldwater Canyon – and when the waves of force hit the mountains and bounced back, most houses’ chimneys broke and everything we owned was thrown to the floor. The kitchen cupboards spewed plates and glasses, the refrigerator disgorged jars and groceries. Our massive TV – remember the giant sets before flat-screens?? – was face down on the carpet. But being campers, we bundled up and found our Coleman propane stove and heated water in the yard for our friends visiting from Finland. Their hotel across the street was also a mess and they were very shaken up, but they’ve enjoyed telling tales of the Big One ever since!

Sweeping out…

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While sweeping backyard leaves and berries this New Year’s Day, I suddenly recalled a childhood memory. When I was four or five, I loved to sweep and even threw dirt on our cement skirting so that I could wield Mama’s big broom. Maybe this foreshadowed a particular personality trait. I’ve always felt an urge to straighten up, and take satisfaction in visible results. Daddy required us kids to contribute to family operations – weekly chores and nightly dishwashing – so that work ethic is deeply engrained. Clutter still happens – don’t look in my studio!! – but it feels good to get organized. I need a neat environment or my mind feels scrambled! And January first calls forth that “fresh start” instinct.

Day one of a new 12 months always stimulates my creative juices. I think about what art projects inspire me, what I’d like to make and learn. This fall I tried oil paints again which I’d avoided since college. I’m enjoying the different process and effects, and will keep practicing this winter. And I enjoy writing haiku and blog posts, so maybe I’ll focus more energy on words this new year. Reading books is my favorite escape, and discovering a well-expressed thought or getting to know a character feels almost miraculous: letters make words make sentences make mental images = ideas!

So Happy New Year and may 2024 bring a creative, productive, well-swept fresh start!

Painted Faces

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Not talking makeup, but watercolor and oil portraits – challenging and fulfilling, especially when I capture a likeness. I’m quite happy when my painting resembles the source, either a photograph or a painting by a master. This semester I finally decided to try oil paints which I’ve avoided since college studio classes. My strongest skill is pencil drawing, and I’ve been working on learning watercolor for a few years. I even expanded into gouache, another water-based medium with the opacity of oil. But now I’m rediscovering the bonus of oil painting – the opportunity to rework continuously as well as using glazes – transparent layers – to achieve glowing effects. The teacher will be demonstrating that latter technique soon, so I’ve been revising my “underpainting” of a Rembrandt portrait in preparation. Here is my progression of preliminaries along with a photocopy of the master’s work we are copying.

Sequence of attempts: pencil, watercolor rough, underpainting in neutral colors, value study of planes. Long way to go!!

Age is Just a Number…

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My friend Robin sent me an article this week about how many people have “an age in your head” that is considerably younger than reality. And that imaginary number tends to remain the same as the calendar years flow by. I certainly don’t feel like my mental picture of 72: old, slowing down, forgetful. I have foresworn hair coloring, but that is sheer laziness on my part. And when I trim my hair and see the white and gray curls on the floor, it still surprises me. Just like that wrinkled face in the mirror, which reminds me of my mother but no way could be me. So 39 is my “age in my head”, and I sometimes forget that younger people see an old lady and not the “real me”!! And to compound the conundrum, my eldest daughter just turned 39!! So we are the same age this year – but what happens going forward? Good thing age is just a number…

Whitney’s graduation from 6th grade ~. Whit, pup Echo and me a year ago

20s in the 70s

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My sister and I were in our 20s in the 70s, and now we are in our 70s in the 20s!! And we still travel with the joie de vivre of our younger selves. Just back from an Arizona adventure, I really appreciate seeing the world with Cathy. Both of us value experience over acquisition and comfort food over fancy restaurants. We can get up and out early, and feel no need to stay up late. And if we can’t sleep, we read or eat or both.

This road trip was motivated by a desire to visit our brother in his new place in Tucson, and the crazy fact that neither of us had ever visited the Grand Canyon. So south to north, we plotted a 5-night escape and managed to include friends, family, and three National Parks! We both take beaucoup photographs and enjoy outdoor sketching, so this was an itinerary with lots of opportunities. And between our mountain cabin overlooking a roaring Oak Creek and the charming BnBs in Tucson and Indio, our accommodations were inexpensive and welcoming. And we only ate in restaurants twice!!

Every summer Cathy drives eight hours to our family vacation place in the Smoky Mountains. I try to join her whenever possible, but this year we shared Arizona instead. I’m sad to miss The Mountain House in 2023, but the Forest Houses outside Sedona were a lovely substitute. I hope she and I can stay healthy enough to visit Scotland – or wherever we decide on – next year. Retirement is such a blessing and I don’t want to waste a minute of it!

Train Tripping

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In the last few weeks, I’ve gone on two train adventures – one south to Orange County, one north to Ventura. There’s a station just a few minutes from our house (we can hear the whistles blow when the wind is right) with ample free parking. Proximity and convenience are great motivators – now if the trains would just run on time, I’d be riding the rails regularly!

Paola and I took Amtrak to Irvine on a Friday to meet the Getty Galz at the Orange County Museum of Art. We beat the group that carpooled down (they got lost), but returning home was a bust. Our northbound Surfliner was over two hours late and we had to stick by the tracks because they never announced a revised ETA. Then when we finally boarded, the brief stop at Union Station turned into a train change, more unexplained waiting, then the announcement that we were waiting for paramedics! I got home at 11 p.m. instead of the scheduled 7:30!!

The artventure was fun – we saw an excellent Alice Neel exhibition and had a Peruvian lunch – and then dashed over to Balboa Island and did lots of walking. (My new knee held up great – 11,500 steps!! – but my hip not so much.) And I really enjoyed riding the 3-car ferry across to the quaint tourist destination which I hadn’t visited in over 40 years.

Last Friday I Amtrak’ed to Ventura to visit Getty Gal Robin who is in the process of moving up the coast to be closer to her grandkids. We had a wonderful day seeing some local highlights – the botanical gardens, Main Street restaurants and cool shops, the Mission – all in walking distance of each other! The vibe is very laid back, like a mini and less hoity-toity Santa Barbara. I see why Robin loves her new neighborhood, and I’m looking forward to more train escapes up her way.