{"id":5368,"date":"2017-10-19T09:20:05","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T16:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=5368"},"modified":"2017-10-19T10:26:01","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T17:26:01","slug":"october-19-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/october-19-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"October 19, 2017 &#8211; Resurrecting beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_button\">\n                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/plugins\/facebook-button-plugin\/images\/standard-facebook-ico.png\" alt=\"Fb-Button\" \/>\n                            <\/a>\n                        <\/div><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/october-19-2017\/\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"standard\"  width=\"225px\" size=\"small\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div><div id=\"attachment_5369\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/sonoma-grapes.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5369\" class=\"wp-image-5369\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/sonoma-grapes.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"590\" height=\"699\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/sonoma-grapes.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/sonoma-grapes-300x355.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/sonoma-grapes-253x300.jpg 253w, https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/sonoma-grapes-169x200.jpg 169w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5369\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I took this photo on the side of Highway 12 in Sonoma. It just happens that I&#8217;m painting it now.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>We\u2019ve been living with wildfires in California for as long as I can remember.\u00a0 The house my family lived in from the time I was a toddler was across the street from Marin County Fire\u2019s 2-acre headquarters in Woodacre.\u00a0 On a regular basis we heard the big red trucks headed out the long drive towards Railroad Avenue, their sirens winding up.\u00a0 But this past week and a half the risk of catastrophic fire has been more real and frightening than I can ever remember.\u00a0 We knew it was the intense winds that made these fires so devastating, but this morning it was revealed the winds were <em>hurricane<\/em>-force \u2013 weather stations in the area recorded 73 mph winds.\u00a0 The early hours of the fire came on so fiercely people had precious little time to get out with just their lives.\u00a0 We read stories of people being picked up out of the streets by first responders wearing nightgowns and with blisters on their bare feet.\u00a0 Tragically, many were not able to get out \u2013 there are still dozens unaccounted for.\u00a0 As the days went on and as the fire progressed there were evacuation orders that came to new areas.\u00a0 These people had more time to consider what to pack in their cars \u2013 what to save from the oncoming inferno.\u00a0 People started talking about packing a \u201cgo-bag\u201d with important documents, medications, photos and other irreplaceable belongings.\u00a0 When I think about what <em>I\u2019d<\/em> grab, I can\u2019t help but think about my <em>paintings<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Sue lives in a beautiful spot up on the side of the Alexander Valley about 100 miles north of us and she comes to paint with us on our Special Saturdays in Larkspur.\u00a0 Her home and vineyard were threatened last week by the Pocket Fire east of Cloverdale and Geyserville.\u00a0 She and her husband have been on the island of Kauai, unable to do anything to protect their home.\u00a0 Their neighbors have kept them posted on the progress of the fire and what was being done to keep it at bay.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the threat to their home, they have family and friends who live in Santa Rosa.\u00a0 Sue told me she knows at least 20 people who lost everything.\u00a0 Being so far away as all this was going on added to their stress.\u00a0 Since a week-ago Monday just about everyone in this area has been hurting.\u00a0 Even if we\u2019ve not been directly impacted, we feel the pain of those who have lost homes, business, livelihoods, schools &#8211; and their loved ones.\u00a0 It reminds me of how I felt just after 9\/11.\u00a0 In the midst of all of this, Sue was sheepish when she told me that she was worried about her art \u2013 including original paintings &#8211; on display in a caf\u00e9 in Calistoga.\u00a0 Oh, no!\u00a0 So, all week we kept tabs on Calistoga as much as we did the area near her home.<\/p>\n<p>With people losing so much, are we off-base to worry about our paintings?\u00a0 We <em>could<\/em> paint them again, after all. I so get it though.\u00a0 I\u2019d feel exactly the same if my paintings were threatened by fire.\u00a0 We weren\u2019t the only one\u2019s thinking about the loss of art in all this.\u00a0 Amongst the stories that were selected to print in the paper were those of lost artwork: a photographer in Napa lost all her prints, equipment and studio, a widower lost all his late wife\u2019s watercolors, which made him feel closer to her \u2013 for him they <em>were<\/em> her.\u00a0 I heard conversations in our art groups concerned about the fate of large art collections, like the De Rosa Preserve, that are up in the area of the fires.<\/p>\n<p>We spend hours and hours on these paintings.\u00a0 What we do is called <em>artwork<\/em> for a reason.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not just our effort.\u00a0 Making art requires that we carve out time and energy, pushing aside all that would deter us.\u00a0 In these hours spent apart from ordinary time we bring new life into being.\u00a0 Yes, not everything we make ends up a shining reflection of our souls, but much does.\u00a0 The vision in my head of flames turning the results all of this precious time and attention to ash feels crushing.<\/p>\n<p>Losing something, or even having it threatened brings its value into sharp focus.\u00a0 Beauty being destroyed is an affront to our sensibilities.\u00a0 The part of the world that has burned just north of us is treasured by many.\u00a0 The natural landscape plus the vineyards and structures that humans have created there draw people from all over the world to come experience its beauty and sense of the good life.\u00a0 I have to believe this adds to our collective pain.\u00a0 I have to believe that we\u2019d feel differently if what burned was more than 300,000 acres of industrial park.<\/p>\n<p>Right after the horror of the thought of having all my art burn up is the knowing, the faith, that if this happened, I would recover.\u00a0 I also know there would be gifts in the experience that can\u2019t see from here. If I were to venture a guess, I\u2019d imagine that I\u2019d be fueled to <em>make art like crazy<\/em>!\u00a0 This week I\u2019ve been heads down in Photoshop making the 2018 calendar, between that and how hard it has been to focus through all this, I\u2019ve not been painting much.\u00a0 It\u2019s time for me to get back to making art!<\/p>\n<p>Wendell Berry ends his challenging <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goodnaturepublishing.com\/poem.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cManifesto:\u00a0 Mad Farmer Liberation Front\u201d<\/a> with this line:\u00a0 <em>Practice resurrection<\/em>.\u00a0 This may sound insensitive while the devastation is still so fresh \u2013 especially to those who\u2019ve lost the most.\u00a0 The fires are still burning in some areas as I write this and there will continue to be people in great need for a long time \u2013 years in some cases.\u00a0 And yet, rain is in the forecast for today, the fire officials predict full containment this week and the process of re-building lives has already started.<\/p>\n<p>I believe that real transformation comes out of both grieving our losses and doing what is in front of us to do.\u00a0 For me today, this means continuing to hold space in my heart and mind for all that has happened and working on my painting.\u00a0 Humans often malign each other for the damage we cause, but today, I\u2019m inspired by how automatically we respond by resurrecting beauty.<\/p>\n<p>With my love,<\/p>\n<p>Cara<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve been living with wildfires in California for as long as I can remember.\u00a0 The house my family lived in from the time I was a toddler was across the street from Marin County Fire\u2019s 2-acre headquarters in Woodacre.\u00a0 On a regular basis we heard the big red trucks headed out the long drive towards [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - 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