All of my artwork was affected in this recent fire. My husband, my neighbors, my cat, my sketchbooks, many of our pictures and personal objects survived but everything changed quickly. So we are continuing with everything we can, taking stock, and sorting out. Below is what my floor looks like most nights as I try to insure there is no wet and no mold and minimum smoke smell on the best of the remainders of the paintings. It's kind of funny in a way, since the past few years have been about understanding how I paint and the past year especially has been full of experiments integrating scraps of past work in new pieces. But, seeing the mess and the muck and the change is also tough. Fire trumps any painter's intention. These are different and may be better when (if) I can go back into them.

Today we visited family, played badminton, collected random things (envelopes, soup, bookshelves, a stapler), and remembered again the greater (much greater) importance of people. We don't need things. We need people.
take good care and thanks for listening and all the kind words,
Rachael
Below is some of the pile of stuff that was destroyed in the fire. It's bigger now. We're all still sorting out.

Well you know, they aren't much but I am proud of my first attempts at ceramics especially amid all our rethinking of the importance of objects. I want to make more clay things and I will.

take good care,
Rachael

I went back to work today and told the story a few more times. This evening we'd wanted to see a movie but we would have had to have free passes and we didn't have 'em so instead we came home and watched tv while I sorted through another portfolio of paintings. They all smell smoky but some are going to be salvageable (not too wet, no mold, looks like they looked before), some are going to be revived (if they are noticeably different but retain enough to be revived, renewed, or remixed), and some are trash (ish, probably can't bring myself to destroy them completely but maybe they'll be cards or letters or paper pulp or turned into paper clay or collaged into new work or something).
I have ideas to share about art and change and flexibility and smiling when knocked down and the kindness of so many people but I am also simply tired.
goodnight and take good care,
Rachael

Well, today I saw the remains of our apartment, my back-room studio, and the house that contained it all. We are safe and nobody was hurt. But the destruction amazes me. This was our front room. The place we sat and read, talked and ate.



This was my studio.



We are doing OK. The new place (while temporary) is quite comfortable and we have everything we need. Eachother. Family. Friends.

I'm sure this will take a while to get over and I am going to have to figure out how to save some paintings that are still wet and what to do with those that are obviously ruined. They are still incredibly important to me and will return in some strange and wonderful way, I think. Just don't know how. I keep thinking of the way a mystery man helped get my sweetie out of a burning house in the middle of the night and gave him shorts and shoes so he didn't have to watch the fire in his underwear.

I'm off to sleep and will keep you posted on this adjustment as well as more notes from my Atlanta adventure.

Take very good care and help a stranger,
Rachael

A happier image is below, a strangely beautiful mystery plant I found on my Atlanta visit. Anyone know what it is?

Lisa Alembik and I had our open studio in her fabulous studio at the Arts Exchange on Saturday night and I have to report that it was wonderful fun. She's making some really powerful self portraits about exhaustion and time and is unravelling the contents of owl pellets through drawing. Owls apparently swallow small animals whole and then spit up the parts they can't digest. Her way of working large (using charcoal, ink, graphite, oil, anything available to see and re-see and set down and go back over and into) and small (careful, small ink studies of owls and their parts from the resources of a science museum) means she's really investigating these pellets, these animals, and their connections to the way we live.

I'll post more pictures soon, above is all I have with me as I am still here in Atlanta. I'm headed back home tonight and excited about, scared by, and (probably) ready for what awaits.

It was a thrill on Saturday night to see so many old friends, connect up so many great people, and while I told the story again and again and again, everyone's kind words and good ideas are still helping. I'm be salvaging some scraps of lost work for collage no doubt, and using this as a chance to regroup my ideas. I'll have more of my notes from Atlanta about artists and places up here soon, but for now, I'll share my thoughts about heading back (in graphic form) and pass on a warm hug to all the great people (you troublemakers know who you are) who made my visit such a joy in light of the news from up north. I'm ready to help with clean-up and restart now.

take good care,

Rachael