An Inconvenient Tornado

I'm beginning to feel a little pressure. Today's the 27th of April. I leave on the 22nd of May. Time is a-tickin' and I need to get crackin'. There is still a fair amount of canvas to cover and some ideas I want to incorporate before this monster of mine gets rolled up and packed for Israel.

I came home pooped from work, but after some phone time and a little dinner accompanied by a glass of wine, I was refreshed. Just as I was squeezing my first blob of paint onto the palette, the tornado sirens went off. These last couple of weeks have been something else. Tornados everywhere, yet Indianapolis has been safe thus far. I flipped on the TV and there was a tornado-producing storm in Brownsburg headed toward Whitestown, Fayette and Zionsville. Ordinarily I wouldn't know such places, but hours and hours spent on a bicycle have allowed me to see all sorts of unforgettable and very forgettable places in Indiana. These places in the warning zone were dangerously close. Then, just as I watched a sailboat glide by on the glassy surface of the reservoir, they added Eagle Creek to the tornado warning list. It was a bit surreal. I hope those guys on the sailboat were having a grand time humming to the sounds of the sirens.

So with one eye cocked toward the window and the other on my canvas, I tried to relax into the moment. After just a few brushstrokes, there was a report of a funnel cloud in Fayette and a likely touchdown in Plainfield. Terrific. The warning was good for another 30 minutes. That's a long time to seek shelter in our guest bathroom, especially when one wants to paint in the middle of a living room framed by windows. Bathroom on the one hand, living room and painting on the other. I'm getting brave in my old age, so I returned to my paints, this time with an eye and a half cocked toward the window and both ears tuned to the TV. The music I like to paint to would have to wait.

Within 30 minutes the storm dissipated. There was not even a puff of air to disturb anything and it was time to get serious. I played my music, turned on my overhead lamp, poured another glass of wine, plopped color onto the palette with serious intent, and got down to business. My miserable work day melted away. Members wanting to cancel? Go ahead, cancel! Meetings being scheduled around times that are already overbooked? Sure, go ahead! I'll be there! It all retreated into the far background for more than a solid hour. It was just me and the canvas. I wish I could say it was total bliss, but I missed the smell of oil of paint.

Had I spent this very same evening with oil instead of acrylic paints, then it would have been heaven. And I would have enjoyed hearing Zeke prattling around upstairs and having the beast at my feet. I have had those things and am that much richer for them. Zeke will be home in just a couple of days and, well, Chipper is in my heart. That's as a good place, if not better, than at my feet.

While this is not our best photo, it was taken two years ago when Zeke and I visited Bill and Becky in Manitou Springs, Colorado. He is there right now as I write this. I am home in Indiana dealing with tornadoes.

Here is today's work (some of it is from a brief session yesterday). Now that this street scene is completely laid in, I am going to cover it with snow. At least tonight that's what I think I will do. Oh, I just had an idea. I'd like to add some little trees in front of the shops. Then I'll add the snow. Oh, so much to do.