My sister Sia came up with a great idea for the artistic women of the family – choose a theme and then each of us should create something within our “genre” around that theme. After a few email conversations, we decided upon the RLS poem “Where go the boats?”
Dark brown is the river,
Golden is the sand
It flows along forever,
With trees on either hand.
Green leaves a-floating,
Castles of the foam,
Boats of mine a-boating
Where with all come home?
On goes the river
And out past the mill,
Away down the valley,
Away down the hill.
Away down the river,
A hundred miles or more,
Other little children
Shall bring my boats ashore.
As children, we had a book of Stevenson’s poems that were a mainstay of bedtime reading. I think we all could create vivid images in our minds from those many years of listening and imagining…
The challenge was to come up with something to present on Christmas Day, 2009 – all women were welcome – including my mom, her 3 daughters, our daughters – and even our brother’s wife and 2 little girls. It was fun – and great to see what everyone came up with (no penalties for not completing it on time – we’re still waiting for Bill’s wife, Carolyn, to reveal her piece – but with 6 and 4 yr old daughters running around, I’m not sure how she’ll find the time…).
My mom used her quilting prowess to show off all of the boats that our family has owned and loved over the years. She used photos that she could print on fabric to create this piece:
Amelia made this wonderful textile art piece:
Sia offered up her marquetry marvel:
I added my stained glass rendition of a piece of art I found on the internet:
Niece/cousin Brittany (Amelia’s daughter) used the idea to inspire her students:
Here’s my unofficial entry – I think Sarah could have shown off some of her photography from Lake Whatcom MC Scow races – even I was able to capture this great view:
