In a Small World Lives Memory Lane

 A few years ago I ran into a high school friend David at City Market. David is cool, he was cool even in high school. In his high school life he was a fantastic artisan and potter in D-21. D-21 as it was called was the infamous Art Room at Dimond High School. Today, David is a successful and amazing carpenter. It was through David that Daddy-O and I met our current electrical contractor that installed our power box, panels and upgraded our electrical for my kilns, plasma cutters and welder at the old house (he's getting a call this summer for the new house needs!). Welders should never be without a good electrician and thanks to David we have one for life! David and I were reminiscing on one of our morning meet-ups over morning coffee and he mentioned that our old art teacher Mr. S, who also happens to be a very successful potter, is now teaching in China. David and Mr. S have occasionally e-mailed one another along with a few other of our D-21 art peeps. 

Directly above is a page from my high school yearbook showing the Art Room at D-21. That's me in the upper right corner! The other photo, upper left, is a picture of Mr. S talking with a student in 1980. The smaller inset is of another art teacher Mrs. P, who also happened to be a vendor at the Spenard Farmer's Market last summer selling her art!

Over the Holiday break I received an e-mail from an old high school boyfriend, Steve. He was happy to read on the internet that I was still an artist and even making a living at it. Steve shared that he is now also an artist as well as a teacher in Seattle. He wasn’t one of our regular D-21 crew because he spent most of his creative time with the theater crowd. Approaching 50 years old and ready for a change, Steve wrote he was about to be moving to China and had written and illustrated a book "A Place For My Stuff" about downsizing and his process that lead up to the big life change. The book was available on Blurb so I ordered it and when it arrived I put it under the Christmas tree. Finally able to sit down with my morning tea I had a chance to read through it. It’s a lovely story full of wonderful illustrations of places I'm familiar with in Seattle. Through the book I was able to catch a glimmer of what my old high school friend has been up to the last 30 years. The coolest part of the story is at a Holiday Open House both David and I were at, I shared that Steve is now in China and teaching at the same school as Mr. S! After all these years, it's still a small world.

"A Place For My Stuff" An Illustrated Journal by my high school friend Steven Reddy. Available from Blurb. 
Steve writes "All of the location sketches were done on-site with black Uni-ball pens in spiral-bound tablets of 90lb. all-purpose paper. I shade them with very diluted India ink washes with Utrecht's Nylon Sable brushes, and color them with whatever watercolors are handy. Sometimes I'll apply highlights with a white Jelly Roll pen."