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VCFA visuals #6: skyworks
Category Archives: journeys
VCFA visuals #5: a river really does run through it
downtown Montpelier
I have this thing for the ocean. But in a pinch, a pond, a creek, a river will do.
The Winooski River flows through Montpelier, Vermont. From the balcony of the old Victorian, we could actually see the river.
And when I was out running, I discovered the cool bridge below:
the cool bridge
Look one way, and this is what you see.
Look the other, and this is what you see.
VCFA visuals #4: july 4th
walking behind a Midsummer Night's Dream
red, white, and blue houses
VCFA in the parade
VCFA visuals #3: remembering the stones
a row of stones
a locked door
in a little stone house
a stone cracked open:
divided
mended
not alone
not
VCFA visuals #2: the old victorian
where I started each of the eleven days…
and where I returned each of the eleven nights…
VCFA visuals #1: exhausted
the contents of my suitcase
Yesterday, I drove from Montpelier to Boston, flew from Boston to Atlanta, drove from Atlanta to Columbus, where I pulled into the driveway about 6:15 last night.
I had big plans for today, but I’m just drifting from one thing to another, not getting anything done.
11 days at VCFA, and now a series of photo posts to unwind myself, to spit me out into the world again.
on my way
I am at this minute high in the sky on my way to Vermont for my fourth residency, about to begin my last semester at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. How fast the time has gone.
And I have loved every second of it–the residencies, the packets, the advisers, the community of writers.
In the spring of 2009 I decided to pursue my MFA in Writing because I seemed so close to something but not quite reaching it. I thought an MFA program might provide the missing ingredient.
Some people need the requirements of deadlines to sit down at their desks. Not me. I adore sitting at my desk to write. Others are looking for a community of writers. I was already in a writing group. Some people want feedback, but my writing group exchanges manuscripts four times a year. Some people just want to make writing a priority. It already was for me.
Still, I have received something that has made pursuing my MFA in Writing invaluable.
Immersion is the only way I know to describe it. An absolute dunking in all things writing all the time. Not just feedback four times a year but feedback every four weeks. Not just writing but writing about writing. And not just that but having a packet due so that even when life was full of other things and even when I was writing, I couldn’t just write–I had to produce thirty pages in three days because the other days of the month had been full of other things, which meant staying down under longer than ever before.
Last semester I wrote the best pages I’ve ever written. And I knew it.
Did I mention confidence? Pursuing my MFA in Writing at VCFA has given me confidence.
I’ll return to campus one more time in December to give a forty-five minute lecture, a reading, and to graduate.
Like this:
oh the ocean
It’s so quiet now, without the waves pounding in the background. The first week in April we had our own wonderful steps to the beach. I went to the grocery before I left, and after I arrived on Friday, the first, I did not set foot in a car until we pulled out of the driveway Friday, the eighth, to come home. I wish I could say I woke with the sun, but I slept late, I walked, I read, read, read… All activities interrupted by a few steps to the ship-size deck for hefty doses of sea air. I wrote, wrote, wrote…with the door open and the sound and view of the ocean. And after it was dark, just for fun, I downloaded the series Damages and watched in solo-size on my iPhone. I ate more pizza than I would have thought possible because it was the only place that delivered. Even pizza for breakfast one day. When I write, the hours turn to minutes and before I know it, the day is done. But one day, Sunday I think, I just read all day–different books. With a midday walk down the beach. And the day felt l u x u r i o u s l y long.
Like this:
childhood
new york march 2011
In New York last weekend, Cal and I saw Memphis, the 2010 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical. It was GREAT!
Saturday, we ate breakfast outside (despite the cold weather) at Sarabeth’s on the park.
At The Museum of Modern Art, we saw:
Picasso Guitars 1912-1914,- Andy Warhol Motion Pictures–12 or 14 giant screens, showing facial close-ups,
- and an exhibit on Abstract Expressionist New York, featuring Jackson Pollack.
In striking contrast to Picasso’s assurance was Pollack’s self-doubt. About the metal sculpture Picasso made of a guitar, people asked, “What is it, painting or sculpture?” Picasso answered, “It’s nothing, it’s el guitare!” On the other hand, “once, after completing a new piece, Pollack asked his wife, Lee Krasner, ‘Is this a painting?’”
Saturday night was the revival of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, which I was glad to see but which was somewhat tedious, both in dialogue and acting. Also, the actors whose performances I enjoyed most were the ones with whom the critics found the most fault.
Sunday was a 3-hour walk from Times Square to Soho and then brunch at Commerce, a wonderful little restaurant tucked into a residential neighborhood in Greenwich Village, large murals by David Joel. I highly recommend the doughnuts.
Monday morning was a blur of rain and umbrellas as I headed for the airport, full of inspiration and good food.
Tied with Memphis for my favorite part of the trip was seeing Picasso’s obsession with guitars and seeing how each expression was different from, and fed on or off of, the others. A digital version of his sketchbook was available.
Chad Kimball sings “Memphis Lives in Me:”
