“Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift”

—“The Uses of Sorrow”, by Mary Oliver.

I love that poem, to which I was first exposed (so to speak) by Dominique Browning in her very admirable and honest memoir, “Slow Love Life”.

I shouldn’t think this is a picture which will require much “explaining” for those friends of mine who know me well.  It took about three hours (at most) on this rainy April morning………..to be honest, I was getting a bit tired of this “God Bless (and DRAW) Every Single blade of grass” business. The Pre-Raphaelites and, 100 years later, Andrew Wyeth all got a bit tired of this niggly-detailed routine…..as I do, from time to time.

 

Pastel, Watercolor, and pencil,

2015