The Bucket List

I recently announced on social media and the website that I was taking a long dreamed of “bucket list” trip. The plan is to drive across the country with my husband. We plan to spend time traveling west through Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma , Arizona and eventually to the California coast. We had originally planned to travel north from Huntington Beach to Sequoia to wrap up the California portion of the trip, but after some discussion, my husband suggested going to San Francisco instead. I was instantly intrigued. I was honestly becoming a little overwhelmed with all of the the travel plans but upon Joe’s suggestion, I immediately thought of Michael.

Oh he’d be so excited for me to travel to San Francisco, to California in general. He often told me stories about his life, “ growing up on an isolated ranch in Northern California, camping, swimming, raising cattle, chopping wood and riding horses.”

I am hesitant to take this trip. There is so much to consider. I still work part time. Fortunately, my employer graciously has granted me the time to make this happen. I still run the business and I feel badly about stepping down for an entire month to travel. I have a couple of good excuses for putting this adventure off.

This evening, I was rearranging my workspace and by chance, (this often happens), I came across one of Michael’s old bits of work, tucked into a pile of prints and paperwork. It was the watercolor illustration for “Star and Snowflake”. I had forgotten about the design. I hadn’t thought about it much. It wasn’t one of my favorites. I love the watercolor but the text seemed a bit predictable to me at the time. Tonight I read it as if it had been written for me.

I guess I needed to be in a place in my head where it suddenly made sense.

I’m going for it, Michael. I know you are cheering me on.

From Behind the Art

This quote by Sir Francis Bacon seems to speak to me these days. I keep thinking there are a few items on my bucket list that haven’t been checked off. For obvious reasons I feel it is more urgent to take that trip, to make that call, to watch more sunsets, to say “I love you.”

Michael

This was originally a commission for a customer and though it has been long ago, I remember Michael struggling a bit with a visual for the project, over several days, maybe more like a week. After pulling out his water colors and paint brushes and a bit of tinkering he came up with an idea. He called me into his office and he traced my hand. I wasn’t impressed with the concept at the time but Michael came up with a design that perfectly represents the text. “We only have this moment…”

Gwen