Perusing the Sunday paper, I came across a review of a new book:
The Story of Charlotte's Web: E.B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic. (you can read said article
here). Apparently, Mr. White was a shy, solitary boy who felt a great kinship to animals. I love animals too, but can say without hesitation that spiders are the creatures for which I hold the least affection. This presents a conundrum of sorts in
that
Charlotte's Web is the book I've read the most times in my life. And my favorite character in the book was not Wilbur, or Fern, or Templeton, but Charlotte. As a child I loved her intelligence, her kindness, her patience. I cried when she died and was touched when her little babies floated away on what I imagined were parachutes and I still think of her when I come across a web full of teeny-tiny baby spiders. But, in all honestly, if I came across Charlotte
in my home, it wouldn't matter what message she may have woven into her elegant web. Just the sight of her eight legs would make my skin crawl and send me running in for my spider-catcher. What is my spider-catcher you ask? It's an ingenious contraption I invented myself, comprised of a Glad Ware bowl and an oversize postcard. I am able to remain an arm's length away from any spider that dares to enter my living space, drop the bowl on top of him or her, and then slide the postcard under the bowl effectively trapping the arachnid . I then toss the entire unit into the great outdoors, which is where all spiders belong. When I am sure the critter has scuttled away I retrieve my spider catcher and breathe a big sigh of relief.
ANYWAY, the article got me thinking...it's fascinating and interesting to me how we humans are able to simultaneously feel such contradictory emotions.
It's been a slow week in my studio and I've spent very little time with my sketchbook. The weather has been relatively decent and after such a miserable spring I simply cannot pass up any opportunity to be outside, even if I do have to share space with spiders. Here's a meager sketch and my current print, pass number two. I plan to forgo Independence Day celebrations and spend the day hunkered down in my studio, (although, if this year is anything like last year, my neighbors will put on a display of illegal fireworks that will rival any organized spectacle, which includes an element of danger in that I have a cedar roof.)
"When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees."
(I can't believe I dated this sketch September 30, 2011.)
...a wise saying by Joseph Joubert, whose wisdom has also inspired the print I am currently working on. The image is slowly becoming clearer, no?
