This porch called to me.

How could I resist a yellow rocking chair in the sun?

This is the porch on my daughter’s house, where I have visited this week to meet my new grandson. (Yup. He’s pretty adorable.)

A porch can be a wonderful source of patterns and shadows.

I had with me a small sketchbook I use mostly when I travel. And so it is a record of ideas and sketches from specific times and places. This visit to this porch brought me memories of other visits to other porches.

This little sketch is from 2010, made during a visit to a long-time friend in Belfast, Maine. This is looking over the railing to her neighbor. I liked the way the architecture of the porch where I was sitting provided a frame for the house next door.

These little sketches are of the porch itself. And some rocks.

My friend, Charlotte, and her family collected rocks from their vacations. They would enjoy silly ceremonies of placing the new rocks on the pile or in the garden next to previously gathered rocks. Building stories.

That trip inspired me to create one of my first art quilts, created around 2010 when I returned from that trip. This is Memory Rocks.

This little quilt is about 20.5” square. I enjoyed looking at it again today when I photographed it. I can see a lot of ideas I was working out and developing.

So I had some very nice connections this week on that sunny porch rocker.

I remembered how a place can inspire a story.

I discovered again the beauty of interesting patterns and shadows that can be captured in very simple spaces.

I connected again to another porch through the record of my sketchbook. (I am a strong advocate of keeping a sketchbook, or several, and referring back to them periodically. Put a date next to what you write or sketch. A lot of what you thought and sketched will have changed and might not mean anything to you at all. Some of what you thought and recorded will resonate with you again, perhaps in a new way.)

I will enjoy pulling out the sketches I made, some evening in a leisurely way on another favorite spot: my front porch at home.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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