Setting the time machine up on my easel, laying the colors out on my palette, and I'm ready to venture backwards. A model posing in the dancing light pouring in through the studio window. Memories of my cousin Barbara laying in a hammock strung between tall, straight oak trees. A breeze sings for the light to dance too. The Aunts are in Uncle Al's river cabin baking bean casseroles and slicing ham. Uncle Tom is down the wooden and dirt stairs baiting hooks, as the cousins pull black bullheads from the river. Dad and Uncle Al have walked down the road from the cabin to see how the glasshouse is being built…
The first colors run down the canvas and I am brought back to the studio to push one of those colors here and there. Never surprised, my model sees I've put her in a yellow dress and not in the blue one I had requested her to wear.
Suddenly, a carp jumps into the boat and I'm drawn back time-traveling. Grandma calls for us to come to shore for picture time. The bullheads can wait for more worms, as the fishing poles are laid to rest and cousins gather round Grandpa and Grandma for a photo. Uncle Paul lines everyone up and snaps off a roll of film. Aunt Marie calls for everyone to get their chipped china plate. Time to say a prayer and eat. The cabin is wall to wall food. With ten uncles and ten aunts and countless cousins, the casseroles disappear quickly. Bags of Lay potato chips satisfy the cousins, with chocolate cakes waiting. Uncle John pulls up on his Harley and cousins line up for rides.
Lines accompany the running colors, as a mixture of time forms on the canvas. The present comes forth with the call for detail. Cousin Barbara fades as Jordan appears on my canvas.
