Y is for...

Y is for..., watercolor on mixed media paper, January 8, 2012

This will likely be the first and last time I draw and paint a yak. I was desperate for Ys. When I was a child, I thought yew berries were cool. Then I was told that they are poisonous. After that I was too afraid of them to even touch them. That might be a metaphor for my entire childhood. More things induced fear than awe. Yellow has always been my favorite color. My dad was an architectural engineer, and I loved going to his office to see the blueprints and especially the model-making department. I always wanted to live inside the models. An aerial view of the world lends a surreal, almost artificial quality to everything. I wonder how long phone books will continue to be produced. I doubt the next generation will demand them. I love yarn, especially when it is still in hanks. I appreciate process, and I think I would enjoy going through each stage: carding, spinning, forming a hank, rolling a ball, knitting a sweater...or maybe something much smaller. That would be genuinely homemade. In the office where I work, there are three of us "girls," and we used to identify with the Hallmark Card characters: Hoops, Yo-yo, and Piddles. I'm the little blue one, Piddles. Y is for yak, yew berry, yellow, Yahoo, yard, Yellow Pages, yarn, and Yo-yo & Friends.