Travel Portrait 19
Sandy Watiff Off-Season: Part 7
September 1, 2008 [listen]

I. [f]Au[x] Natural

I received a text-message this morning alerting me that there was going to be rain throughout the day--a perfect day to visit the Sandy Watiff Gallery and Study Center at the Farandole Tidewater Art Museum. Eddie was sleeping, which gave me some time to have a coffee and to read more of the catalog in preparation for the visit.

"I want a snack, too. Cereal."

The coffee was brewed as I finished slurping the non-fat milk from the bottom of the bowl. When I hurriedly set the bowl into the sink, the spoon clanked against the bowl lip. I jittered. I poured the coffee into a tall mug--hand-crafted. I felt a draft that made me shiver, that reminded me of my cardigan sweater. I set the mug down on what I thought was the countertop. Wrong.

"Curses!"

I immediately searched for a towel to dab-dry the catalog as well as wipe-up the spill.

"Messy, messy, messy!"

I cleaned up and brewed more coffee, found a squat mug, located and put on my sweater. I watched (with satisfaction) the overcast daybreak before sitting in the dining room to read my coffee table book. I was feeling like I was at home.

I had about two hours to myself, allowing me to ingrain the images (the figures and plates) written about in the catalog. I attempted to memorize the essays, ruminate the text subtitling the images as a simultaneous consciousness. I wondered what my photographic memory would actually retain; how would these images be exemplified by me?

I asked myself, "How might these images reside within me as an aesthetic lore, as a magic from which I can gain a belief in being engaged with Art daily, while living a li[f]e?"

II. Facing the Challenge

Eddie and I ate a couple of pizza slices for lunch prior to going to the Farandole. After a brief introduction, we were pointed in the direction of the study center and Sandy Watiff's paintings. There were some twenty artworks, a third of which I recognized from the catalog. Eddie was enthused by the paintings, but at his age, his reactions were not gallery-friendly.

"This is boring," he said with a smile while pointing, then touching a painting.

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"So then, why are you touching the painting? You're not supposed to," I admonished, attempting to not dash his fervor. "Look at this 'boring' one, Eddie."

This was a tempora on panel of a white house adjacent to a body of water, a cottage that looked similar to the one in which he and I were residing.

"When did Watiff paint this one?" I asked while reading the title card. I continued, "Mid-Twentieth Century--over fifty years ago! Now how did Sandy know we would be staying in a place like that here in the twenty-first century?"

"I don't know."

"This is what is known as legacy--the big long after.

"Boring."

"Boring indeed."

"Let's go home, daddy."

Home where, Philly?"

"No, home," he said, pointing at the painting of the house.

Total, we spent a [in]famous fifteen minutes in the gallery studying. Fortunately, we both had to go potty, so we were (I was) able (in passing) to see more of the museum.

Once at the cottage, I rewarded myself with a fresh lobster; Eddie with homemade chicken fingers accompanied with pineapple. There was corn-on-the-cob, also. We did not discuss the Study Center; we relaxed. I contemplated what I did not get to see; Eddie, I suppose, what he saw.

III. Watiff Scenarios

I did not awake refreshed this morning. My back was killing me: spasms. I tried to quietly make my way to the bathroom, then to the kitchen, to the refrigerator to obtain some ice water. Outside the window, there was a mist in the air. I was allured. I heard a caw. There she was--the docent.

Watiff Scenario #1: figure 23

I put on my sweater, slid on my clogs, and grabbed my camera. I opened the door, and walked into the backyard.

Caw, caw.

"Point-and-shoot."

	Watiff Scenario #2: plate 44
Watiff Scenario #3: figure 51	Watiff Scenario #4: plate 72

Caw! Caw!!

"There! There!!"

Watiff Scenario #5: figure 36	Watiff Scenario #6: plate 78

Caw. Caw.

"Again. Again."

Watiff Scenario #7: figure 65	Watiff Scenario #8: figure 65

Caw!

"Now see here!"

Watiff Scenario #9: plate 84	Watiff Scenario #10: plate 36
Watiff Scenario #11: figure 39	Watiff Scenario #12: plate 10

Caw.

"Take your time."

Watiff Scenario #13: plate 30

Caw.

"Listen to me."

"Caw."

"I am your guide."

I followed the sound of the docent about the premises, collecting impressions: Watiff Scenarios.

After the tour, I went back inside to jot down some notes and to view the images digitized in my camera. I compared my pictures to those in the catalog.

Later that day and for the vacation outstanding, Eddie and I did some sightseeing. When not about, we slacked at the cottage: Eddie at the easel; me in the kitchen, cooking up something.

Watiff Scenario #14: figure 12	Watiff Scenario #15: plate 34

Once back in Philadelphia, Eddie was having his own reverie. I was having flashes of the lore that I lived, as well as having laurel memories--preserved and cataloged.

Watiff Scenario #16: figure 91	Watiff Scenario #17: plate 13
Watiff Scenario #18: figure 24	Watiff Scenario #19: plate 81
Watiff Scenario #20: figure 24