Gift in my Bed

After a busy day of cleaning my classroom, doing grades, going to to the senior class dinner, I had no energy to blog. I headed up to bed to wash my face, brush my teeth, and collapse into my soft bed.

As I drew back the covers, I saw a large package that looked like a brick.

I asked Larry what it was, and he said "it is a present for my wife".

I opened the bag and in it was Fiona McCarthy's book "William Morris: A Life for Our Time". Now some of you who know me very well know I have a collection of Pre-Raphaelite books, some of which are rare and I have had to sell from time to time to keep my business going or to take a class. I regret selling one particular book as it was so rare that it could not be found but one place on the Internet, but what is done is done.

The piece de resistance was when I opened the book and there was a postcard dated 1936 which was written to May Morris who was living at her family home - Kelmscott Manor, two years before she died. She was Morris's younger daughter and an important designer in the Morris tradition.

Morris was an incredible man. A poet, artist, architect, pioneer of the socialist movement in England, and much more. I rank him up there on the list with Da Vinci and other great genius's. He influenced and changed the course of art and design, founding what is known as the Arts and Crafts movement. He was a man who worked himself to death...but not without leaving behind a legacy.

The book is 775 pages long. It will take a good part of my life to read it.
I am inspired and influenced by the work of that time period, and look forward to being further inspired.

I am redoing my kitchen. We don't have much money to put into it, but we have stripped the wallpaper, and the walls and ceiling of this 1920's house is being patched. I am choosing the palette of Morris, and plan on incorporating some arts and crafts pieces into it. A tile from the Burne-Jones show I bought at the MET. Prints I have collected of Rossetti's work. I already have the rich tones of wood in my ancient built-in cabinets with their glass faced doors.

Thank you Larry for being the kind loving man that you are, always thinking of me. You are also an inspiration in my life in so many ways, always having faith in me and in my art work.

Though I will never be a William Morris, I will have left my own special legacy scattered in the world in the form of the thousands of cards and pieces of artwork that have been sent all over the world.

I hope that the next 30+ years of my life will be even more productive than ever, thanks to you, and the many others who have supported me!

In art, Patti