The Fall of 2011 is my last semester of teaching drawing and painting at Sewanee, in Sewanee, TN. I was away all last year on sabbatical in India, Bhutan, New Hampshire and Vermont. In all its blessed openness, that time showed me I needed to leave Sewanee and settle down up North with my husband, taking the leap from academia out into the wider world, and ending seven years of living apart from my closest family. I decided to come back to Sewanee for one semester, to wrap up my responsibilities, and maybe to see the place more clearly before moving on.
During my four months here, I'll collect stories, of which there are countless dozens in this old and multi-layered place. The links below are to mp3 files of the stories I'll record each time I have enough to tell. I hope you'll enjoy them.
TO HEAR A STORY, CLICK ON THE RED DATE TO THE LEFT OF THE STORY SYNOPSIS. A NEW WINDOW WILL OPEN, AND THE SOUND RECORDING SHOULD LOAD AFTER A FEW SECONDS.
| August 18th, 2011 | A resolution to write stories; the Sharp Shopper, local purveyors of discount/expired foodstuffs; Ward explains the giant bricks my current house is made of; Walmart speaks. | |||
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| the Krishna-blue boots | the giant bricks | |||
| August 23rd, 2011 | Persephone; smuggling vs. dumping; small, easily-transported paintings of sleeping animals; deep pockets for my students clothes, where they may carry what they love | |
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| the sleeping animals | ||
| August 26th, 2011 | The half-full bucket; Lydia's garden, its struggles & persistence; why spring-houses must be covered and sometimes look like tombs as a result; the empty bucket and handful of mint | |||
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| Lydia's grapevine | the many-headed hose | |||
| August 30th, 2011 | The Karmapa encampment; the Many-Armed Bestower of Porky Blessings; Sheryl, who weaves her stories on a jacquard loom; two witches stirring their pots in the yard |
| September 6th, 2011 | The three Orions; the missing piece; the swiftly gathering nought; concentration as exclusion and concentration as thickening | |||||
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| Carlos tells his Orion story & Elizabeth listens | Robley with Carlos' Orion | concentration as thickening: David Shaw's Hangup at the Contemporary | ||||
| September 11th, 2011 | Circumambulating the Georgia state capitol on 9/11; Kondañña Who Understands; the pileated Shiva and the storm-scarred oak. | |||
| September 20th, 2011 | Hypatia and Hecuba; mapping the continents of ire-land; the frat boys next door; the equinox and the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. | |||
| October 13th, 2011 | Founder's Day Convocation and Zuccotti Park; the tiger's whiskers and the hinge of the world; steering clear of oppositions. | |||
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| the heart wants what the heart wants | ||||
| November 30th, 2011 | One-year anniversary of Stephanie's death; crystals as heavy as whales; Triple Diamond Grief with a Complimentary Beverage; a sad day is still a day in the round. | |||
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| a diptych about the subterranean growth of our friendship (it turns out the second man has buck's antlers, not donkey's ears.) | ||||