Next Steps

I have lived in New York City since 1989.... that's a long time! I have WANTED to live in New York City since I was 8 years old.  I remember standing in the middle of a big sidewalk... probably Lexington Ave in the 40's and saying... "This is the best place to live forever."  And it is.

I have lived in 4 places in the City, each one better in some way than the one before and I am going to do some documentation of all that here off and on.

The reason for the trip down memory lane is this... I passed my 70th year a while ago.  I am still walking with the dogs almost every day for 2 miles at a pretty good clip.. we pass people. But I know how old I am and it seems to me that it is time to gather the wagons.... at least some of the wagons.

My kids live in Austin TX.  I have been there a couple of times but not in the last 10 years.  They are pushing me to come there "while you can still make your own friends and do art things and be yourself."

I can see the logic.  I have pondered it, struggled with it and resisted it... but it does make sense.  I know the kind of things I do.. collage, art bookmaking, pastels, a bit of painting etc. are done in Austin.  I have the links to the Austin Book Arts Center  and I know there are other places too. I know I can do this, but it does seem like an enormous challenge for me and for the menagerie.

SO I made a book to document it and to keep me moving toward it.  I originally felt that I was aiming for selling the co-op here in November - ish of this year but I now am thinking that April - ish of next year is better.  There is a lot to do and I am not going to let it be my sole focus for that time because there is this city I love and I am going to do some things I want to do one more time. I know I can come back.. but it isn't the same and I want to eat at certain places and visit certain places and document those too in my book.

OK. I loved Rebecca Makkai's book The Great Believers.  It was one of my favorites this year from my bookclubs.  I made the book for the next part of my crazy life out of the cover from The Great Believers.. I should say that the book fell apart while my friend was reading it, and she gave me the cover as a joke. I am going to mostly be writing, I think, but who knows.  On Instagram I have put some photos of the book I made, and sent people here for the reasoning behind the book.  I am adding a few photos below of the book........  I kept the title part of the cover and worked around it.  There are 7 folios each with an assortment of paper types and the cover of each folio is a piece of gelliprint paper that I liked.

"We were the great believers. I have never cared for any men as much as for these who felt the first springs when I did, and saw death ahead, and were reprieved—and who now walk the long stormy summer.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald, “My Generation”" is the epigraph for The Great Believers

I hope this book does not only document a long stormy summer.........