The Shortest Day

To read aloud each year on this day. Wishing a joyful season to you and to all your dear ones. Thank you, Susan Cooper.

So the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow‐white world Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees; They hung their homes with evergreen; They burned beseeching fires all night long To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them Echoing behind us ‐ listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight, This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land: They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends, And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now, This year, and every year.
Welcome Yule!

—Susan Cooper

Celebration Calendar for 2024

Dear all, here is my Each Day Is a Celebration calendar for 2024, this time a series of paintings (oil on linen) reflecting the seasons of the year through still-life, landscape, and architecture. Please contact me (eachdayisacelebration@gmail.com) if you prefer to pick up a calendar rather than have it shipped.

Canova: Sketching in Clay

We spent an uncrowded Tuesday morning slowly wandering awestruck through this NGA exhibit which features not only completed works in marble but SKETCH MODELS IN CLAY that preceded them—with visible marks of tools, quick changes, fingerprints—giving the viewer a glimpse of Canova’s thinking and process. (I was sketching on a page begun earlier; sorry to confuse.)