Sorrow & Rainbows

"I have been in Sorrow's kitchen & licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands." Zora Neale Hurston, whose birthday is today. Born she was on the 7th of January, 1891. Now, if I hadn't gotten in the habit of birthday-checking [I note them in a little second-hand, red-bound Birthday Book, larded w/ Chas. Dickens quotations. Vicki Grove gave it to me, bless her.] & quote-collecting, never would I have come across those beautiful words. Now. A fast walk 'round the block then down to work: Words to fuss with: double-checking a little piece about the remarkable Hiram Young [slave-turned-freeman-businessman-wagon manufacturer, b. 200 yrs ago this year] Drawing to be done. Gotta draw the Prairie Park Plantation c. 1849 for my Arrow Rock [MO] Coloring Book. I reckon Mr. Young and more than a few forgotten souls at the old plantation knew a thing or two about sorrow. And, let's hope, at least one peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows.

So, okay, well, if nothing else, it's a far out way of putting off getting down to work, checking out who was born [future 10th President John Tyler, 1790] and who croaked [King Gustav III of Sweden, at what must have been a thrilling masked ball, all smelling of perfume, powders, pomade, and candle wax, on a spring night in 1792.... man oh man, picture those fleeting glances and embroidered party clothes..], on this day in history. Better to revisit Luciano Pavarotti's glorious death scene than think about my tax appointment an hour from now. And here in the next little while I've got to get serious about doing a painting of what Hiram Young's yoke and wagon 'manufactory' might have looked like in the 1840s, here in Independence, the Queen City of the Trails. Do you know about him? Oh baby - look him up! A great and resourceful overcomer he was.