January’s theme for The Sketchbook Challenge is “Highly Prized.” It has me thinking about all the things I value. On this, the first day of 2011, one of the first to come to mind is time. I hung my new 2011 calendars today, and started thinking about the year to come, the things to be accomplished. So it made sense to choose these old clocks to sketch today for the challenge.
I’ve always loved old alarm clocks, and have a small collection. My favorite was one I purchased on a trip to Seattle and Vancouver in the late ’80s. It had a bell on top, and a name – Slumber Stopper – that always made me smile. Unfortunately it was destroyed when it fell off a shelf after the roofers started pounding on our first home, a rented cottage in Charlottesville, Virginia. The three shown in my sketch above are newer acquisitions. Part of the reason I love old household objects is imagining their past.
Did the little green clock get packed in a trunk and taken to camp? Did the “True Ring” get its dent when it was thrown against a wall by a grumpy teenager who didn’t want to get up for school?
It seemed a luxury to sit down to sketch and paint today; I am usually so busy rushing around and getting things done that I do not find the time. I hope I can do a little bit in my sketchbook every day, and use it as inspiration and exploration for my fiber art.
– Robert Burns
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