Tag: design

Morning Sunshine!

I’m putting together a notebook of all the amazing notes my guy left for me on the kitchen island over the years. I love these artifacts of his wit and generosity of spirit. One of my favorite things to experience on this planet was to come down in the morning to a  square of post-it goodness from him. They often began with: “G’mornin sunshine!”. Sometimes they were more involved.

See exhibit A below. This one Jon designed to let me know a few things, chiefly that the foot rug that’s normally in front of the door was in the washer so I might want to put it in the dryer. At the time, we were caring for one of our kitties who was in his end of life stage, and that meant cleaning up urine from where urine wasn’t meant to go. This cat was “my” cat. We each came with one to our relationship. Jon poured his love toward this creature fully. Of course he did.

morning note #1

And here’s a picture of him smelling really nice.

IMG_5307

Architextural Designs

Jon was multi-talented – an autodidact – and I do not use that word lightly. If ever voracious applied to someone’s reading habits, it’s his. It was a daily sight to see him holding a book with one hand while stirring a pot, brushing his teeth, doing pretty much anything. He taught himself how to design buildings on construction sites without ever going to school for it. Last year, he passed all six parts of the NYS architectural exam.

But it’s his artistic talents I want to highlight here, hence the ‘text’ in architextural.

Troy Arts
Photo courtesy of Geof Huth

Above is a photo from an exhibit he and I (Cara) collaborated on in 2010. It started when he gave me the absolutely most inventive present I have ever received. He took the words from a poem in my first book and put them into an architectural drawing. It wasn’t long before a gallery full of these amazing works were on display at The Arts Center in Troy. You can read poet Geof Huth’s write-up of the show here. I am so grateful this documentation exists.

As in our artist statement for the show, we hoped for integrity at the intersection of our collaboration. I believe we had it.

Troy Arts 2
Photo courtesy of Geof Huth