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Steven Sweeney · 08-26-2002, 11:59 PM

Thanks, Michael, I very much appreciate the invitation and I'll endeavour to take you up on it next time I'm in the area (perhaps next Spring -- you do have "Spring" in New England, don't you?)

As I mentioned, I'm a northerner, but I can do the Gulf or Key West or coastal California without flinching. I love to sail, and though I've built Maine's Woodenboat Nutshell sailing pram, I've done 90% of my sailing in Minnesota and Montana, which will seem very odd to folks who think those are states made up exclusively of wheatfields. There are there plenty of inland and Great lakes, and those States are in fact made up as well of some of the most beautiful landscape painting subjects imaginable (except, of course, in New England.)

I don't think of lighthouses as "tourist" subjects, because I'm rather fascinated by them and have visited many worldwide. The single painting I've done of a lighthouse, on Cape Cod, is perhaps one of my favourites, not for the lighthouse but for the lucky and accurate capture of an early-morning fogbank that was burning off.

I've heard the bit about outsiders in upper New England getting the cold shoulder for a good while. Doesn't bother me. I take folks for who they are, not who they're descended from (I mean, we're all very accidentally the products of all manner of intentions, affections, trysts, deceits, and accidents, right?) and I don't spend a lot of time worrying about who accepts me into their company. There's lots of company in the world - though sometimes you have to do the work, to find it (and sometimes it catches you offguard - what fun!). We do the same thing in NW Montana, and I suspect the same routine obtains in the Ozarks and in the southern bayous and lots of other places. We still refer to properties as the Nelsson place or the Solberg place, even if it's changed hands a half dozen times, as if none of the interim owners ever really supplanted the homesteaders.

I've just in 24 hours returned from closer to your residence than mine, and have driven 13,000 miles in the past 12 weeks. Most of it has been through drought-plagued country, and it is now raining so hard here in my stopover in Minnesota, that I'll have to unplug the computer so it doesn't get zapped by lightning.

Best wishes and cheers,

08-26-2002, 11:59 PM	#6
Steven Sweeney Juried Member PT 5+ years Joined: Nov 2001 Location: Stillwater, MN Posts: 1,801	Thanks, Michael, I very much appreciate the invitation and I'll endeavour to take you up on it next time I'm in the area (perhaps next Spring -- you do have "Spring" in New England, don't you?) As I mentioned, I'm a northerner, but I can do the Gulf or Key West or coastal California without flinching. I love to sail, and though I've built Maine's Woodenboat Nutshell sailing pram, I've done 90% of my sailing in Minnesota and Montana, which will seem very odd to folks who think those are states made up exclusively of wheatfields. There are there plenty of inland and Great lakes, and those States are in fact made up as well of some of the most beautiful landscape painting subjects imaginable (except, of course, in New England.) I don't think of lighthouses as "tourist" subjects, because I'm rather fascinated by them and have visited many worldwide. The single painting I've done of a lighthouse, on Cape Cod, is perhaps one of my favourites, not for the lighthouse but for the lucky and accurate capture of an early-morning fogbank that was burning off. I've heard the bit about outsiders in upper New England getting the cold shoulder for a good while. Doesn't bother me. I take folks for who they are, not who they're descended from (I mean, we're all very accidentally the products of all manner of intentions, affections, trysts, deceits, and accidents, right?) and I don't spend a lot of time worrying about who accepts me into their company. There's lots of company in the world - though sometimes you have to do the work, to find it (and sometimes it catches you offguard - what fun!). We do the same thing in NW Montana, and I suspect the same routine obtains in the Ozarks and in the southern bayous and lots of other places. We still refer to properties as the Nelsson place or the Solberg place, even if it's changed hands a half dozen times, as if none of the interim owners ever really supplanted the homesteaders. I've just in 24 hours returned from closer to your residence than mine, and have driven 13,000 miles in the past 12 weeks. Most of it has been through drought-plagued country, and it is now raining so hard here in my stopover in Minnesota, that I'll have to unplug the computer so it doesn't get zapped by lightning. Best wishes and cheers, __________________ Steven Sweeney [email protected] "You must be present to win."