Post # 198: Face Time

 

"Looking out to the Sea" - Composition Renee & Ned Kahn

I’ve relocated to my son Ned’s hilltop house in Sebastopol, California. Ironically, my mother came from Sebastopol in Czarist Russia, an idyllic seaside resort on the Black Sea. She remembered it as a Garden of Eden where you could reach out of your bedroom window and pull in a handful of grapes for breakfast. Until the pogroms came - and it turned into a circle of hell. Nothing lasts forever and I‘ve  learned to keep my psychological bags packed, just in case.

The idea of leaving my home of sixty years was almost inconceivable. I had a beautiful studio overlooking woods, with civilization (Dunkin’ Donuts and a liquor store) within walking distance. I’ve always had an open door policy and friends  were welcome to turn up whenever they liked. My late husband (a clinical psychologist) used to call it my “only child syndrome”.  But, here I am in Sebastopol, California, another Garden of Eden like my mother’s home town. Maybe that’s how it got its name; no one knows. Meanwhile, I’ve been kicked out of one Paradise and we’ll see how well this next one goes. Visitors welcome. It’s my last move and I just got a new library card.

> Post #197: Living in Paradise

I am writing this blog from my son’s house in Sebastopol, California, the contemporary equivalent of the Garden of Eden. If it had been left to me, I would still be living on Webb’s Hill Road in Connecticut, my home for over sixty years. But fate and a booming real estate market have determined otherwise. Fortunately, my sons live in the Bay Area and have offered to take me in. They both live in what can only be described as preambles to Paradise.

Beautiful clouds are rolling towards me from the Pacific ocean. I'm currently working on metal collages made up from scraps found on the ground from my son's workshop. If you put a pinback on them, they can be worn as jewelry. Plus I am back to my old paper plates series, multi layered and more interesting than ever.

I miss you all, and my studio in Stamford, however, life is an adventure and let's see where it takes me!