Monochrome

It's a wonder I can think at all.

When one of my dearest oldest friends came to visit in December, he brought me a little sculpted flower, made from furniture foam.

It felt fragile. He told me I could color it with markers, so I took him at his word. But at no point did I think about what color the flower would be, or what I’d do about the sky.

I knew sets of greyscale markers existed, so we got an inexpensive set of six.

(My flower, as presented.)

I did get help from Tuck with shading, and I love my finished piece. The camera insists on picking up more green, and more of the actual foam color, than it does in life. But it's miraculous that such a small thing can become beloved and talismanic, simply because two people who love each other make decisions about it and put the work in.

(Colored, with suggestions from Tuck on how to do shading. I added an i-cord knitted border.)

Coffee mug ring, and biography of Jake Thackray = home.

On the wall with my Morris dancing sunglasses.

In these times of difficult health, thin wallets, and worry that 2026 could be as bad or worse than 2025, it felt good to make something small that I couldn't have done alone. All you have to do is care, and it comes out right.