Hello,I received the most wonderful surprise on Saturday morning. A woman had seen my painting of the rowboat titled "Dry Docked" on the cover of the Bainbridge Islander and just happened to know quite a bit about it's history. She decided to email and share with me the part of the boats history that she was part of. I love painting images that seem to have a story to tell and this time I was blessed to be able to hear part of it's story. So let me share it with you...
Meagan:
I saw your painting Dry Docked on the cover of the Bainbridge Islander and went to your page on the BI Studio Tour. Saw your statement: "Meagan's goal is to paint images that resonate with our past -- taking the viewer back to a place they remember, a time with a slower pace, a sweet memory of times gone by." In this case, the resonance is personal. I thought that I'd share a bit about the history of the subject matter. Tho boat washed up on the shore of Eagle Harbor has had a very long history, of which I've had only a very small part. We've lovingly known it as The Sea Moon. My husband (Gregg) purchased the boat many years ago before we met. It was in sorry shape then. Best history he had for it was that it had been a tender on a fishing boat. He planned to renovate it, but it sat as a neglected project for some time. He brought it with him when he moved into Winslow Cohousing here on the island when we first opened in 1992. By then he had all but given up on the idea of renovation, and suggested it might make a good sandbox for the children. I had moved in at the same time with my then husband (Tim) and our two daughters. Tim took a shine to the boat and with Gregg's acquiescence, worked with the kids in the community to renovate the boat, paint it turquoise, and name it. They brought the boat down to the City dock and launched it there, leaving it moored as a dinghy at the dock during the summers. Many people used the Sea Moon for a number of years. Adults went for leisurely rows. Adolescents escaped without their parent's knowledge and explored independence and nooks and crannies of Eagle Harbor. Live-aboards borrowed it when they had cargo to haul out to their homes. During this time much happened in our own lives. Tim and I split up. Gregg moved away from cohousing and spent some time as a live aboard himself, using the Sea Moon as his tender. Gregg and I got together. Gregg moved back. Tim used the boat in Blakely Harbor for a while, and loaned the Sea Moon to another live aboard. The Sea Moon passed from our lives as our lives changed. I never felt as if anyone "owned" it. It always seemed an entity unto itself. A couple of years ago Gregg and I came upon the Sea Moon washed up on the Wing Point shore of Eagle Harbor; looks like that's where it was when you found it, too. It seemed as if it had been submerged, then washed ashore. There were many untold stories floating around the boat, hints and whispers, confidences kept. We lingered, reminisced, and walked on. Thanks for bring back that place for me to remember,
Anonymous
(The Sea Moon as I found it)
(Launch of the Sea Moon)It was so special to me that this wonderful woman would care enough to think that I may want to know the story behind the picture. I promised her I would keep her name anonymous but If you are reading this...Thank you!!! It meant so much to me.
Hope you are all doing well.
Blessings,
Meagan
What an awesome story Meg! Thanks for sharing it. Todd
ReplyDeleteI love the story and that she shared it with you, hence with all of us. ~Joan
ReplyDeleteMeg,
ReplyDeleteI love your booth picture with all the little banner flags. My daughter is getting married and I would like to do something like that as decor. Would you be kind enough to tell me how to make them?
Claudia
Hi Claudia,
ReplyDeleteI hope you get this message because I can't email you...I don't have your email address. Anyway, I'm happy to tell you how I made those flags. I started out with a piece of cardboard to make my template for the flag size that I wanted. I bought 5 different fabrics that coordinated at 1/4 yard each and each of the flags was the height of the fabric..so 9" tall I guess. Then I bought wonder under, the stiff kind, and ironed it to the back of each of the strips of fabric then peeled off the backing of the wonder under and placed the strips, wonder under side down, on a backing fabric that coordinated (mine was that green gingham fabric) and ironed the two pieces of fabric together. (make sure to follow the directions on the wonder under, it explains it better than I did) Then I took a marker and outlined the flags on the fabric turning my template back and forth so that it almost looked like a zig zag and cut the flags apart with a pair of pinking shears. The flags butt up next to each other so one cut for two flags, if you know what I mean. Then, the tricky part, I overlapped each flag by about 1/2 an inch or so with a bias tape overlapping them front and back for the entire length of the banner and pinned it all together as I went down the line. When it was all pinned I sewed it all together. The final size for me was 20 feet long because that was what I needed for 2 sides of my booth but I did have additional flags I didn't use. I did leave extra bias tape at the ends to use to tie it on to my booth. If you have any questions just put it in another comment and I will get back to you. Hope you have fun with this! It would be beautiful for a wedding.
Blessings,
Meagan
Ok this is just the coolest thing. How often do we wish we knew the story behind some neat old object that we are drawn to like you were this old boat? You obviously felt something because you needed to paint it, but did you ever imagine you'd really get to find out?
ReplyDeleteWhat a gift to now have the whole story!
Wow!