Jo Myers-Walker's Blog

Photo of the Clymer homestead

Watercolor of Clymer house, with returning siblings

Recently I took a trip to Indiana where all of us cousins had decided to bury our parents together. We’d been planning this for over a year and had a lovely service (in the church we had attended with our grandparents), told stories celebrating the lives of our loved ones, then went out to where our ancestors (Brethren and Mennonites) had established a burial ground.

To support upkeep around the gravesite, I painted the Clymer homestead — my parents’ house — working from an old photo, adding us four siblings coming home. I made prints of the original, each person purchased a copy and we put the money into a memorial fund.

Borden home, with part of the five-beagle welcoming committee

I’ve been reading Driving the Body Back by Mary Swander while taking my own journey through family history. I’ve been learning about how our ancestors came over, and how they arrived in that area in Indiana. Some came up the Eel River on a raft, and some walked from Ohio with wagons. They settled in underground earth shelters until they could build homes. We cousins went together to visit sites, and found items at the Historical Society in Peru, IN that our relatives had made. I think this type of trip could be a great retreat for families! I plan to make a coloring book of some of the homesteads and ancestors for my grandchildren, like a treasure hunt of the past.

We found the original Borden home, built in the 1800s, where my grandparents and uncle lived (all since passed away). They got it from the Sears catalog, and the Sears company sent two on the train by mistake! (I don’t know what happened to the other house.) They used stones from clearing the fields on the outside of the house, which you can see on the porch in this photo. The new family living there let us take pictures and come in and see the beautiful woodwork.

Paul Jackson’s work, and my copy (at right, in progress) from the workshop exercise

At last week’s workshop taught by Paul Jackson, we worked from his sketch of backlit glass, showing beautiful overlapping colors (pictured at right).

To paint, we used masking fluid to keep areas white or light. The big red vase on the left has eight layers of paint! Often people think watercolor is done in an instant and you can’t go back. But you can, if you let it dry thoroughly and then go back and add layers, starting with the light colors first.

I’ll be teaching what I learned, and we’ll be working from real glass still-lifes at this week’s Watercolor Painting class at The Left Bank Studio (Thursday morning, Sept. 13). (Update: I’ve sold the little bank in Gilbert, and now I’m based in Iowa City. Check out my blog to see what I’m doing these days!)

I started painting an arrangement of some of Betsy’s glassware (shown below, in progress) – the reflections are done by using masking fluid which is later removed. There are three layers of paint so far, and more will be added.

One of the models in an attractive pose

Glass painting in progress: more layers to come!

Bird painted at The London Underground to benefit KHOI

I’ve been painting birds at The London Underground pub in downtown Ames to raise money for KHOI Community Radio (89.1 FM) to build a studio.

You can make a difference by supporting KHOI’s Kickstarter campaign, which ends this Saturday (Sept. 15, 2012). (Update: the Kickstarter campaign was successful—thanks to everyone who helped!)

KHOI’s mission is “[t]o welcome all voices of our community, regardless of their perspectives, to freely discuss issues, nourish the spirit, and entertain.”