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"Writing" Places

Last week Jennifer of Conversion Diary posed the question "where do you write"? and asked her readers to post photos. You can see the various writing spaces by clicking this link.

At the time of her post, I was away on an icon-painting retreat, out of touch with any electronic media (except my old-school cell phone). Class is held at the Visitation Monastery in Mobile, Alabama. It is a blessing to live, pray, and paint in the lovely old cluster of buildings and be inspired by the cloistered nuns who call it their home. This year was my 5th time attending icon workshop at the monastery; it's usually the first full week of Lent. (my teacher's site is here although it isn't totally up to date)

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the monastery has the best gift shop I've ever seen. This year I finally broke down and bought a box of the nuns' marshmallow candy which will be my Easter treat.

My plan was to post some pictures of the monastery this week when I returned. As I was contemplating my post, I realized that the monastery pictures could also be seen as showing "where I write": an icon is often said to be "written," rather than painted because it is a form of prayer, and the iconographer's hand is guided by the Holy Spirit.

So here are some Quick Takes answering, broadly, the question "where do you write?"

here is the monastery and church, outside:

and inside the church (the cloistered area is on the left, behind the sliding windows):

and a detail:

here are the live oaks in the monastery's courtyard:

and a detail on the balcony:

the entrance to the cloister:

One of the bedrooms:

This is the room where I/we write the icons (this was last year's class when the icon was the Infant of Prague)

And here is this year's icon. It is not a typical icon; this one is based on a Spanish Colonial/Mexican retablo called The Soul of Mary: (I hope to replace this blurry picture soon with a better version).

Now, on to where I "write" in the more common sense of the word:

In my house I have a long desk in a small passageway in our (daylight) basement. On it is a desktop computer, printer, and fax machine. I'm between scanners, but that goes here also. The glass cabinet doors are the original ones from my parents' old house; they're from the 1930's and I had cabinets built to fit them. I covered pieces of foamcore with fabric and attached them to the inside of the glass panes. I may have moved some piles of papers before taking this picture; I've never been described as being neat.

I find myself using my laptop more, and most of my writing is done sitting in this recliner in a corner of my family room, usually late at night. I have bad feet, and it really helps to have them elevated. Plus, this chair is super-comfortable and I have a nice view of some trees beyond our deck.

Here's the obligatory labeled shot of my workspace:

1. books (currently most are about the Camino de Santiago de Compostela)

2. more books (Amy Welborn's Wish You Were Here is on top)

3. camera cable for downloading photos to my laptop, some to use in blog posts

4. more books, including a few sudoku books

5. at least one rosary here

6. old trunk that I took to college in 1974 (it was old then too), now used as end table

7. writing implements, but nearly always lacking a pencil with a good eraser. also usually missing a notepad

8. stack of books the same height as the arm of the chair, to provide more stability for computer, which generally lives in this spot when not in my lap (this stack is also currently composed of books about the Camino)

9. lamp my brother-in-law made in summer camp 35 years ago - one of a pair

10. the other arm of the chair often holds another stack of books

11. the chair reclines which rests my feet. coffee table is beyond, with, you guessed it: more stacks of books, mostly art books and at least one dictionary.

For more Quick Takes from many other bloggers, click over to Jennifer's site.

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