These are some of the many colorful painted quilt squares hanging around Wilsonia. Quilting is a large part of cabin life in this community of rustic and not so rustic cabins. Historic, new, doesn’t matter. . . cabins are just like quilting – TIMELESS!
pencil drawing from the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia
This is a personal note to a friend, but you are welcome to read it. Duh. I posted it on the internet!
Dear Doug,
Thank you for using the Contact button on my blog. I was delighted to hear from you, and meant to set your email aside for a thoughtful response later. Instead, I deleted it. My excuses are that it was at the end of a long weekend away from the computer so there were many emails to read and sort AND in spite of continually changing my password, my email is being messed with by some unknown entity which causes me to manically delete messages (or maybe the unknown entity is deleting them. . .?)
Excuses aside, thank you for contacting me! I have been so curious about that little A-frame – is it Doug’s family cabin? Does he ever go there? Will he be up here when I am? Will he be disappointed that I only drew the funny lounge chair? Will he be pleased that anything from the cabin appears in the book?
My choices about what appears and what doesn’t are not based on historical significance. The book is about cabin life today in pictures (276 of them) and quotes by cabin owners and visitors. Not all cabins are included, because the goal is to show an overview album rather than a cabin-by-cabin directory. It is meant to show a balance of the typical and the unique.
I chose your chair, void of cushions, because it tells me a story about cabin life.
In other news, thank you for sending me a customer named Roger. He is gathering photos of a barn in Michigan for me to draw. (I’d rather he gather me a round-trip airfare, but no one does that.) Receiving a recommendation from such a fine artist as yourself really does my heart (and ego!) good.
Blessings to you, my old (as in long-time, not aged) friend,
Jana
When I was in Wilsonia recently, there was a fun new thing happening. Quilt squares!
One of the parts of Wilsonia cabin life is a quilting group. There are a number of women who just love to quilt, and they even have a week or a weekend (can’t remember) when they all bring their sewing machines and spend days just quilting together.
This summer they each painted a 2×2′ square with a quilt design of their choice. Then, each one of the participating quilters hung the square on her cabin. My friend and I really enjoyed discovering these bright patches.
The Fourth of July is a busy busy time in Wilsonia. When my husband (AKA Trail Guy) and I arrived, our host had posted a schedule of events in our cabin.
We headed over to Grant Grove for the annual parade. It is a parade with few entries, but all are patriotic and enthusiastic.
This is possibly the most impressive horse I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Ever.
Motorized vehicles were more common than horses. They hold more waving people than a horse does.
Then, I went to work and pre-sold some books, The Cabins of Wilsonia. Please excuse me for being redundant here – Google likes to see what a blog is about within the blog because it helps them find whatever people are seeking, and I hope people find this blog if they are seeking the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia. (STOP IT!)
Trail Guy and I took a walk around Grant Grove Village. He found his favorite flower, a leopard lily (AKA Tiger Lily). If you want to know more about Trail Guy and wildflowers, the info is in my other blog. It will open in a new tab so you don’t lose this window of The Cabins of Wilsonia. (STOP IT!!)
I photographed a cabin to draw again. 268 drawings – you’d think there’d be nothing left to draw of the cabins of Wilsonia (not the title of the book here – will Google notice?) However, you’d be mistaken. This will be a commissioned drawing – photos have been ordered, and I’ll provide sketches too so that this very gracious cabin owner is thrilled with her original pencil drawing of her cabin of Wilsonia (I SAID STOP IT!)
It wasn’t all work. We joined our dear friends from Wilsonia on a walk. It wasn’t really a hike because we took no water, snacks or daypacks. Trail Guy is explaining things about the area. He knows a lot and is great to have on the trail.
The Manzanita/Azalea Trail has a great view. The cabins of Wilsonia are down there in those trees. (Would you please just STOP IT?)
Okay, I’ll stop it now. 😎
Wilsonia lost a friend. I didn’t know Mitch Rice for very long nor did I know him well. My husband was friends with him in high school, so Mitch was particularly warm, kind, welcoming, helpful, gracious and hospitable to me, a stranger with a camera and lots of questions. He was probably that way with everyone. I’ll miss him in Wilsonia.
. . . at least they won’t be drawings in the upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia but they might be drawn or painted for other purposes. Making decisions is a continual part of building a book. Sometimes I think I need a supervisor who will tell me what to do so I can question her decisions instead of always talking to myself.
I didn’t get much knitting done because when I go to Wilsonia, I am working, rather than being on vacation. However, when I am in Mineral King, I knit a great deal! Well, I don’t actually knit great deals. I actually knit sweaters, socks, and scarves. Actually. (There – have I ruined the word “actually” for you?)
Even though I continue to photograph this scene over and over because of the color of the umbrella against the wood color, a version of this will appear in the book, The Cabins of Wilsonia. (please forgive the repetition of the title – it is to assist the ubiquitous Mr. Google in finding this blog for new readers.)
A version of this might also appear in the book. All the greenery is a real booger to draw. However, I am a master at drawing boogery things.
Stop laughing.
Okay, go ahead and laugh. I want this blog to be fun!
My friend and regular commenter on this blog said that she thought one of my photos would make a nice painting.
Isn’t that something?? I already painted it 2 years ago!!
It was a gift for my wonderful hosts at one of the cabins in Wilsonia.
This scene epitomizes cabin life to me: welcoming, relaxing, patriotic, simple, traditional, comfortable.
As I progress in my painting skills, this now makes me cringe ever so slightly. Rather than beg them to return it so that I can fix what bothers me, I will simply be thankful for growth.
. . . because they are about color rather than detail.
(This one would work, but I don’t need the book to have more pages – these decision are DIFFICULT!)
The saga continues of my cabin life in Wilsonia. This is from only 4 days!! How do people stand the excitement of being there all summer long??
20. Meeting a family from all over California who gathered at their cabin and learning of their very rich history (as in full, not wealthy, although it could have been, but we didn’t get into that!). Almost every time I make new friends in Wilsonia, we discover connections in common.
21. Meeting Katie, whom I talked to on the phone last spring when she scheduled a star thistle eradication spraying appointment for my home in Three Rivers. Really! I recognized her voice when she told me where she works! What a cutie! (Isn’t everyone in their 20s cute??)
22. Re-meeting the superintendent, reassuring him that I don’t have cabins both in Mineral King and Wilsonia and that I am NOT stalking him, and learning that “Woody” is short for Woodrow – would you believe he is named after Woodrow Wilson?? Isn’t that really interesting??
23. Meeting Jill’s brother, Dave’s brother, and Dave’s brother’s wife, who remembers meeting me at my Exeter studio or some show I did way back when. Wow! Thanks, Marguerite!
24. Meeting Ty, who is a fantastic (and perhaps a little crazy) hiker, and hearing his adventuresome tales. This man KNOWS the area!
25. Further cementing my friendship with the wonderful Sheri, who gave me a tour of her beautiful cabin, which is a perfect blend of old and new. (More kudos to the master craftsman Mark Vetter.)
26. Discussing the oddities of running a one-person-business with the very talented and good-natured Paul. We share the inability to properly bill people who have become friends. (DO NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR WEAKNESSES, I beg you!!)
Original pencil drawing, Redwood & Dogwood, 14×11″, matted and framed, $400, available for sale here (Please forgive the shameless self-promotion. In spite of all the fun, I am earning a living here too.)
27. Meeting David, who is on a quest to visit every one of the largest Sequoias – twenty? forty? We had such a good time looking through his books and maps – Good luck on this, Dave! I will be in touch as I learn a few facts to share with you.
28. Learning with Dick and Mel how to handle the reproduction of my drawings for this project. No conclusions reached yet, but thank you for letting me practice with you two!
29. Enjoying more of the Best Grapes I Have Ever Eaten In My Entire Life – thank you Jill and Dave!
If you made it to the end of this post, you deserve a reward. How about a little eye candy?
There. Isn’t that restful? I hope you feel refreshed after our WWW (Whirlwind Weekend in Wilsonia)
As I explore Wilsonia, meet people, and bother them about their lives at their cabins, I realize I am experiencing my own version of cabin life. Here is the continuation from Monday’s post.
10. Meeting the delightful owners of Leaky Hollow and learning of their lives, both cabin and “real”. What gifted and creative people, and such an interesting cabin!
11. Meeting Carol in person! She called me out of the blue last year, and it was a privilege to meet her and hear about all the cabins in her family.
12. Talking to someone (who did not introduce himself) about the roads of Wilsonia. He was in disbelief when I told him that many of the cabins share the same address numbers, differentiated only by the road names. He said it wasn’t possible. Clearly, we have different maps!
13. Listening to a presentation by Eric Blehm, author of The Last Season, a book about the search for a missing backcountry ranger. I had no idea that a similar search was taking place in Mineral King at the very time of his presentation. It didn’t turn out well either.
14. Visiting with Joanne, who finally has a cabin after years of only having a lot. What a wonderful lady!
15. Having breakfast with my hosts – cornmeal pancakes!
16. Working out details with the cantankerous, clever, unique and hilarious Dennis, whose wife is a saint, about how to draw his cabin. I am still amazed to have discovered them, because I bunked with their daughter at summer camp in the 5th grade.
17. Meeting Norm, who was very polite in spite of the fact that I failed to recognize him later when he was wearing a hat!
18. Working out details of how to draw another cabin with the very interesting Corky and Larry. Truly nice people with a life of variety. We enjoyed our conversation very much, because it is always refreshing to meet people with shared values.
19. Meeting Mary Anne and re-meeting Mary Ann, who was very kind and understanding about how I am designing the book. Wilsonia is full of very classy people.
To be continued. . .