Here is the final Wilsonia winter cabin drawing. This two-story cabin looks to be only one story high in the deep snow of whichever winter this was. As with the other two snow drawings, the photo was provided by the cabin owner because there weren’t any real winters while I was working on the book.
I found it to be quite interesting that all three cabins in snow are next to each other.
This cabin is on Mason, and is next to the cabin on Lilac.
When I started the book The Cabins of Wilsonia, the winters turned dry. I had planned to take a few trips in during winter to photograph some cabins in snow, but there wasn’t any, not in any of the three winters while I was designing and drawing.
Three different cabin folks offered me photos of their cabins in the winter. The strange thing about those cabins is that all three are in a row in Wilsonia, although each one is on a different road.
Here is the first one.
Hillcrest cabin in winter
While working on the book The Cabins of Wilsonia, sometimes people would ask why I was doing a book on Wilsonia iwhenI have a cabin in Mineral King. These are the top three reasons: 1. cabin communities matter; 2. I call my business Cabinart; 3. I like to document and portray the good things of Tulare County. *
But did you know that Wilsonia and Mineral King are tied together by the cabin that I married into?
In the spring of 1983, (2 years before I met my husband Michael), his family cabin in Mineral King blew up and burned down. It was next door to the Mixter cabin, whose permit had expired and was ordered by the Park to be torn down.
Over the course of the next 2 years, my husband pursued rebuilding his cabin and also the possibility of buying the Mixter’s cabin and turning his empty lot over to the Park to satisfy the law. Lots of red tape, lots of bureaucrats saying no, and then someone knew Someone who knew SOMEONE, and permission was granted to exchange his bare lot for the Mixter’s cabin with its expired permit.
While I was working on the book, Neal Mixter and I became friends. I gave him all the paperwork from Michael’s cabin exchange so he could study it and learn if there was a way to apply this experience to Wilsonia. He and other hard-working cabin folks went to endless meetings, and eventually they made a plan.
Maybe this is the reason that the Park has made its offer to exchange their unused cabins for private vacant lots. Maybe it isn’t, but I like to think that Michael’s experience with the Mineral King Mixter cabin and the Park got the ball rolling.
The Botkin cabin, formerly the Mixter cabin, Mineral King
*4. I already did a book on the cabins of Mineral King, called The Cabins of Mineral King; 5. I love to draw; 6. Several cabin folks in Wilsonia asked me to do a book on Wilsonia
This pencil drawing probably fits most common ideas of what a cabin is.
On my other blog, Cabinart.net, I have been writing occasionally about what makes a cabin. Of course you are invited to go there to read the posts, (Cabin Thoughts, Part 2, Part 3, Few More, Final) but I thought I’d refine the thoughts a bit directly for Wilsonia cabin folks. (Over there I post 5 days a week, as opposed to the weekly posts here.)
It began with a discussion with my friend (the one who taught me how to use InDesign so I could make The Cabins of Wilsonia) about what it is that makes a cabin. My art business is called “Cabin Art”, so one would think that I would know how to define the word “cabin”. Alas, one would be wrong about that!
We had an old dictionary at the cabin, so I looked up “cabin”. The 3rd definition said, “A small, rude hut”.
Clearly the word “rude” has changed in meaning since the dictionary was published in 1935. I looked up “rude” and saw “Poorly constructed”.
Alrighty, then. A cabin is a small, poorly constructed hut.
But is it?
Nothing small or poorly constructed here!
I’d love to hear your ideas about what a cabin is – email me at cabinart@cabinart.net or better yet, comment (use “Leave a Reply”) on this post so others can join in the discussion!
A few weeks ago, I received an order from someone I’ve never met for several copies of The Cabins of Wilsonia.
It is always good to know how people find the book, so I asked this customer. Here is what she said:
I had been reading about your book project for awhile in the Wilsonia Times newsletter. We hadn’t been able to get to the cabin for a few years, but we were finally able to go last week. Someone bought a copy of your book to keep at the cabin and that is where I read it, which was perfect.
I love the writing and the sketches are exquisite. I like how you combined sketches of cabins with architectural details and elements of the natural surroundings. It really captures the essence of Wilsonia. I ordered a copy for myself and some for my daughters and for friends who enjoy going up there with us. Thank you so much for taking on that project and executing it so beautifully.
Aw shucks. Thank you, Lisa! Thank you for appreciating the variety in the drawings, all the efforts I put into showing details and backgrounds and getting people to tell me about their cabin experiences. My goal was to “capture the essence of Wilsonia”, and it means a ton to me that the book does that for you!
It has been almost four years since The Cabins of Wilsonia was published. This summer it occurred to me that the local libraries, both in Tulare and Fresno counties ought to have copies.
I called the Tulare Co. library not knowing who to speak with, and the one who returned my call was my old friend Carol from Redwood High School, class of ’77. We see each other occasionally, and it is great fun to have that old connection. She said to send a couple of books to the library so the review committee could decide if it would be beneficial. I was able to take them to the local branch and have the inter-library delivery service get them in the right hands.
Then. . . crickets. . .
Two months later I called Carol and asked her who to talk to. She sent me to Jonathan, someone I would have had no way of reaching through the library’s phone tree. (See? Who You Know always matters!)
Jonathan and I had a great conversation about cabins, cabin communities and Wilsonia. His next door neighbor in his hometown had a cabin in Wilsonia! He told me the man’s last name, and I sent him to page 117. He can’t remember if this was the cabin or not, but will ask his former neighbor when he sees him next.
We also discussed cabin leases, learned that we had both worked at Hartland Camp, and he told me of a book coming out soon about Big Creek, a Southern California Edison mountain community near Shaver Lake. I have several friends who grew up there, so I am interested in that book.
Stories, connections, things in common. . .
. . . and pretty soon, or maybe even by the date of this blog post, The Cabins of Wilsonia will be available through the Tulare County Library System.
P.S. I LOVE libraries and grew up with the Ivanhoe Library as my primary source of books. The first time I went into the Visalia Library, I was beyond thrilled!
During the months of July and August, I don’t give drawing lessons. I do stay in touch with my drawing students, because we almost always become friends and every one of them is dear to me.
One of my students emailed me over the summer to say he attended a wedding in Wilsonia! He then told me of the delightful folks that he met who said nice things about me and invited me to return. (Aw, shucks. . .)
I haven’t returned in body, but I am slowly returning in my heart.
This is the cabin where the wedding took place. During most of my time in Wilsonia while working on The Cabins of Wilsonia, this place was referred to as “the Plywood Palace” because it was under construction.
The reconstruction obviously was finished. It is now large, beautiful (shingle siding is my favorite), and must have been an excellent venue for a wedding.
This past spring, some people I have known my entire adult life bought a cabin in Wilsonia. They already are part of a shared family cabin, but those situations are rarely ideal for an expanding family.
These folks have been a large part of my family’s life for many years. The man was in my older sister’s wedding in 1979; the couple’s daughter roomed with my niece in Visalia for several years; the couple hosted my younger sister’s daughter’s wedding at a moment’s notice (the story is here); in 2016 we all went to Israel together (part of that story is here.)
You’ve probably heard me say many times that Tulare County is very small. Yeppers, it is.
The cabin my friends bought is directly across the street from the cabin where I spent most of my Wilsonia time. It is one that has generated a great deal of curiosity through the years. The new cabin owners have the ability to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, and this cabin was never a sow’s ear to begin with.
I expect it will be a real show piece, a traffic stopper, and a magnet for looky-loos, one of whom will be me.
Back when I was spending regular time in Wilsonia working on The Cabins of Wilsonia, a Mrs. Cabin Owner said to me, “You made a mistake on our cabin.”
Oh? That was an interesting conversation opener! What was the “mistake”?
I had included a shutter that was leaning against her cabin. Since I work from photos, I draw what I see. It looked as if this is where the cabin owners stored their shutter on purpose, so that’s how I drew it.
When she told me that she didn’t like it that way, it was too late to change things because the book was on its way to press.
But I made the change anyway and then never got in touch to let her know. That was because I thought she’d be too annoyed that the shutter would appear in the book drawing, and doing a book was hard enough without having people be annoyed at me! (Yes, I am a chicken.)
After encountering her on the Mineral King Road, I remembered that conversation. So, I have rescanned it and done all the computer machinations to make the screen version look like the paper drawing. This version is actually closer to the look of pencil on paper, lighter than necessary for book printing purposes.
I wonder what she’d think of it now. . .
Laurel 2.2, 9×12″ original pencil drawing for “The Cabins of Wilsonia, unframed, $200 plus tax.
The book The Cabins of Wilsonia is completed, published and for sale.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (where did that saying come from?), I still draw cabins in pencil. (I oil paint too, but that’s a different subject on a different blog, cabinart.net, a blog that covers all aspects of my art business).
Some folks liked my work in the book, but it only contained a drawing of their chimney. They asked me to draw their entire cabin.
It took us over a year to work out the details of what they wanted, We began with a few sketches, which then needed to be discussed and revised.
There were details they wanted to be sure appeared in the drawing that were just too small to appear in the sketches. When they were convinced that I knew all the little things that mattered to them, I was able to begin.
I work from left to right, top to bottom, to avoid smearing.
And finally, finished!
We were all very pleased with the outcome!