Hair and War

Oh my, has winter gone on so long that we are reduced to cutting each other's hair off? It would seem so.

Yesterday, Lucy asked me to cut her hair in a style that she has had on several occasions. It is very easy: put hair in pony tail, cut pony tail off. On Lucy, this results in an extremely stylish look the requires only minimal trimming to finish it off.

Then, she said, "Mom, I could cut your hair...." I had been thinking about it...and since we were just hanging around inside...

Several moments later, I was calling Jannen in Cox's Cove to make an appointment for repair work. Her first opening isn't until Thursday at 3 p.m. Until then, I am exploring my collection of hats and decorative scarves.


Here is a last picture, pre-haircut, of me at The Rooms at Barb Hunt's exhibition, Toll. I am in the section devoted to her piece, antipersonnel. It consists of a series of handknit replicas of landmines made in pink yarn. I am knitting in solidarity with Barb, although I am knitting on my ugly socks, not a landmine replica.

On a more serious note, the exhibition was very, very moving. I had seen most of the work in Barb's studio at one point or another but it didn't prepare me for how it worked when presented in the galleries of The Rooms. Barb is unapologetically a pacifist and her work is all about the tragic loss and waste of war. This makes it sound kind of awful - possibly dogmatic and preachy - but it isn't like that at all. It is full of empathy for the soldiers and it is poetic and beautiful. I was so happy to imagine people visiting the show and, for a moment, being asked to consider the world through Barb's eyes.

We were technically not allowed to take photographs in the galleries, so I can't show you more of the exhibition, but look at her website if you want to see more of Barb's work.