When the Muse Strikes

Sunflowers on my table...

This is what I decided to do at about 8:15 last night. It's a project that has been percolating for more than a year now. My kitchen table (better known in my house as the project table) was last refinished in 1989. It was the summer before my second year of college. My friend AnnMarie and I were getting an apartment together and we needed furniture. I think my mother looked at it as an opportunity to clean house.

My dad had brought the table home as an auction find. I think it was one of those things where the auction was over and they were basically paying someone to haul the rest of the stuff off. It was in Dad's shop. I pulled it out, cleaned it off, sanded and refinished the top.

The table has been a central part of every home I've lived in since. It's been kitchen table and desk. It's been Christmas tree table and mail drop spot. It's moved with us from Dodge City to Lawrence to Houston and back to Dodge City, again. Then it went with our family to Topeka, and now it is once again our kitchen table here in Emporia. The finish I so lovingly completed more than 20 years ago was solid and dark brown. I was into "clean wood" back then. I sanded it smooth and stained it, then topped it with a shiny finish.

I painted the table on a whim with the pain left from our staircase project. Then I covered it with plastic because I wasn't sure how I wanted to finish it and I didn't want us to ruin the unprotected top with use. It's been covered with white plastic for a long, long time.

But last night, the muse visited, and I gathered some acrylic paints and grew myself some giant sunflowers. I don't usually consider myself a visual artist. I don't paint. I rarely draw. But somehow this is what I came up with, and I'm very happy with the results.