Another Part of the Forest

When I was thirteen, I read my first Shakespeare play, As You Like It. It remains my favorite after all these years and multiple readings. I read it again with my daughter last month, and she enjoyed it as much as I did. We’ve continued to read an act a day of a Shakespeare play since then; in under a half-hour a day one can pleasantly work through a whole play in under a week in this fashion. We’ve read five plays now, but As You Like It remains our favorite with its wonderful wordplay; lines from it keep wending their way into our minds and conversations. Most of it takes place in the Forest of Arden, and we have the good fortune to live alongside a little forest of our own. Most days, weather willing, we grab our two heavy copies of The Complete Works of Shakespeare and sometimes a picnic lunch or dinner, then we wander down the creekside trail next to our house for about a half-mile. When we get to a clearing, we unpack our treats and sit down with the works of our buddy Will, sometimes joined by chatty crows, shy rabbits or a friendly corgi or terrier.

Its a treat to read about clever people hiding in forests after wandering through one ourselves, taking care not to step on giant mottled slugs, small snakes with sleek racing stripes or other creatures along the way. When we walk up the creek in the evenings, we take care to keep the conversation going to keep from surprising any bears. (Truly: a bear climbed noisily over a neighbor’s fence at 3 a.m. one night last month and demolished her birdfeeder before retreating back into the greenbelt.) On the walk back up the creek we sometimes find ourselves gathering moss, lichen, pine cones or twigs, and some of these materials have found their way into my artworks lately. You can see for yourself by visiting my website, lauragrey.com, and going to the Assemblages page, then clicking through to my online gallery—or you can just go directly to the gallery by clicking here. In addition to working with forest detritus, I’ve also created more pieces using melted wax on canvas. You’ll find photos of them in my online gallery, too.