When the woman you live with is an artist,
every day is a surprise.
Clare has turned the second bedroom into a wonder cabinet,
full of small sculptures and drawings pinned up on every inch of wall space.
There are coils of wire and rolls of paper tucked into shelves and drawers.
The next day I come home to find that Clare
has created a flock of paper and wire birds,
which are hanging from the ceiling in the living room.
A week later our bedroom windows are full of abstract blue translucent shapes
that the sun throws across the room onto the walls,
making a sky for the bird shapes Clare has painted there.
It’s beautiful.
he next evening I’m standing in the doorway of Clare’s studio,
watching her finish drawing
a thicket of black lines around a little red bird.
Suddenly I see Clare,
in her small room,
closed in by all her stuff,
and I realize that she’s trying to say something,
and I know what I have to do.
~Audrey Niffengger, The Time Traveler’s Wife