05. ❝ In From the Cold

Could I be more than a caregiver, housekeeper, cook, gardener — important jobs, functional jobs, exhausting in their relentlessness? Jackson Pollock characterized art as an act of “self-discovery,” positioning the experience of the individual, not the work, at the center of the endeavor. I didn’t need to be the center of anything. I needed something else. Tole painting became that something.Written by Anne Ayers Koch. Find more of Anne's writing on Substack.Edited and produced by Geoff Koch and Amanda BarrancoMORETen years later, Oregon became part of our past. I kept a dozen or so wooden tole projects. Beyond the designs — cherries, gooseberries, pears, grapes, ornate Scandinavian florals — was a less obvious lesson I learned from preparing the wood. The more time I spent on the unglamorous, dirty work — stripping, sanding, staining, sealing — the better the finished piece. Shortcuts never worked. The paint flaked, the wood grain interfered, the brushes lost their shape whenever I rushed. Today, a lifetime later, when the speed and demands of contemporary living make it easier, faster and cheaper to buy things rather than make them I often wonder: What are the hidden costs of our shortcuts? Get full access to River Journeys at anneayerskoch.substack.com/subscribe