Warren Walkabout

I went back to the shoemaker's shop for the fourth time about a week ago to visit my machines during the annual Warren Walkabout. It's a bit disconcerting to see them, they're familiar and strange at the same time. Some seem smaller, almost like miniature models, in others I see new details that I want to rush back and incorporate into my paintings. This was probably my last visit, chances are good that I'll be moving on to a different subject after my show, although I'm still not sure what. The natural world always seems to be what I plan to return to, but a chance encounter, like that with shoe machines, can divert me.

While in Warren I talked with the shoemaker himself, Tim Noonan, and to my surprise he had not heard of St. Hugh, although he was very familiar with the other patron saint of shoemakers, St. Crispin. He showed me a hammer with "Crispin" stamped in the metal head, and a tool he uses actually made out of a bone, though I doubt it was St. Hugh's bone.