Painting Lines

Painting Lines

I have been drawing those lines my whole life.

I have a house in Nebraska. My sister and I, who lived in it together on and off for several years, like to call it the “spinster cottage.”

It’s my in-between place.

It’s the place I went when New York and I were on a break. It’s where I found balance in between the seesaw swings of tropical adventures. It was where I hovered, unsure of my path, when the tropical adventure lost its sheen.

I bought it in 2012 during my first sabbatical from the Pacific. I didn’t really know if I wanted to buy a house — in Nebraska no less — but the housing market had cratered, I was living at my parents’ house in the country, and biding my time with a job driving thousands of miles a week to what seemed like every rail yard east of the Mississippi.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

I started house hunting in a semirundown neighborhood a few blocks from the downtown, or as much of a downtown as Lincoln has, near my brother’s house — a haunted, nearly condemned Victorian bought for cash a decade after someone was murdered on its steps.

Everything in the neighborhood creaked, had character or was lopsided.

I looked at houses on and off, but nothing jumped out.

But the real estate lady kept calling me, and I kept showing up, maybe out of politeness, maybe out of curiosity.

When she called me about my house, I was skeptical. It was blocks away from the area I was searching, and she wanted me to drop by after work — a time I really wanted to spend icee in hand, on the swing at my parents’ with my dogs.

But I went.

And then I found my house.

It was a bungalow, yellow, with a rickety back porch, a scorched decade-old roof and a dilapidated fence ringing the whole property, house included. The grass was overgrown, concrete benches had sunk backward into the ground from gravity and disuse. There was an off-kilter swing, perched on years worth of black walnut shells that had been crushed by the jaws of impudent squirrels.

But there were trees.

Cottonwood and walnut and mulberry and rosebud, they ringed the yard, hanging over the roof, blocking sunlight, winding up through power lines — their canopy leaning into the bright blue sky.

And when I looked up, all I could see was the crisscrossing lines, delicate, random, but connected to each other.

And I recognized them.

I have been drawing those lines my whole life.

Spindly or filled, in ink or pencil, swirling up and around on paper in random patterns, but always, in the end, connected to one another — until the divergent branches make a whole.

I splattered them all over my journals, of which I have had many. They were addendum to my writing — uncared for marginalia used to fill the pauses between my thoughts.

I bring this up because lately, and somewhat inexplicably, I have found myself painting.

On cardboard and journal pages and discarded poster board — using leftover acrylics from a case of art supplies I bought for a color-your-own tarot deck that my mom gave me — I have been spending my late nights churning out those same lines.

And for some reason I can’t stop. All around my house I have crumpled pages of colored lines, winding over each other and upward. And every night I keep painting more.

It seems less and less likely that I will be heading back to my in-between place anytime soon. My house now has a family in it — with kid and dog and garden.

My journals are in a box or a closet somewhere, a few thousand miles away. My sister, hardly a spinster, lives in a downtown apartment with concrete floors and her too-respectable boyfriend.

And when I go outside and I look up, I don’t see my lines.

I just see trees — isolated one from the next. Like the people of Alaska — they are dots that make up a whole, but apart from each other. Not out of spite, but habit.

More in Sports

Nick Varney
Reeling ‘Em In: Hard luck at the fishing hole

The action wasn’t as hot as in the past, but neither was the run.

Seward's Fred Moore stands at the base of Mount Marathon in Seward, Alaska, on Monday, June 24, 2019. Moore will run in his 50th consecutive Mount Marathon race on July 4. (Photo by Joey Klecka/Peninsula Clarion)
‘It’s been a good run’

Seward’s Moore explains his decision to end his Mount Marathon streak at 54

Matthew Schilling of the American Legion Post 20 Twins slides safely past Eagle River catcher Jack Mullen on Monday, July 7, 2025, at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Monday: Twins keep rolling with sweep of Eagle River

The American Legion Post 20 Twins swept Eagle River on Monday at… Continue reading

Sharon Tyone, Dan Aaronson and Jessica Small make the "real life slot machine" work at the Oilers All-Star Family Field Day on Saturday, July 5, 2025, at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Oilers return to field for All-Star Family Field Day

It was only for a day, but the Peninsula Oilers were able… Continue reading

David Norris, 34, of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, wins the men's race at the Mount Marathon Race on July 4, 2025, in Seward, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Norris goes 6 for 6 in Mount Marathon men’s race; Moore’s streak ends at 54 races

One streak lived while another streak ended during a brilliantly sunny men’s… Continue reading

Anchorage's Klaire Rhodes, 27, wins the women's race at the Mount Marathon Race on July 4, 2025, in Seward, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Anchorage’s Rhodes defends women’s Mount Marathon crown

With Seward stuffed with people for 97th running of the Mount Marathon… Continue reading

The juniors start at the Mount Marathon Race on July 4, 2025, in Seward, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Anchorage’s Zuber, Flagstad capture junior Mount Marathon races

Kenai’s Boonstra takes 2nd in junior girls race

tease
Thursday: Twins finish strong road trip by sweeping South

The visiting American Legion Post 20 Twins picked up 10-0 and 18-5… Continue reading

Nick Varney
Reeling ‘Em In: Fair weather expected for 4th of July weekend

Keep a heads-up approach when in traffic during the holiday — you don’t know who you’ll run into.

tease
Post 20 Twins enact mercy rule on Eagle River

The visiting American Legion Post 20 Twins defeated Eagle River 11-0 in… Continue reading

tease
Tri Nikiski draws 79 participants

The ninth annual Tri Nikiski was held Saturday starting from the Nikiski… Continue reading

You're browsing in private mode.
Please sign in or subscribe to continue reading articles in this mode.

Peninsula Clarion relies on subscription revenue to provide local content for our readers.

Subscribe

Already a subscriber? Please sign in