On Talking to Claude

This puzzle was started on February 18, 2025, and hung around until Thanksgiving of the same year. I have never given up on a jigsaw puzzle, and with Claude’s help, I didn’t have to on this one.

Getting set up, ready to start. Feb. 18, 2025.

There are 1000 pieces, and only a 5″ by 7″ photo of this 1906 painting to go by. If I connect about 2 a day, I will be doing this for a year and a half. If I put in one piece a day, which is my current rate, it would take about 3 years.

I’m not even a big fan of “Water Lilies” or Claude Monet’s Impressionism. It just happens to be one of the puzzles I borrowed from my granddaughter Clara, and put off doing until now because of its complexity.

Still, it calms me to look at it and work on it, maybe like the water lilies scene calmed Monet. It’s an exercise in patience, and concentration, where you have to be “in the zone”, as you get into the painting/puzzle.

Sun and daylight are good to have. March 8, 2025.

As I study this, it’s almost like each piece is a brushstroke of color. I am helping to “paint” this cardboard replica of a large 35″ high by 37″ wide painting from 1906, which hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. He was 66 years old when he painted this from his water garden in Giverny, France. He did approximately 250 oil paintings of water lilies in the last 30 years of his life.

As I look deeper, I see the structure the artist worked with. There is a repetition throughout the canvas and a chosen palette of varying hues-purples, blues, greens, with touches of yellow and pink.

I find myself talking to Claude, asking things like, “Now, where would that next color be?” and “What would you put here?”. The reference photo is very small, and not detailed at all, requiring a magnifying glass just to get a clue.

A little more progress. April 13, 2025, 11:13 AM.

Crazy, I know, it’s a jigsaw puzzle! But, I appreciate how this one item (among countless copies and printings on products) brings me up close to the painting.

And OH! What colors are in there! I think a piece is a purple and then I see blue purple and red purple, which makes me search for another section to place it in. Very slow going.

What does Claude care that I am having trouble matching the various hues? Sometimes, I feel that he does care, and is directing me to turn the piece, such as “make it horizontal, instead of vertical”.

And, sometimes, like magic, I walk by, pick up a piece, and place it down in the correct spot, barely looking. It seems to fly out of my fingers at those times.

Thank you, Claude, for the spots of pink that I was only able to see upon close examination. They were a hint to where pieces belonged.

On Sunday, April 27, I wrote this in my notes: Today I notice that I’m matching brush strokes as well as color, such as a swish of pale green or a dab of yellow.

Getting to know this puzzle! May 13, 2025. 3:48 PM. Omaha.

Claude, did you really just guide my hand to place this group of blue-green pieces near the top of the puzzle, and not the bottom where I had them?

Section that Monet told me to put here, near top of puzzle instead of bottom, where I had placed it. May 15, 2025. 10:01 AM.

The piecing is so difficult that I often think it fits. To be sure, I have to hold it up to the light and see if it’s snug, with no sunlight coming through. Because of my imperfect eyesight, even with reader glasses, I rarely know until that moment. This one works!

Holding a connection to the light to see if it’s the right fit (no light shining through). July 29, 2025, 11:00 AM.

In late October, the putting together becomes easier, as I work on it sporadically.

I’m astounded again at the colors! When the sun hits the piece I’m holding and lights up that purple-blue-turquoise, it makes me happy. As I work on this, I begin to see it as sky with stars instead of water with lilies.

To think that more than a century after it was painted, I can partake in the viewing of it through a puzzle on my dining room table with such enjoyment astounds me. Although, I like to imagine I’ll see it in person again someday.

On November 14th, Thanksgiving is 2 weeks away. While Dan is planning the menu and shopping, I am keeping at this, determined to finish, because we will need this table.

With Claude’s help, I did it!

Finished! November 26, at 1:13 PM. 22.5″ H by 17″W, The Fine Art Collection, 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.
Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1906.

Just for fun, an additional tidbit. I worked on a Van Gogh puzzle before this, but he didn’t talk to me.

Thanks for reading!

With appreciation for gifts and sharing of puzzles,

Shirley

On a Walk Through a Cemetery

Voices came to me as soon as I stepped out of the car. Looking around, I saw that mine was the only car parked on the pathway. Scary. I also saw that I was the only person standing in the area.

It was a windy afternoon. The talking I heard must have been people’s voices carrying on the wind from the nearby businesses’ parking lots.

This was last Sunday, September 15. I had been looking for something to do and realized I now had time to go do what I always wanted to do-walk through a cemetery and read the tombstones. I thought while the weather was nice, I’d get a little exercise and entertainment combined, plus a history lesson.

Where I chose to go, in Spirit Lake, Iowa.

I went there for those above reasons, but also to try out an aluminum foil technique that I had read about in the Coon Rapids Enterprise newspaper. With a damp sponge or a small flat brush, it is possible to emboss tombstone engravings on to a thin sheet of aluminum foil.

This looked interesting, so I saved the clipping.

As I walked (with sunscreen, hat, and my sunglass readers), I searched for good candidates. The heat became sweltering, so I aimed for the trees and the shade.

The ground was hard and uneven, but still well kept up and mowed. It looked like a lush green lawn in the distance. Not wanting to risk a stumble, I had to watch my step because of indented areas and little hills. It was another opportunity to keep me sharp, paying attention to my surroundings. Vigilance keeps me on my toes!

A few familiar names caught my eye, but no connections that I knew of.
Then I saw a last name of a person who is now very sick.

Was this a premonition of what I was fearing?

Or a prediction of the near future?

I tried not to think about that and moved on.

I focused on what I came here to do. I experimented with a foil casting. The wind made it difficult to hold the foil flat, so I tried a very small section. It worked! However, I hadn’t planned a way to transport the foil sheet and keep it from wrinkling up, which would erase some of the transfer.

Next time, I’ll bring a cardboard portfolio (2 sheets of large cardboard, duct taped together at the top and one side so I can slide the foil into it).

My eyes saw new things here, so it was a success. I’ll go back and try the foil casting again. A brother-in-law’s grandparents are buried here (his mother grew up in Spirit Lake). I can search for that grave.

I’m sure to see a few more that touch my heart.

Here are some from this excursion:

Whose? When? I want more information. Still, its simplicity makes me think.

Fascinating life summary. He Filed the 1st Claim on West Shore of West Okoboji.

I know and love someone who fits this description.

Shirley

On a Drawing

I found one sheet of this fabulous drawing paper (Rives?, Arches?) in my supplies from my days at the University of Nebraska Omaha, studying art. The Berol prismacolor pencils and drawing board were there also.

This drawing, “Clara in the Boat” was started in August 2018, while I was staying solo at the lakehouse. The composition of putting Clara in the lower part of the page was inspired by a portrait I saw at Joslyn Art Museum, where the figure was placed like this.

I like this stage of color in the water. The circles are an attempt to show the sun sparkles. My plan is to draw a simple outline of the boat, in black, and add detail to Clara.

Water too dark, I think! I left this drawing at the lake, to sit until the next summer, hoping I could lighten it up. Maybe if I did that, the dark spots would show the depth of the water.

Finished! That darkness in the water bothered me all winter (in my mind, because it was away from Omaha). I just didn’t like it, and I didn’t know how I was going to fix it.

After erasing a small section with a good art/pencil eraser, I used a tissue to rub off some color. It worked perfectly, taking off the pastel chalk that I had used on top of the colored pencil.

Then, I outlined the boat some more, and added color to the towel, which was an especially fun process!

Shirley

On Lit Up Interiors

Photo of Chocolat Abeille, in Omaha’s Old Market. Seen on the Facebook group, Nebraska Through the Lens page, photo by Darrell Wendt, Dec. 2019.

This marvelous storefront photo is just the kind of thing I was thinking about, back on May 22, 2011, when I wrote this:

There is a phenomonon of warmth and comfort that arises whenever I see lit up interiors viewed from the outside.

The effect is even more inviting on a rainy, foggy, or snowy day. During Cupcake Island’s first year, in 2006, I remember the pleasure of driving up to the shop on a dark and dreary day, and seeing the shop’s bustling interior all lit up!

At home, I would often choose to walk around the block at dusk, just to see a glimpse of a stairwell, or a desk lamp lit up within a window.

”Lit From Within” is the title of a painting I viewed (somewhere? by who?). I thought the title was so poetic. I barely remember the painting; was it a scene in a window? No, I think it was a nature scene, a tree or a shrub, very leafy, with touches of light coming through. Beautiful!!

”Come into the Shade”, my 1992 watercolor painting of our one time back yard’s entrance. Inspired, I’m sure, by that “Lit From Within” memory.

Now, today, on December 18, 2019, I’m adding some favorite scenes to illustrate further the emotive value of light inside, viewed from outside.

This past summer, it was very exciting to witness a neighbor’s backyard wedding on the lake (West Lake Okoboji, Iowa).Here is a picture of the tent:

I also think that looking into a lighted courtyard from a darkened path is lovely.

March 15, 2017, Royal Palm, Phoenix, AZ.

And here’s a spectacularly famous painting, at The Art Institute of Chicago. I didn’t know it was so large! I must go see it.

”Nighthawks”, Edward Hopper, oil on canvas, 1942. 2’6” by 5’. Photo taken by me, from my art history textbook.

However, my very favorite artwork expressing this theme comes from Paulette Peters, an Elkhorn, Nebraska friend. She created this “wall hanging” as she calls it (I call it a studio art quilt) in 1989. I saw it a few years later, when I was active in quilt guilds, and never forgot it, or the idea behind it. So original!

”Homefires”, by Paulette Peters, 41” by 41”. About this piece, Paulette wrote: “Arrangement of houses taken from view of a cul-de-sac at 132nd and Pacific (in Omaha, NE), looking south, at that evening moment when you’re driving home and everyone else has dinner on the table.”

Thanks, Paulette, for sending me the photo a few days ago!

I hope all of you enjoy the Lit Up Interiors in your own lives.

Shirley

On a Stone Bench

This summer, it all began with a trip to the Maritime Museum in Arnold’s Park, Iowa. I saw this arched structure made from rocks. The sign said it was on loan from Clark Museum in Milford, Iowa. It did not say who made it, or when.

The maker’s name is “Anonymous”, as many pieces of folk art are unsigned.

It made me think of my Great Grandpa Goecke who made stone sculptures. The one I specifically remember was a big stone basket in front of Grandma and Grandpa Schelle’s farmhouse. Grandma, Mary Ann (Mamie) Goecke Schelle, was his daughter.

Linda Schelle Johnston has inherited this stone basket, the smaller of the two I remember. It now sits in her yard.

I wondered if he was inspired by the rocky shorelines of Spirit Lake, Iowa’s largest natural lake, where he spent many years, or if it was a popular craft of the time.

Mom (Jean Schelle Thelen) talked often of her Grandpa Goecke’s cottage on Spirit Lake. She gave me a photo from 1981 of her and our 2 older sons, Bryan and Brandon, on a rock bench at that cottage (now with a new owner). She told me that her Grandpa Goecke tied his boat to it.

Brandon, Bryan, and their Grandma, 1981. The rope shows that it’s still being used to tie down a boat.

I LOVE that picture and the idea of an ancestor making the bench. I wanted to see it, but I had no idea where it was located. I guess Mom had never taken me there, that I remember! And now, I couldn’t ask her, because she went on to her heavenly reward in 2014.

So, I asked around. I asked my brother Ed first. He’s a long time resident of Spirit Lake, and Mom and Dad visited him often, renting a cabin each spring and fall (the unbusy times), near him.

No, he had no idea either.

Next, I asked my Kennebeck cousins. They come to The Iowa Great Lakes (Okoboji) every summer for a week of pure fun, and their Mom was my mom’s sister, so she must have talked about it also.

No, they didn’t know where it was!

My Uncle Ron (Mom’s brother) had done a detailed family history for our files. That’s where I found information on William Goecke. He was married and lived in Carroll, Iowa. A few years after his wife died (in 1930), he moved to Spirit Lake (in 1934), and lived there until 1956, when he returned to Carroll. In Spirit Lake, he owned a house in town for the winter, and a lakehouse for the summer.

My Great Grandpa Goecke, at his Spirit Lake cottage. Photo sent to me by Ron Schelle, in June 2019.
I love that he named his fishing cottage!

I went to the courthouse with that information, sleuthing my way to the cottage with the stone bench. The helpful workers led me to the basement, through a dark corridor into a large bright room, and left me there.

It was quite fun! Searching through a massive, tabletop sized index of handwritten deed transfers (today, they’re all digital), sorted by year, and alphabetized, I found one address really fast—the one in town.

It was energizing to see his name written here.

The lake cottage was pretty easy too. He bought it in 1941.

Then, I went upstairs to the offices to get the actual address, after finding the division name and year of the sale. I got both addresses, and the current owners’ names. The lake cottage has an Omaha owner, and I knew the name!

After contacting my Omaha friend, I learned that her husband’s brother had purchased the property 3 years ago. They weren’t staying there until the weekend, and encouraged me to go have a looksee, although they couldn’t recall a bench.

I went the next day, very excited and hopeful. My imagination saw it along the shore, and I thought we could maybe take a new family photo there, with grandkids and myself, to hang on the wall, alongside the other.

Great Grandpa Goecke’s cottage, 12885 253rd Ave. My own photo, June 2019.

Well, it had been 38 years since the stone bench photo was taken. I really thought it would be there, but it was not. A sea wall, several feet wide has been built, taking over the original shoreline.

So disappointing.

However, I’ll always appreciate hand crafted stone sculptures, and think of my Great Grandpa Goecke, who gave me joy long ago, when I gazed at the basket on my Grandparent Schelle’s farmhouse steps, near Breda, Iowa.

Just for fun, here are a few stone photos from my walks, along West Lake Okoboji.

Icy rocks, West Okoboji shoreline, Nov. 2017.

I hope you enjoyed this little story, and can go sit on a favorite bench somewhere in your world!

Shirley