Friends-
In telling you about this painting, let me start out by saying that I am not a church-going, preacher-following person by any means. My personal place of meditation is the wilderness where I can get away from all the noise and chaos and try to free my mind up to build the better thoughts that guide me.

But sometimes a church building serves so very well as a beautiful place of gathering for certain ceremonies. In the case of this painting, the ME Church building in Placerville is also a historical landmark as the oldest church in the county, erected 1851. And for me, it will always be the place Bob and I married in 1997. (Thank you Reverend Christine).

Back then, Bob and I had been fully involved in directing an ultra-distance event with the desire to gift our love of new wilderness trails to like-minded friends. The 50-mile distance gave runners lots of opportunity to be separated enough to view and value the beauty of the Sierra Nevada. We marked the course with red, white, and blue surveyor ribbon and had rescue staff available should anyone get injured or lost. Run On The Sly achieved some popularity with the northern California crowd and we even had participants from Europe a couple of times.

So, our wedding ceremony in this historic church had to have a running theme; complete with a marathon-running preacher and surveyor ribbon to connect people together inside. When we all gathered, the church building was packed, and some were left outside only to listen through the door or view through the windows. Then, after the ceremony we could all follow the surveyor ribbons which led two miles to the other historical building and place for the party.

This may be a memory painting for Bob and I, but it is also available to generate a donation to a good non-profit that benefits wilderness, should you like it. Let me know.

  margie lopez read