Day Two: Sunday: The drawing at the home of the Ezring's.

What a beautiful home.  We are really resisting the temptation to launch into long and breathy critiques of all the beautiful homes we had the opportunity to spend time in during our time in Connecticut.  Each one is a small wonder of thoughtful design ideas and reflections of a wide range of really robust and great taste.  The Ezring home is no exception.  In fact, we will take the liberty of saying that it is a gold standard.  We repeat - what a beautiful home.  Upon arriving at any of the houses we are given a quick tour of its interior.  In this ten minute window we gather as much information as we can for the creation of the drawing to adorn whatever blank wall seems suitable.  In this particular case there were quite a few things that stood out to us and inspired the collection of animals in their entryway.  

The house is chalk-full with bold design decisions.  Most notably, upon entering the house your eyes instantly gravitate to the bright, saturated green that envelopes the kitchen and adjoining room.  The house is blessed with a few teenagers, and in the basement you find strong evidence of their existence.  Going down the stairs b-lines you to a classic video game console that is overbrimming with the history of video games from the early 80's.  A quick loop around the basement gives you several other video game options, air hockey and a pool table.  The last game is the classic Namco light-gun game Time Crisis.  Returning to the upstairs is a zoo of well designed furniture laid out before a wall of glass that overlooks a small lake.  This lake, and the surrounding woods are the genesis of many a wild animal and we were given a short verbal tour of all the wildlife that makes its way onto their property.  As we talked we witnessed a wide range of birds and small mammals milling about their backyard.  

The front entryway to the house provided a plethora of white surfaces, was adequately lit and gave us enough distance to document the work when done.  We were quite taken by their enthusiasm for the mini-conservatory they were running in their backyard and fancied ideas that involved brining all those animals into their house.  Also, being taken by the seemingly endless amount of entertainment directly below our feet, we wanted to include some of the gaming we had seen.  In particular, the light-gun game had stood out to us, and we decided that we would leave one of their sons to fend off the onslaught of nature that has wandered into their house with only the utterly useless play shotgun.  We affirmed with the family that they were ok with this fabricated Mexican stand-off and then went about having the son model for his tape portrait on the wall.  From that point on, we drew until our time ran out.  All the animals were drawn with representation of furniture to reinforce the idea that this scene was unfolding inside of the house.  Of note are the geese.  Or the soon to be drunk geese, who are depicted having knocked over a glass of wine are are quick to lap it up off the floor.  Included in the mural is a small chandelier using a tape twisting technique invented in 1994 by one Mr. Rob Cogshall.  It is thus called the Cogshall Twist.  It is pretty much just good for chandeliers and festively decorated scenes.  

We had a great time there and can not thank them enough for their hospitality.

Upon leaving this house we promptly got lost and ended up driving around in a world of houses the likes of which we had never scene.  We saw triumphant wooden houses the size of city blocks as well as many four story masterpieces.  Four-car garages galore, with driveways that 18-wheelers cold turn around in.  It was one of the best accidental detours we had ever taken.