Monday 2/25/13

Walked out my door tonight, while cooking supper..the moon full, the snow a sparkle. Still air, and vibrant. Resisted the temptation to skip in the moonlight toward the water, down the road, but my heart went there. Came across this passage which rings true, and is one reason why the paint gets put to the paper.

From Karl Paulnack welcome address at Boston Conservatory:

...the Greeks said that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us.....
If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing appendectomies, you'd take your work very seriously because you would imagine that some night at two AM someone is going to waltz into your emergency room and you're going to have to save their life. Well, my friends, someday at 8 PM someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft.

You're not here to become an entertainer, and you don't have to sell yourself. The truth is you don't have anything to sell; being a musician isn't about dispensing a product, like selling used cars. I'm not an entertainer; I'm a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue worker. You're here to become a sort of therapist for the human soul, a spiritual version of a chiropractor, physical therapist, someone who works with our insides to see if they get things to line up, to see if we can come into harmony with ourselves and be healthy and happy and well.

Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I expect you not only to master music; I expect you to save the planet. If there is a future wave of wellness on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don't expect it will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no longer even expect it to come from the religions of the world, which together seem to have brought us as much war as they have peace. If there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is to be an understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit together, I expect it will come from the artists, because that's what we do. As in the concentration camp and the evening of 9/11, the artists are the ones who might be able to help us with our internal, invisible lives.

 My new website www.heididaub.com is up and running...A big thank you goes to Michelle Keyo for design, technical savvy and patience with my questions.  Thank you to my friends, family, patrons, who have supported my work in the last year.  I am looking forward to a fruitful 2013, with the prospect of being in my new studio/gallery within the year.  Thank you to Andrea Hendrix , and all the tenants of the henhouse, for continuing to provide to me my current studio for the last 11 years.  It has been my workplace, and a haven for my soul.

• The under construct Daub Studio/Gallery sits snug from the snows and chilly winds of winter thanks to help with the siding this past summer and fall from my daughters and my husband.  The electric is roughed in as well as the plumbing.  And just before Christmas 2012, the heating installation was completed!  Now our attention turns to finishing the wallboard, plastering and flooring.  So through the winter, our task will be made a bit easier thanks to a warm building.  My thanks and appreciation go out to Ed ‘s Electric, and Sundog Solar for help with the electrical and heating.

• KPK Gallery showed several of my paintings, as well as Avy Claire over the holidays at Pipa Boutique in London.  Visit KPKgallery.com for more information.

• Join me on my new Facebook page.  Please visit and give the page a “Like” if you want to stay current with postings there, and let your friends know. Also, to stay in touch, please message me there, and I can communicate directly with you.

For detailed inquiries, availability of paintings and just connecting to say hello, I encourage you to contact me directly.  By joining my mailing list, I will keep you up to date on my new work, gallery shows, openings, and studio events.  

For the last three years my paintings have revolved around a prose piece I wrote entitled, “To Hear The Forest Speaking”, and in the early part of 2011, the work segued into a series  “The Deepness Within”.   The forms that were emerging felt unknown, but similarly familiar.  For me this was their gift, their revelation, that I could begin to recognize some small thing, and awaken to the miracle of everyday that often lies hidden beneath our modern veil and forgetfulness. Then last winter, new work came, small intimate pieces on vellum incorporating drawing and excerpts from my writing. It was as though through the physical action of drawing the lines and writing the phrases over and over, I was conjuring and giving reverence to an old world, yet a world that we inhabit now, if we listen, and feel and remember.  This group is called ”Pieces Of Prayer”, and my current paintings, though larger and involving more color, are a continuation of this journey.
“My paintings evolve from an introspection, and are like poems to me, coming out of an awareness, a sense.  There is surrender, an aspiration to a holy moment.  How we perceive and feel, the nebulous space between the physical reality of a given situation, person or place, and the perceptions we carry, the curiosity and non-linear ways of looking at time.  Rene Magritte states,  “Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.” My hope is that my art inspires our human community in a way that gives credence to soul work, to the woman with birds waiting to fly out on the canvas, keeps company with the young man writing a song, the child conjuring a poem, finds affinity with free dancers.  This comes up through everyday living, influenced by the natural forms I see daily, the actions of people in my life, my writing, and finds its way to the surface through the process of painting.”

To Hear The Forest Speaking

You have to give up your cell phone.

Your computer, radio, T.V., blackberry, video game, ipod, stereo.  The contents of your refrigerator, your pantry snacks, coffee, alcohol, give it up for this day.  Your hair color, scenting your body, making up your face, shaving.  Put down your tools, knives, pens and hammers, pots and pans, your boomboxes and briefcases, brooms and vacuum cleaners.

Put down your guns, cut the engines, unplug the cash register, ground the plane.  Leave your watch at home and your jewelry, your papers, books, vitamins, pills.  Leave the hospital, the office, the nursing home and factory.  Close the school, the bank, the mall, and your purse, leave it home.

You have to get out of your automobile and walk,

like a human, into the woods.  You need to go so far in,

you don’t know your way out.

Now listen and breathe, and listen beyond what you can hear, look beyond what you can see,

feel the pulse of a tree, your arms wide open and receiving.

You can’t imagine how beautiful you are,

when we all come to find you.

Happy New Year Everyone..
all blessings.

1/28/12....Last full moon of the year, rising over the snow covered land, here in the Northeast, by the Atlantic shore.  The push and pull of recent family events, celebrations, mournings, and ever present obligations has me wondering; introspective, the whirl of the world and my place in it; like you, like the seagull, like the crows at dawn, or the deer bedded down now, in their mysterious place. Finding our place, in this moment.

The Edge Of Her Wing

She arrives

as a whisper against your cheek.

Look to the upper branches of pine!

She is not only there

she is everywhere.

She comes when the stable land softens

trembles in her quake,

when the catch of breath

in the ecstatic moment

is all love, is all we have

and we conspire to hold on

or forever be swept into greatness.

But this is her reason for coming;

to take us in a circular,

sweep of wing

let go she says

let go.

Join me this Saturday, December 8th from 10-2 for the 13th annual 10 x 8 show and sale at Emelen Hall, The Bay School, Blue Hill, Maine.

Mark your calenders for the 13th annual 10x8 art show and sale being held Saturday December 8th, from 10am-2pm, preview 9:30am, at The Bay School's Emlen Hall, in Blue Hill.

This yearly festive event features 8 artists presenting 10 works each for a "one day only" show and sale.  "New Dimensions" will be a variation this year on the standard 10" x 8" size, with pieces ranging from 6" to 12' inches, and offered at $150.00 each.

The artist roster, all hailing from the Blue Hill peninsula, includes, Louise Bourne, Heidi Daub, Melissa Greene, Rebecca McCall, Gail Page, Annie Poole, and new to the group this year, Goody B. Wiseman, and Cynthia Winings.

A variety of mediums and approaches will be featured in this anticipated exhibit.

Rebecca McCall's oils on board reflect our natural rural landscape;  fields, forest and water.  Poole also works in oil, capturing moments in her local surroundings. Missy Greene refers to her ceramic pieces as "Persian Miniatures."  She says, "Making my images on that small scale makes them seem so precious, and I approach them as if they are little jewels." 

Bourne will show watercolors; color and light patterns moving through water, islands and sky.

Cynthia Winings’ paintings and collages capture moments in the natural world, suspended between what is known and unknown, and Daub's modern acrylics on canvas are a continuation of her series "Pieces Of Prayer", an opening and giving reverence to, the sacredness of our natural world.

Gail Page says "This year I’ve painted teapots.  Just teapots, with layers of colors and painterly marks honoring the round, womb-like shape, always warm and nourishing.  A symbol of sharing, socializing, relaxing."

Goody B. Wiseman will be exhibiting tiny figurative bronzes and other sculptural items which reflect her fascination with animals, children, anthropology, carnivals and off-beat museums.

The public is invited to come view this unique "one day only" show and sale, partake of light refreshments, and talk and mingle with the artists.

More information call 374-5417 or 326 4277.

Below is promotional information about a book being published, that I, (among 53 other artists) contributed to, in support of the Poudre Canyon Firefighters in Colorado. Contact me with any questions. info@heididaub.com

The Tarratine Gallery in Castine Maine will be hosting a holiday show now, through the month of December. Works by members and invited artists. These are the pieces I have represented there, which are part of a series of work called "Pieces of Prayer", which are based on original writings, and give reverence to our connection to nature and our ancient memory.
5 Main Street Castine, Maine 04421 (213) 839-0851

"The New Green Will Bloom Again", charcoal, acrylic paint, pencil on paper

The Charcoal

From the burned out forests of Colorado, you sent me the charcoal

four distinct chunks, porous, black and cracked

like layers of earth’s strata, the story of it’s life

now in my hands, smudged with remembrance.

I will let these majestic trees speak, even from their ashen body

of what heat and fury, what roar and sounding

as animals fled, humans gathered and winged ones took flight.

And when I cook my food slowly

like I do every season, the wood from the forest my fuel

I say a prayer, to the glory of trees and life

to the brave people who donned their suits and honor

and headed into the chaos of fire

to the ones who didn’t make it

and the ones who did, the new green

will bloom again.

_____________________________________________

Ashes to Art Online Auction

• When: Oct. 7 through 21

• Where:
www.BiddingforGood.com/ TheAshestoArt Project2012

• Information: The Ashes to Art Project Facebook page or TheAshesToArtProject@gmail.com

The Makings Of Music

A first utterance.

All animals speak.

Listen; the rhythm of your walking

when sole meets earth

stone meets stone as sisters grind grain

the sound of deepness, when our bodies came

together, in loving swing

or whisper, the sound of hum

coo child, at rest in your arms

the shell’s breath, heartbeat against your ear

hear, the wave, mother of music.

At Aarhus Gallery..opening this Friday Oct. 5th..5-8 pm...join us for a reception.

Show is up through Oct. 28th...hope to see you there.

 

The Geese
by May Sarton 

The geese honked overhead.
I ran to catch the skein
To watch them as they fled
In a long wavering line.

I caught my breath alone,
Abandoned like a lover
With winter at the bone
To see the geese go over.

It happens every year
And every year some woman
Haunted by loss and fear
Must take it as an omen,

Must shiver as she stands
Watching the wild geese go,
With sudden empty hands
Before the cruel snow.

Some woman every year
Must catch her breath and weep
With so much wildness near
At all she cannot keep.