End of January, very brisk, blue sky, frozen snow, skids of ice, crack and creak of tree limbs in the gusts of wind.  The community has lost several members the past few weeks, memorials to bring us all together, comfort us living ones.  Dances to fight the blues and send all the money to Haiti, and we can only hope the funds actually find their way there.  Small town we are all entwined, and if we keep circling wider, we find still, golden threads of connection.  Trying to envision my future, the steps I need to take now to get me there.  My thoughts fall to my art and how for so many years I have been pushing pushing to get the work out and seen, and somehow this is not the road right now.  I seem to be following the call of homing in, establishing my own venue, and let the world come.  This feels multifaceted, yet liberating.  I am heartened by the words of Peter London:  www.peterlondon.us
"The root and full practice of the arts lies in the recognition that art is power, an instrument of communion between the self and all that is important, all that is sacred."

and this from Rollo May:
"What if imagination and art are not frosting at all, but the fountainhead of human experience?"

 (a revision of my earlier statement): My paintings evolve from an introspection, coming out of an awareness, a sense.  There is a surrender, an aspiration to a holy moment so to speak. The forms that are emerging feel at once unknown, but familiar. For me this is their gift, their revelation, that we begin to recognize some small thing, and start to perceive the miracle of everyday that often lies hidden beneath our modern veil and forgetfulness, but is always there, waiting, beckoning us to see, to feel, and to remember.

I have grouped approximately 15 acrylic paintings on paper and panel, revolving around a prose piece I wrote entitled: “To Hear The Forest Speaking”.  It is my desire, that through these paintings the viewer is encouraged to enter into a metamorphic world where the essence of our original selves is born, our humanness and our connection to the earth.

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.  

                                                                                                              

                                                                                  

        

            

a week gone by, and painting..writing.
the paintings..
house of the sun
helios rising
golden apple
village on the hill..village at evenfall
the disk of green, carrying the green, recognizing it as holy..regeneration.
outside there are inches of new snow and slippery rural roads..
local efforts toward haiti, monday afternoon /evening free soup at the church...gas at 2.89 a gallon?  what are we doing pouring this liquid into these vehicles?  maine electric car...evmaine.org  maineev.com
news in the paper of men who cannot be true fathers to their daughters,
and the sad news borne from the lips of a dear friend of the death of a neighbors daughter.
what to do, how to hold and let go, ..weep and grieve and weep and grieve
and recommit to doing and being the things we love..

The Toe Bone And The Tooth, Martin Prechtel...
www.floweringmountain.com

Rob Shetterly
www.americanswhotellthetruth.org

I am tired of talking..and am grateful to these two men for continuing their love and service to the greater world..

Earthquake in haiti..heart and prayers go out to those in that land.
Michael Fracasso on the radio, song, The 1950"s. WERU..thank you.
Sun brilliant through the piercing cold.
good old friends...I want to dance and be with with you.

continued cold..spent the day yesterday reorganizing the studio after having only passed through in the last month to either drop off, retrieve, sort through...reset my table and gathered the most recent paintings for easy viewing.  still meditating on what is calling.  heels digging in about inevitable change..sadness masked as anxiety? Two daughters newly off on their own, while the third is here in the home.
so thankful to have been able to give in these last two months..now my attention shifts to my soul work of painting and writing, music making, songs.  This is what sustains me so I may share gracefully with my family and friends.
essential to me, like food, like water.
the dryer broke down today..finally stopped spinning, after it has been creaking along for months.  dusted off gramma's old wooden drying rack and set it up in the sunroom.  save electricity, and save the ears from the racket, though in a small house this now shares my office space.
pink rose red winter sunset. green split peas on the stove. band rehearsal (contradance band) tonight.

1/11/10
early morning ride to take B. to work..(we are a one car family) through coastal town in old volvo wagon..sea smoke and pink sun rising through the mist over the inner harbor
about 6 degrees this morning.  i read excerpts from my youngest daughters book, "yellow fever" (before going out again to take her to school)and give thanks; the sun for its warmth,  food in the cupboard, the shelter of this old, drafty but lovely house. 
to the studio this morning, after about a month's absence.

 

hello its me

1/11/10
for the new year, the new decade, the new paintings to come, the poems hiding in the stars, to my lovely friends who are kind, doing the best they can in this crazy world, my wonderful family, singing and dancing, seeking and praying, cooking and loving.
this is new for me, posting thoughts to a greater world other than my journal, but so much of what goes into my paintings is the result of what goes on in my day..
as my artist statement reads;
“I am concerned with ordinary things and the extraordinary ways in which the ordinary shapes our lives. My paintings evolve from an introspection, coming out of an awareness, a sense. There is a surrender, an aspiration to a holy moment so to speak. 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. This comes up through everyday living, influenced by the natural forms I see daily, the actions of people in my life, my writing, and is not something I seek out, but rather something that is noticed.”
a start...