anonyrrie

Thursday Afternoon Play Date

I had some practical plans for this afternoon; paperwork and the like, but then I looked at my brand new, totally blank journal (a larger one this time - 9" x 12") and here I am... hands covered with paint and nothing practical accomplished.

But so what?  I have been feeling such unrest inside, a need to let things out, loosen up, play more.  This feeling has as much to do with my life as it has to do with my art...  an insistent nudge to get away from precision and just allow things to happen as they will.  Be freer, give myself permission to explore and enjoy.

Can you tell how much I'm pining for Spring?  To see fresh green shoots break through the tired remnants of snow... to hear the sounds of the creatures waking from their winter sleep... to watch the bluster of March clear the sand from the roads... to see the sun rise earlier in the morning and set later in the day... to wash clean to dreary dregs of winter. 

I'm sure I'm not the only one.  Happy Thursday!

(p.s. Have you visited my new etsy shop?)

Late for the Sky

journal page - 10/18/08

October is the month of small migrations, when the air moves with restless, nervous energy.  The wind picks up, sending down a tumbling shower of ochre, carnelian, and diarylide yellow that collects on the ground like a richly-woven Persian carpet.  The sky, now broader through the thinning canopy, changes face hourly; misty in the morning, baby blue with streaks of clouds by midday, searing acid blue in the afternoon, pink-tinged charcoal near evening. Even on still days, some leaves (they know it's time) let go and drift earthward on gentle currents.

Grackles in great noisy flocks populate the land beneath the trees, conversing loudly with one another as they pick berries and seeds from among the leaves.  Suddenly spooked by a movement,  they rise in a flapping cacophony of screeches into the trees and wait warily as I pass along the path, silhouetted against the sky like black-cloaked beadles.  Geese move overhead in v-formations and sparrow flocks dance through the air in brown waves before landing in a line along a wire.  Clinging and falling, noise and silence, movement and waiting, formation and breaking rank...  

The ancient maple behind the house creaks in the breeze as if to say... you want to stay, but it's time to go.

I see my own soul in Nature, every day, every season.

How long have I been sleeping

How long have I been drifting alone through the night

How long have I been running for that morning flight

Through the whispered promises and the changing light

Of the bed where we both lie

Late for the sky

- Jackson Browne

The 8" x 10" journal page above - which is part of a special Autumn book I've been working on - was done with oil paint-sticks and acrylics. The background contains some collage elements and the nature printing technique I recently learned in a workshop with my friend Lenna Andrews.

A Story of Abundance

journal page - 9/23/08

Vegetable-Life

Where the pulp lifts its germ and the sludge of beauty sighs,

where the leaf pulls the branch to the breathy earth,

where the rind cracks and buds rust into petals,

where the clove steams and cinnamon bark spits out cinnamon air,

where roots sweat and the earth boils in curds of steaming mud,

where the stem draws up the seed and holds it like a lamb to the sun,

where flowers rest their animal heads,

there, full throated, limp with seed, lush and smiling is

Vegetable-Life.

To come upon her you must journey through the rains,

and sleep through a night of fish smells;

there must be a dead man in a hot room,

there must be a basket of figs and plums on the pier,

there must be no new ship in the harbor,

there must be the sound of flowers falling upon flowers,

there must be no children swimming in the salt pools.

Where the Flamboyant spills into the vulcan dust,

where the wild pig chews up the door frames,

where the leper kneads his bones,

where the sun is stuffed with guns,

where the water flows like honey from the tap,

where black flies swell in the gecko's translucent belly,

where these are, there is

Vegetable-Life: The Sultana of the Vine,

The Goddess of the Harvest Gone Bad, The Spectrum Swallower.

In an ointment of wild saps, ripe fronds and mosses, tumid wheat,

and bareley, Abundance pours down over the head, heavy with pollen

and in the puce interrogation of the harvest

the intellect sprouts leaves.

- Ned Gorman (1929 - )

Another Day

journal page - 9/16/08
The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
- Joseph Campbell

Back in the Day

Although I have nothing new to share, this week's Inspire Me Thursday prompt reminded me of two very, very old journal drawings that feature period-correct clothing styles (and bad habits...). Can you guess the year of these drawings?

Still to Be

journal page - 5/29/08

Last night
the rain
spoke to me
slowly, saying,
what joy
to come falling
out of the brisk cloud,
to be happy again
in a new way
on the earth!
That’s what it said
as it dropped,
smelling of iron,
and vanished
like a dream of the ocean
into the branches
and the grass below.
Then it was over.
The sky cleared.
I was standing
under a tree.
The tree was a tree
with happy leaves,
and I was myself,
and there were stars in the sky
that were also themselves
at the moment
at which moment
my right hand
was holding my left hand
which was holding the tree
which was filled with stars
and the soft rain –
imagine! imagine!
the long and wondrous journeys
still to be ours.

- Mary Oliver (1935 - )

 

Wide-Eyed

journal page - 5/17/08

...a quick break from big paintings to do another journal page. This one was inspired by Illustration Friday's topic "wide," and Inspire Me Thursday's challenge to use crayons to make art. I made this with acrylics, Caran d'Ache Neocolor II artist's crayons, and ink. And... two finished paintings.. finally!

Flora - 24" x 36" x 1.5" - acrylic & ink on wood panel

Vernal Spirit- 18" x 24" x 1" - acrylic & ink on wood panel

It's all I have to bring today –
This, and my heart beside –
This, and my heart, and all the fields –
And all the meadows wide –
Be sure you count – should I forget
Some one the sum could tell –
This, and my heart, and all the Bees
Which in the Clover dwell.

- Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Well, I also have great news! I am excited to announce an interview at my Wings 4 You Coaching blog with Susan Tuttle in celebration of her new book, Exhibition 36: A Gallery of Mixed-Media Inspiration . I am honored to have contributed a painting and article to her book, available for preorder prior to its release in November 2008. Please stop by and read about Susan's inspiring creative journey!

To wrinkle... or not

journal page - 4/26/08

Within Us #6

From the wrinkle between my brows
You watch till day breaks
On my face

The waxen night
Is beginning to singe
The fingers of dawn

Black bricks
Have already tiled
The whole dome of the sky

- Vasko Popa (1922 - 1991)

After a long, delightful, but sometimes stressful week, I am almost finished with a painting I started weeks and weeks ago. I took a break from the big work this afternoon to paint a bit in my journal, hoping I would end up with something I could post for this week's Illustration Friday topic - wrinkles. I don't have much to say about wrinkles... I have a few I call dear friends and some I wish would disappear... but like everything else I have collected along the way, they are markers of where and who I've been. Even so, all that came to mind was the seemingly constant warning I got from my grandmother when I was a child - don't frown; you'll get wrinkles! It must have made quite an (ahem) impression on me, because to this day, I really do avoid frowning as much as possible! Somehow I got it fixed in my head that if I frowned or scowled too often, my face would freeze in that expression. So, I looked for inspiration elsewhere, and went with a wrinkle-free interpretation.

How cunningly nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew! - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

P.S. -  Please accept my invitation to stop by Wings 4 You Coaching and participate in my Weekly Wings challenges.  There's a new challenge posted each Sunday.  I'd love to have you along on the journey!

Love Your Mother

journal page - 4/20/08

Earth Day is a reminder of how important it is to love our Mother Earth every day, and this very primitive little doodle from my journal is in honor of her special day. I have been working, working, and working on some large paintings for a show in June, but when I need a break, I recycle some runny paints from my palette in my journal and play a bit... and with the warm weather, sunny skies, chirping birds, and blooming spring flowers as inspiration, today this is what I got!

Next Time

Next time what I'd do is look at
the earth before saying anything. I'd stop
just before going into a house
and be an emperor for a minute
and listen better to the wind
or to the air being still.

When anyone talked to me, whether
blame or praise or just passing time,
I'd watch the face, how the mouth
has to work, and see any strain, any
sign of what lifted the voice.

And for all, I'd know more -- the earth
bracing itself and soaring, the air
finding every leaf and feather over
forest and water, and for every person
the body glowing inside the clothes
like a light.

- Mary Oliver (1935 - )

P.S. -  Please accept my invitation to stop by Wings 4 You Coaching and participate in my Weekly Wings challenges.  There's a new challenge posted each Sunday.  I'd love to have you along on the journey!

Flower Power

journal page - 4/4/08

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people. - Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964)

When I saw the topics for Inspire Me Thursday (the peace sign) and Illustration Friday (save), the first thing that came to mind was an illustration and post about how peace can save the world. And it's true... until we can find peace - within ourselves, our societies, and among nations - we will live in a constant state of strife and destruction. But as I started thinking about what I would write, all that came forth was that peace must originate from the individual. There are innumerable things each person can do to promote peace, starting from within... for a person who has inner peace will not make war with another.

Hug o' War

I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.

- Shel Silverstein (1930 - 1999)

This journal page is inspired by peace signs and flower power... and my true desire to wish all of you peace, love, and happiness!

_______________________________________________________________________

P.S. -  Please accept my invitation to stop by Wings 4 You Coaching and participate in my Weekly Wings challenges.  There's a new challenge posted each Sunday.  I'd love to have you along on the journey!