First Snow

The silence was immense last night as the snow shed its blanket from above. The creek bed is so beautiful with its radiant white glitter from the sun. The deer awaits, the cardinals gather, the hawk soars above the silent woods.  A special time; one of wonder. One that makes one humble and amazed. 

PUEBLO PEAK

Comments I jotted down from Kenny Barron, noted jazz artist in November.

" Take a sequence, repeat it, lengthen it." (on improvising)

"Space is a part of music."

"Innovating is just doing it."

"You find something when you don't expect it."

                                                                                              

recovering balance

Inner Space II

Recovering Balance

Look to the eagle soaring,
Look to the snow-covered fir,
Look to the stars shining,
Look to one's own front door.  AB

"Life begins and spirits rise,
and they become memories that vaporize,
and the vapor becomes the dreams we devise,
and while we are dreaming,
time flies." --Jimmy Webb

SIMPLE THINGS

Memento I

This afternoon I washed some wonderfully delicious grapes. I shared them with my husband. This evening I received, via Fed Ex a Chinese Silver Chest that was a gift to my mother from my father. Giving, receiving.  These are special moments in our lives ....and more so when it is not anticipated.  I will oil the chest, and clean all the dusty nooks and crannies out of respect for my mother and father and what they gave me, far beyond this piece of carved wood.   This silver chest I will cherish.  It holds many memories.  The grapes i shared with my husband will also be a memory put aside, but one that goes into a chest of memories.  Simple moments, simple things.:

Change In the Weather

This week reminded one of change.  Warm sunny days became windy chilly days.  On those recent warm days one was free to move without the mantle of a coat; now one is in a cocoon of down to keep the body warm.  Gelato isn't as appealing now as a cup of warm tea; citrus fragrances give way to those with sandalwood and musk. Leaves crackle and acorns crunch under my feet and the softness of the green grass becomes less apparent.  Change, life---going out, coming in----change. 

"Circling the Cross"

"Weather is a great bluffer.  I guess the same is true of our human society--Things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed. "  E.B.White

Thoughts to Reflect Upon

"Looking is being part of the fire of the sun: seeing is understanding how much we belong to flame.  The one is passive and involves no responsibility; the other actively acknowledges a debt to change.  For those who see, everything is a welcome surprise."  Alvaro Cardona-Hine

"Creativity is the defeat of habit by originality"   Arthur Koestler

Continuum

" If we amplify everything, we hear nothing" Jon Stewart

TIME TO THINK = TIME TO BE

Pueblo Peak

I feel like a pitcher half empty.  Give oneself the time to think and reflect.  That brings a relaxation into the next stroke of the brush..the next shape that evolves.  Reading E.B.White.  These are three I have thought about a lot this week.

" Where there is an unknowable there is a promise."

" The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind."

" Be obscure clearly."

Mother Nature Speaks Today

CIRCLING THE CROSS

a week of friends, sharing, mother nature reminding one of her strength, and looking inward for inspiration, for gathering thoughts, for staying warm, for finding other ways to let go and let it be ----

A favorite quote of mine from Allan Houser to his students...but it pertains to all of us who are perpetual students.

"As soon as you can, find yourself,
your own way of expressing what you want to say.
Eventually it will come, and you will have your own identity then, and you will start creating things that you feel deeply about inside."

INSPIRATION

The image of the pulley taking out the miners in the San Jose mine gave me ideas to put to canvas  in the next weeks ahead.  The light in the shaft below, the circular wheel, the strength of the iron pillars.  I was moved by watching the repeated mechanics of this machine bringing out human life.  The images of the mine workers and their families leads to an old African proverb:

Desert Starlight

"Let us take care of the children, for they have a long way to go.  Let us take care of the elders, for they have come a long way.  Let us take care of those in between, for they are doing the work. "

Glorious Light

Coyote Moon

The light seared the fields this early afternoon--white was never whiter and the leaves are beginning to sing.  Listened to two IWP writers this afternoon.  The imagery they use motivates my own.

Just finished reading "Driftless" by David Rhodes.  Layers upon layers of sentiment and visual landscape paintings.  One feels they are there and often looking in, but also participating. 

Heading for Amana tomorrow morning to take in another fall day before it is put to rest.

Yesterday is history
 Tomorrow a mystery, but today is a gift.
That's why they call it "the present"  --Jiri Kylian

UPCOMING GROUP SHOW - Images of the Southwest

Michael Johnson, black and white photographer, Marcia Wegman, pastel artist and myself look at the Southwestern landscape.  The show is a part of Iowa City 2010 Fall Gallery Walk and is on view at MidWestOne Bank at 102 South Clinton.  Opening is: Friday, October 8 from 5-8PM.

The show will continue to December 15.  Hours are 9-5 Mon.-Fri.

Fall shows its glorious face as it bids farewell to summer.  The urge to nest is coming on,so that means more time in the studio!   It also means "oatmeal" time!

"Don't be distracted from distractions by distractions." T.S.Eliot

It's launched!

So, I asked my web designer, Robin Deutschendorf, what is a blog? She looked at me a bit incredulously and quietly in simple terms explained it to me.  Yes, I have read blogs, but I really couldn't get into them that much as I needed to be in my studio, or  exercise, or walk the dogs, or study French, or just dream,  etc.,etc., etc.  So, I am not convinced that blogging is a healthy and fulfilling exercise, but I am curious enough to try it!  I will be posting from time to time any announcements of exhibitions, sources of inspiration, and other links. 
In the meantime, I leave this first blog with a quote:  " The thing is to become a master and in your old age to acquire the courage to do what children did when they knew nothing." Ernest Hemingway

I will never be a master blogger, but I enjoy being a child once in awhile! 

A fond end of September toast to courage, compassion, curiosity, and community...