December 17, 2021 Weekly Musings
Posted on December 16 2021
Blogs:
The Paths We Take
Featured image: Telling the Story
In life our journeys will frequently be very difficult and challenging. It takes a lot of grit and courage to travel down these difficult paths. Others before us have faced these challenges and we can learn from their choices and make our own choices as we journey through life. We find somewhere within ourselves that spirit that others before have found. Sometimes our spirit is hard to find and we are totally stopped and don’t know if we can go on – to continue. That is when our spirit rises and shows its beautiful self and allows you to live your unique self.
Mother Teresa knew about the spirit within; “you must live life beautifully and not allow the spirit of the world that makes gods out of power, riches and pleasure make you forget that you have been created for greater things.”
As an artist these challenges happen all the time such as when I approach with fear a blank sheet of paper and know what I want to paint but also know that the paint and the paper don’t always listen to me. It happens when I have been working on a piece for weeks and weeks and absolutely nothing seems right about the work. I just can’t seem to find the works wonder and uniqueness that will allow others to also feel the challenge that causes their spirit to rise within them.
Painting a unique work is one of the wonderful benefits of being an artist. I live and travel these paths daily and I always put one foot forward in front of the other, or put one color on top of another, layer after layer of paint, searching, discovering, exploring, until ……. There it is, the unique spirit of the work. It is then that I can say that it is finished and share it with you all. I sincerely hope you feel the spirit there.
On another note – the sun is shining and is glorious this morning – such a joy.
Earth Songs
Featured image: First Ice
Do you hear them?
The earth sings
Do you hear it?
The earth sings
The cooing of a dove
The earth sings
Shouting trumpets of blue jays.
Beating drums of the woodpecker.
Melodies of the winds in the trees.
The earth sings.
Rhythm of waves along the shore.
The earth sings.
Do you hear it?
Can you hear the silence of the song?
Today the lake is quiet the first signs of winter along it’s shores.
The lake is silent.
With winter comes silence.
There is a song in silence.
Do you hear it?
Listening to the songs of the earth,
I am always reminded of what is important to me.
Reminded again and again
as I listen
to the songs of the earth
of what I value and what interests me.
I am reminded of the pull a
Fast changing world brings.
I am reminded of the silent
Pull of the earth and
Am thankful for it. Earth songs.
Do you hear them?
Transparent Threads
Frost on the window this morning.
Each delicate crystal joined to another.
Each unique, one of a kind.
I reflect silently, quietly
Golden yellow sunlight
Snowflakes gently falling.
Unique, one of a kind.
wonder, the beauty.
How it grows, and grows
And links to another.
We are like the frost
We are like the snowflakes
each
Unique, beautiful, one of a kind.
Joined to one another
transparent silver, golden threads
binding,
love, hope, respect
wonder, beauty………………
This is the space in the middle
– I live here.
Why Be Normal?
Featured image: Expect the Unexpected
How did this piece get its name? Well, when I started this piece during the tour, my goal was to recreate the feeling that I get when I go to Lake Superior, walk the shoreline searching for rocks and rest in the sun while looking out at the very big water and a very big sky. The Monday before the tour was no different. I was sitting on a big rock and soaking it all in and wondering which do I enjoy more - the big sky or the big water? I couldn’t decide. I love them both. So, during the tour I started this work, "The Unexpected." The washes for this work were turning out wonderful and everyone who saw it said to leave it just like it was. It was beautiful but something didn’t settle with me about the blue painting with all its different values and that wonderful horizon line where the sky and water meet and a forever happens. Infinity.
But then something happened. A red umbrella happened and a figure appeared in one of the corners of the work. Suddenly, the work became alive for me. So, I added more umbrellas and more detail. The work was no longer just the big water and big sky but the totally unexpected. As I was I was thinking about titles for the work, I couldn’t decide if I liked the umbrellas upside down or right side up. In the end I decided on right side up. I titled the work “Expect The Unexpected. “I sure didn’t expect to be putting red umbrellas in the work. But it works as that is how I believe life is. It is filled with the unexpected. If we think of the unexpected as not normal, and I think we do – and if we think of the unexpected as unwelcome – and I think we do – I suggest that we examine the unexpected and ask ourselves, "Is this bad?" Most of the time I believe that it's not. We have just been taught to think of it that way.
But that isn’t life, and if we expect life to be organized, planned and normal then we will miss a lot. One of my favorite magnets on my magnet board says “Why Be Normal?” And I agree, "Why be normal?" So, my big sky and big water became the Unexpected. And it became a really fun work.
Dreams
Featured image: Snow Globe
Snow globes evoke dreams. Dreams can be life long journeys, sometimes they are fulfilled sometimes they are not. The key is to dream and to travel the path that your dream takes you.
Dreams are very powerful and have a powerful hold on us and the directions we take in our lives. My quest to be an artist and to share my work with others is one of the most powerful dreams in my life, other than being happy, healthy, and surrounded by the love of family. My dreams have always set the directions that I take and the path that I choose. Today I still dream and my dreams still determine which path I will follow. I always wonder what others do who don’t dream. How do they know the path that they should follow in their life? I am always sad for them because they seem lost.