LEAPING INTO GROUNDLESSNESS AT 66

Jonathan at the hole site

Dearest Readers,

The hole-digging project is a go! I've decided to take the leap and begin digging this Monday the 13th. Meet Jonathan, the Grounds Manager at The Carving Studio in West Rutland Vermont. He has just marked out the site and diameter of my well-ish hole. I’ve modified my dimensions in the interest of having time to finish by September 8^th, opening day. Jonathan will be helping all 10 of the artists in SculpFest with our outdoor installations, and can give me some assistance too. More pics and blogs to come as I dig and delve. (No back hoe available!) 

This is a pile of mostly marble rubble that may serve as the lining for my hole. 

Cecelia blows out the birthday candles while sculptor Glenn Campbell holds the cake

 This week I leave you dear readers with pictures of artist friends who gave me a party to celebrate my 66^th birthday. Six of us and the dog Etta James (who ran wild and free) relaxed on sculptor friend Paedra Peter Bramhall’s 300 acres of pristine Vermont mountain land. We swam in his cold creek and enjoyed food, drinks, cake, and a giant 9 lb. salmon grilled in his pit over hand chopped wood coals.  We toured his latest glass, bronze and photo artwork in his two studios. He also has harnessed the water power further up his creek and created full hydro electricity for his home. Pretty cool!

Paedra tends the giant salmon

LtoR-Susan Farrow, Jackie & Glenn Campbell, Paedra Peter Bramhall and B. Amore

Swimming and taking pictures in Paedra's creek (a branch of the Ottauqueechee River)

Etta James

Etta drinks

 Finally, in my series of weekly installments, I have one new nude model drawing to share, 

Chaffee Art Center Model-8.9.2012

a new self-portrait entitled “Pondering”, 

"#17 Pondering", 10" x 17", charcoal on yellow tracing paper

 two more common Vermont plants from my memories of childhood summers, 

Burdocks

 

"Snowberry" bush with round white pearl-like berries

 and a poem by B. Amore written Wednesday night to honor our birthday gathering of kindred spirits.

August 8, 2012

 -B. Amore

A Vermont gathering of artists

in bucolic hollow

carved out of surrounding woods

Magical spaces,

like blown glass globes

Each studio revealing

its own treasure.

Our host, tall, graceful

golden curls, long strong

delicate fingers, the

one who has made by hand

this enchanted world,

leads us, like a pied piper,

through each storied space

Ending with a last serenade

on the bronze gong fashioned

by skill and inspiration.

A gentle gathering in

the midst of Vermont summer,

languid and charged in the

same moment,

A celebration of birth

bringing us together,

a celebration of life as

we join our considerable

energies in one embrace,

chanting Om under the

dome of descending night.

Like reflections in the

mountain pool or the

sculptor’s orbs, our

circle of light emanates

beyond the small self

as we move towards

the radiance of stars.