Sunday: Cloudy, Warm. Low 70’s. Rain possible tonight and
tomorrow.
 |
| Cecelia Kane Digging the Hole-August, 2012-West Rutland, Vermont |
Dearest Readers,
Over the past six months I’ve been on a spiritual journey
with the earth. I harbor an existential, intuitive knowing that soil, rocks, roots
and the process of digging down below the surface of the visible world holds a
golden key to my awakening. Last summer I dug a deep hole at the Carving Studio
in Vermont. I blogged about my thoughts as I delved into the soil that my
ancestors may have seen or walked upon in the mid 1800’s. They are buried a
mere four miles from my hole site.
Right now I’m somewhere in a mental tunnel between the lower earth and
the surface. This is not a scary thing. Digging down, not climbing up is my
source of inspiration. This week I began creating small sculptural burrows
inspired by drawings of holes and tunnels that I had created in preparation for
last summer’s hole-dig. Here are the first two, and the drawings that they are
based upon.
 |
| Red Hole and Black Nest |
 |
| Red Hole |
 |
| White hole |
 |
| White Tunnel |
Ikebana has also entered my life, kicking in the door and
diverting my attention to the groundscape, and the plants
along my daily walk route. Ikebana is the art of Japanese flower arrangement–a
sparse, stripped down, asymmetrically meditative approach to presenting nature
in a dish. I was asked to help at an Ikebana weekend workshop a month ago.
After assisting the teacher, I was free each day to attend the classes. My
Western mind cracked open and the light of Eastern philosophy and aesthetics
poured in.
Each arrangement
embodies elements of heaven, earth and humanity, along with “assistant” flowers
who bend to the three main triangular-positioned plants. Much time,
observation and consideration goes into placing and trimming back the elements of
each arrangement. One must not be afraid to cut off leaves to accentuate a
beautifully curved stem. It parallels the Buddhist ideas of non-attachment and
finding the flow. I leave you, readers, with a few beginning samples of my
Ikebana arrangements. I
gathered all live materials from yard detritus, or plants growing on empty
lots, near boarded up stores or in my backyard.
Reminder: You can click on each picture for an enlargement.
 |
| Ikebana #1-White Basin |
No comments:
Post a Comment