Sunday, December 9, 2012

EARTH, TUNNELS AND IKEBANA

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
Ikebana #2-Green Basin
Ikebana #3-Small Scalloped Container
Fall Ikebana #4-White Basin
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Final Hole Lined in Marble-August 2012-West Rutland, Vermont

Interior View with lashed Ladder and Deep Lower Hole
 

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