LOST AND FOUND New creations and discarded objects

 

Day Wings -Final_gesso_acrylic_charcoal and pastel on canvas_44 in x 40.5 in

Dearest Readers,

I’ve completed a new painting of wings that I’m tentatively calling “Day Wings”. This one follows in my recent direction of an understated palette and more abstraction in my approach. The subject as always, is the possibility of rising or transformation. The spiraling feathers circle around a hole perhaps in the sky. Like the hole I dug last summer in the ground, and the ladder that rose out of it, I keep excavating the spirituality of transcendence. Below are three preliminary phases in its creation.

Counter clockwise charcoal spiral around an off-center black hole

Addition of a red pastel clockwise "wing"

Clarification of lines, addition of gray acrylic "sky" and vertical background lines

Two new ikebana arrangements are reductionist meditations on the essence and interrelationship of these momentary plant tableaux. Looking at them, working with them, leaving, then coming back to work some more on them gives me peace.

Unremembered succulent spikes from Farmers Market, evergreen and pom-pom mums

Found branches, and pom-pom mums

Finally, I noticed three discarded objects on my walks around the neighborhood–a hairnet, a plastic floss holder, and a missing brick in a wall. All expressed some bit of human resilience, strength in adversity, and in one case a deep longing for the comfort of home.

MINT GREEN FLOSS HOLDER

Mint green floss holder

Adrift on a concrete sea

Holds tight the string

That is his reason to be.

–Sunday 3/24/2013

GAP-TOOTHED

A row of brick spits out

A broken cuspid on the lawn–

Smiles a gap-toothed terra-cotta grin.

–Thursday 3/21/2013

THE HAIRNET

Foodservice hairnet on the post office lawn

Bends in a fetal curl

Longing for the warm, dark pocket of home.

–Friday 3/22/2013

I conclude with a perky group of tiny pansy faces tucked cheerily in a rock garden, ready to burst into song.

PANSY CHORUS

A chorus of pansies

Fresh faced and expectant

Lean into the morning–

Awaiting the maestro’s wand.

–Friday 3/22/2013

WINTER INTO SPRING–Taking note of small changes

Sunday March 17, 2013

Yellow leaf on the sidewalk. Scalloped by caterpillars. Worm-holed by grubs. Dotted with russet spots of sugar perhaps, or something delicious for Spring’s legions of life.

Dearest Readers,

I invite you to experience the quiet signs of Spring that crossed my walk route this winter. I neglected to photograph most of these brief encounters...so imagine them if you can.

Sunday 2/10/2013 

THREAD OF A VINE

A thread of a vine

Circumscribes the mud.

Green leaves

The size of squirrel ears

Listen to the first blue flower

Exploding along the line.

Ash Wednesday 2/13/ 2013

PINK HOPE

A cherry tree blooms.

Apron of petals on the bare ground.

Pink hope in a cold rain.

Friday 2/15/2013

SMALL YELLOW IDEAS

A forsythia bush is undecided.

Greenish-brown stems try out small yellow ideas.

 

Saturday 2/16/2013

HATCHLINGS

At the edge of the sidewalk

A nest of purple crocus open their mouths

Like hatchlings to receive the sun.

Sunday 2/17/2013

TWENTY FIVE DEGREES

8:00am.

Bands of robins arriving,

Trilling in the trees.

25 degrees.

Are you sorry you all left South Georgia?

Flower sparks

Thursday 2/21/2013

FLOWER SPARKS

Bristly red shoots

Flame out of the mud.

Flower sparks poised to ignite. 

 

Friday 2/22/2013

BLACKBIRD HOARDS

Blackbird hoards overtake an oak

And the rights to the neighborhood air

With liquid songs, improv trills,

And freshets of fluid tweets.

 

Tuesday 2/26/2013

PERISCOPE

Bleak garden sends up a lavender spike.

A periscope in search of Spring

On a rain washed winter day.

 

Thursday 2/28/2013

OVERGROUND RAILROAD

Neighborhood elm is a way station of birdsong

For the overground railroad.

Springbound. 

Headed North.

 

Saturday 3/2/2013

A SCAP OF LINT

Ice gray clouds and

Bitter wind.

A snowflake

Floats out of the sky

Like a lonely scrap of lint.

Golden Trumpets

Tuesday 3/12/2013

GOLDEN TRUMPETS

Yellow blooms on a round green bush–

Golden trumpets blaring

The scent of baby powder

With hints of lemonade.

Supplicant Dogwood

 

Thursday 3/14/2013

THE SUPPLICANT

Mid-March. 28º.

A dogwood stands like a supplicant.

Arms outstretched

Offering nascent buds to a leaden sky.

Glorious Bradford Pear

 

Tuesday 3/19/2013

GLORY

Bradford Pear in all her glory

Exposes herself to Spring.

Swollen blooms

Wave alluring threads 

Of dusty, musky love

To gangs of loud, excited bees.

GATHER YE ROSEBUDS WHILE YE MAY

Gerber Daisies, Caspia and Foxglove

One Day Later

Dearest Readers,
I laugh when I see the utter collapse of the gerber daisies in the picture above. Being pretty, tall, succulent, and pink for one full day was just too much for them. They remind me of people who try too hard to please... or how I feel sometimes when putting on a happy face against all odds becomes impossible.

Here are two Ikebana arrangements of thistle-like flowers with a hint of blue-gray combined with my tried and true evergreen sprigs and a low spray of nearly dried nandina. They've been green and perky for weeks on my windowsill. Let's hear it for the tough girls!

Thistle, and Evergreen

Thistle, Nandina, Evergreen

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May
(To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time)
 

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles today
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of Heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run.
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

-Robert Herrick

(1591-1674)