Etenoha - Completed

As anyone who tries to take the art in their head and put it on paper knows, what we end up with and what our desired goal was are sometimes two different things; however I did like the completion of Etenoha or Ina Maka ~ Earth Mother. She will be in an upcoming book by my dear friend, Nicole Tichy, titled Wheel of Light Energy, which is due for publication this fall. I will update you when it comes out and we can see Etenoha inside the book~ (:

Etenoha - The Feminine as Art

Etenoha: Our Mother, the Earth. The feminine earth name of the Native Americans. The Lakota call her Ina Maka.

This is a small peek (with just one eye, mind you!) of an artwork in progress. I am not going to divulge her completely until all is done. I apologize for the graininess of the picture...I must invest in a scanner.

May you feel the ground beneath your feet and rest peacefully under the stars as our seasons shift from Winter to Spring in a few weeks time.

Dance 'Round Him, You'll Glitter Like Gold....

"Dance 'Round Him, You'll Glitter Like Gold" -Rumi

When I was very little, frequently my daydreams would include a big old house with many rooms to explore, and each room would have a box inside of it, a magic box waiting to be opened....

In the midst of all the farm work that you see me doing on my blog posts, I do have a quiet side that I don't share very often, and that is my artistic side. I have decided to try and devote more time to this side of myself and am starting by sharing some of my art.

This blog post is about art. It is not about politics or the divisiveness of religions, it is about art and love and beauty.

The pictures below are of a specific grouping that I made for Art on the Farm 2008.

First, I was very (and continue to be) impressed with the God/love poetry of Rumi. I made two 'dream boxes' that are pictured below. The first one, is handwritten in French and is an original composition of mine.

It reads (translated):

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,

but the beholder is not allowed to own beauty,

touch beauty, feel beauty.

Beauty mocks us and then disappears, leaving us jealous of its abilities.

Beauty generates the ugly and gains them as it's loyal followers.

I hand wrote the translation in French and then overlayed it on a black painted wooden box, and the front and sides are hand tinted with pastels and acrylic. There are fingerprints, on purpose... a trace of one's personality, more important than beauty.

On the front panel is a page from an old book. At the time I was making the boxes, I did not choose the pages for content, but for their sepia tone. It was not until the whole project came together that I realized the cohesiveness and the oddity of how each piece of my project complemented the other. The front panel begins with, "...are all invisible to him...."

I then created an aged ribbon of sepia and hand wrote, in French,

"I love you, but I don't know why"

on the entire length of the ribbon.

Love, without thought. Another Rumi-esque quality.

The second, and most important, box

was painted black and layered with elements of time. An ancient clock key, a fortune I had picked up off the sidewalk that reads, "A man without aim is like a clock without hands, as useless if it turns or if it stands", a page from a scientific magnetic observation chart that I had found in the attic of this old farmhouse and my favorite quote about time,

"Time flies, suns rise and shadows fall, let it pass by, love reigns forever overall.

On the front panel of this second dream box the sepia book panel reads, "Physical beauty is a noble thing when it is seen in perfectness; but the manner in which the moderns pursue their ideal prevents their ever really seeing what they are always seeking; for, requiring that all forms...." I honestly didn't read the words on these panels until after the project was complete. I chose them solely for their color. Amazing, huh?

When you open this second box you are met with your own reflection staring back at you from a piece of shattered leaded glass mirror that is wrapped (so as not to cut). As you stare into the mirror inside the box, there are words on the mirror. As you read the words, you see your reflection looking back at you. The words on the mirror are from Rumi. They read,

"The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you,

not knowing how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.

They're in each other all along."

Of course, when I tried to photograph it, it lost some of it's effect due to my reflection having to include a camera. But, I think you can get the idea..
At that moment, you realize you are reading about looking for your love while you are looking at your own reflection, and you shut the box!

My display for the show included many fragments of mirrors, all with Rumi poems and quotes on them, sparkling and reflecting the light from the white prayer candles.

The white candle is a prayer candle.

Pure white, for the pureness of God's love.

C'est tout. (:

August Eve

Blissful dry cool air is blowing in from the west tonight after weeks, WEEKS of hot humid weather and incessant days and nights of having the world outside shut off with the humming and droning of the air conditioner. So thankful to hear the birds, the crickets, the wind, the echos of distant dog barks and mooing cows. We scrubbed and cleaned house all morning and now it feels so good to rest. Big stacks of books await my eyes if they don't threaten to play hide and seek with my eyelids.

To all who read here: I have acquired a scanner, finally, and will now be able to share works of art instead of just photographs! Coming soon (as soon as I get it all figured out) (:

Create, Do, Be, Live, Now

I DIDN'T SLEEP much last night, it is very very hot here in Michigan, and our old rambling farmhouse is not insulated well, so heat comes in and cold. We have one bold brave little window unit air conditioner for when things get really nasty (such as today). But, there is hope on the horizon. The children and I have been invited to go to a local lake to swim for the afternoon. Summer afternoon at the lake. Summer breezes and cold lemonade. It is, most surely, the heart of summer. How it has gone by so fast is amazing to me...how can it be this late in July?

And so, on that thought. I am going to attempt to be more creative, in the midst of life. I have commented to many that I don't understand how artists, writers, dancers and musicians jot down their work as the creative thoughts enter their head. It is a subject that I find fascinating. For me, ideas come all wrapped and packaged, instantaneously. And, I must write them down or, better yet, DO them at that moment, or they vanish. Tell me, do you write your most creative epiphanies on receipts in the car, on your hand, on the grocery bag, on lists, in journals...or, do you just go do them in the midst of life and living? That is my goal for today and the rest of my life, to just go do them and make and create them as they appear in all their full color and three dimensional glory...before they fade, and before life, and the ever present march of time wins out over the joy of art and music, dance and words!

And, I must also confide to you that God has been sending a whole bunch of new friends my way! What a gift. New friends! You know, the sort of friends who stay with you for life~Wow. I can't tell you how thankful I am for that. He knows just what we need, when we need it. And, so the above card is in honor of that. The photo is a tad bit askew, but then, so is life, huh? (-;

Solstice

Solstice

The words rolllllll off my tongue. Isn't it a lovely word? I have threatened to change my name, legally, to...just...plain...SOLSTICE. Not Solstice Lesser. Not Amy Solstice. Just - Solstice.

(Ah, she's gone off the deep end, you say, quietly to yourself). No. I'm turning 42 in two days! I am entitled to dream, a day before one of the most lovely days of the year, of running barefoot through pine scented forests with no responsibility and worries and a singular beautiful name of 'Solstice'. Summer Solstice, the first official day of summer. The longest day of the year (and shortest night of the year). The day when the sun 'stands still'.

The word Solstice is composed from Latin. Sol for sun and sistere (to stand still). During the summer and winter solstices, the visible movement of the sun (north or south depending on your hemisphere) comes to a stop before reversing direction.

And, for those of you wondering about the scientific aspects of the summer solstice, it occurs at exactly the moment when the Earth's axis is tilted greatest towards the sun at degrees of 23° 26'.

The summer solstice was also traditionally represented by the sign of fertility, and June herself is a month that boasts of lush fertility and life. So, this is fitting.

I love the solstices. They are beautiful days that God has given us. One is long and bright and full of life and fruit and smells and activity...sleep few minutes dear children of the solstice, this is a time to revel and dance and make merry. Eat berries, cook outdoors, smell, laugh, run, feel the sun on your skin. Or, just languish in the shade in the heat of the afternoon. (-:

On the other hand, the dark and hibernation inspiring winter solstice is beautiful in its own inky black darkness and cold. It is pinpoint starlight nights that make us run for the shelter of home and hearth and help us turn inward to look at our souls and our homes and the quiet that rests within.Summer is outward and extroverted, winter is inward and introverted. They represent the yin and yang of ourselves. They represent our conservative and our liberal meshing. They represent a balance of the halves that make us whole.

Both days are gifts, and there are many artists who have spent lifetimes painting and communicating their views of the solstices, writing songs or choreographing dances. It is not out of our grasp and everyday reach to take a moment to appreciate the wonder and enchantment of a long bright June day. A day when time and the sun seem to 'stand still'.