Twelve

(water color on paper)

On the Twelfth part

Of the Twelfth month

In the Twelfth year

Do I feel as a

One or a Two?

Should I stand in a

Dodecagon?

Is this a day to

Enjoy, emote, express?

Depress, dissolve, dismay?

Or shall I paint

Twelve lines

And call it just

Another day.

On 12.12.12 I wondered about the power of numbers, how they move us in so many directions.  On the one hand a construct of human kind and on the other hand the magic of nature’s symmetry.  A little tribute to the last such date in the Gregorian Calendar during my life time.

December Snow Squall

(watercolor  on paper
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Four forty seven PM.

Blue hat pulled low.

Zipped to the neck.

Scarf knotted.

Slalom into a boot,

Then the other.

Back stiffened,

Breath deep.

Unlatch the door

Then

Step into

December.

A holiday card, remembrance of a first December snow in Vermont, oft times a sudden squall.

Giving Flight to Intentions



(gauche on paper
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Welcome Dearest,

Sit and share.
Why the Heavy Heart?
You wish to Fly?

To lift as the Sun Bird?

Then close your eyes.

Call your Children and say

“Open the box full of

Red and Purple,

(giving flight to intentions in um, er, ah other ways
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Inflate one balloon then another

Each with Intention.”

Gather and Bind,

Thank each Little One

Then breath deep

Hold, hold, hold …

Now, slowly 

Let

Go.

It is the Golden Time,

Between day and night.

Float and Smile.

Below little hands Wave,

Above the Moon Bird dances.

Beautiful Soul,

You Are

Light.

A card for Connie, she asked for an elephant with balloons.  The words are a tonic, a gentle reminder that the simple act of breathing can release the weight of our fears.

Canis Lupus

(water color on paper)

Barking up a tree,

[hmmmmm]

How odd.

Even howl to the moon,

[sigh]

So rare.

Well done, and soon,

[yawn]

Curled nap.

While living in an apartment I sat waiting on the bottom steps, feet resting upon the floor of an entrance way tiled with faux shale.  Staring down I saw the tiles, green in color swirled with patterns including one that suggested a wild dog.  The tile pattern inspired the creation, first the image then the words.

Layers

(water color and gauche on paper
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Are we three layers?

Closest … inner thoughts tightly wound ball of string.  Knotted thick lines.  Frights layered with memories tumbling through ongoing liturgical wall.  Stories, moving pictures of after, here and hereafter.

Farthest … expanse of parts.  Children caper and cower.  Guides, angels, spirit, God.  Comfort, celebrate, create.  De se sentir, zu fühlen,  感じること, أن تشعر.

In Between … conduit to the little world.  Surface scratched, shiny, sticky or slick.  Halves of a clam, open and close, open and close, open and close twixt love and fear.

A card created in collaboration with Connie, her idea of different layers lead me to the analogy for the human experience.  Effects of our thoughts and ego (that which is closest).  Our inner children and greater forces (that which is farthest) including  translations of French, German, Japanese, and Arabic to “feel”.  And how we relate to the world in our actions (in between).  The blue expanse represents the “farthest”, here a rapid free flow of paint allowed figures to emerge (children, guides, spirits).  The yellow clam-like shell is the “in between” allowing for an opening and closing to the outer world creating both boundaries and walls.  The inner pearl surrounded by a tight weave of string holds that which is “closest”, a collection of past memories, imaginary projections and each current breath.

Fallen Cherry Blossoms from Wobbly Piano Stool With Yellow Cloth and Sunflowers

(water color on paper
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Spring, spring, spring!

Days of rain weighted down

By shirt on shirt on shirt

On jacket on shell on and on

And on …

Signs of winter sleeping,

Little buds peak through

Silvery crimson bark

Of apple, plum, and cherry tree.

One week passes to show

First the Pink,

Nature’s ambers glowing

Growing soon to blossoms

White with shades of red and blue.

Walking under canopies

Tangling sight and scent

Darting wings and loping paws

Round trunks, through twig

While tiny pedals cling.

Winter stretches, yawns one

Last time to leave a

Sudden heavy snow,

Competing with the lovely

Trees for light.

Soon to melt, in the wake

Lower branches bend to

Snap!

A painter’s gift.

Lime yellow jar,

Arrangement perched

Up on a wobbly stool

Adorned with cloth of

Jaune and Sunflowers.

To capture

Memory and light

With brush, water, pigment,

Eyes and heart.

Drop and stroke

Pause, ponder, paint.

Then, a great mistake.

Wagging tail darts …

Stool stands no more.

Scattered elements

Upon the floor

Sitting between art and

Mess, each the same.

Creation done.

Observations from a walk with my companion dog, Georgia, during the last days of winter and then my experience painting.  Spring was starting to, well, “spring” with rows of cherry trees throughout parks and along streets.  Several branches broke from a heavy wind the night before, I collected them and returned home.  The branches were arranged in a lime green vase then placed on a wobbly piano stool.  I began to paint until an unfortunate circumstance allowed the stool to wobble tossing the branches to the floor … a sign to end the painting.

Trans-form-ation

(acrylic on canvas)

What is reality

If only what we know

Is but a name.

When that we

Do not understand exists

Just the same.

To shift a molecule

One moment to the left,

Untwist the D and Aid,

Rewrite the tome

Push back the stone … poof!

Marble to marmalade.


Painting started in an acrylic painting class in 2010, a representational abstraction (from a blurred image, what the actual image was I do not know).  Throughout the process I imagined the process of discovery, where what we know can change in the blink of an eye and what appears to be reality may be only a dream.  The poem came later as I considered the importance of disruption in our lives, how we fight change and fear the lack of “order”.  Completed in 2011.