to the one who APPLAUDS

 

i never shared the little book i'd made for the art exchange...my "HUMBLE OFFERINGS":
some pages are above (click on them to enlarge).

as always with giving, it's not about receiving.
no'thing' came to me in the exchange,
but it inspired the creating and as always, that's the best thing.
= i received a reason to make something
for a person/artist/bookmaker/supreme blogger
who always applauds, encourages, and recognizes us,
and who is a big fan
of "MY ARCH"...

which is part of a circle which we create,
and it curves and comes back to us
and causes us to create.

AND I DID!!

wishing one another well

less is more in our home for the holidays. simple. quiet. a few candles, wreathes, and a small sparkly tree outside the window. no children or grandchildren. it seems in retrospect that much of the holiday spirit that i've created and shared was centered in my classroom for all-all-all those years with all-all-all those darling young ones.
so now, i will post my good wishes to those of you who visit here, encourage here, share here: all in THE spirit.
while sorting through my files, i found the above photo of a tree of ours from one of the first holidays in our house so long ago, and written on a slip of paper with this quotation:


"Let the winds come singing here,
Let the clouds with rainbows greet
and most comfortably embrace
the people of my life,
the ones who own my heart.
And let us....each one...
wish one another well."


and may we celebrate each day's goodness (and each day's new postings and visitors) with deep gratitude!

solstice greetings (12/21)

 

ABSTRACT MINALMALISM: Nature's Way

 

 

 

 

i know most of you follow Seth Apter's blog The Altered Page. He's surveyed over 200 artists for the upcoming edition of PULSE and features ideas from that in a post called SECRET SUNDAY every week. Fran Meneley has a beautiful site as well (both are in my Sparks on the sidebar)and her secret was posted this last sunday. Fran is a great writer, photographer, collage artist, and reveals her secret in a great narrative plus these two words: "PAY ATTENTION"!!

it brought to mind the Maxine Greene quote on my sidebar, part of which reminds me to:"UNCOUPLE FROM THE FAMILIAR....JUST IN ORDER TO SEE".

somehow this has been synthesized into the word NOTICINGS...and when out there in the natural elements, with my camera, i tend to notice a great deal more, noticing details/changes in a different way, and some of these are captured digitally and when viewed on the computer, bigger connections to art are made. Paintings are often brought to mind as in the photos above.


abstract? minimal? subtle and beautiful and created over a long period of time. and it could happen with a brush, paint, and a canvas! in this case, part of that DISINTEGRATION COLLABORATION with NATURE!!

(SO while you're over reading secrets on the altered page, be sure to check out seth's project from last winter called just that: the DisCo for short)

THE LIGHT OF FRIENDSHIP

 

perusing the file
thinking of new friends found
and you all came to mind



i was thinking about new "art" world friends while pondering my title "openings connecting" after reading the latest from leslie avon miller's blog TEXTURES SHAPES AND COLOR. she always inspires us with her postings about art: the process, the people, and most recently~ friendships formed in that process.

which brought to mind one of my best friendships that has grown during one-week summer workshops over the last 4 years, and although renee and i live too far apart to visit, we continue to communciate in the most supportive of ways. i'd found this quote from c.s. lewis and added it to the photo collage above, in honor of those sparks shared across a studio table, or through our blogging, all in the ART SPIRIT!!

'FRIENDSHIP IS BORN AT THAT MOMENT WHEN ONE PERSON SAYS TO ANOTHER, WHAT? YOU TOO? I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE!'

EVERYBODY NEEDS A ROCK

(TOP collage: me and my first rock, 1971, (which is right in front of me now after moving back and forth across our country with me a few times)..illustrates why the 10 rules are important: it's ="a special rock that you find yourself and keep as long as you can---maybe forever"...
and the second photo is Peter Parnall's illustration for Rule Number 9)

after the responses from robyn's post "tied up with string" on her blog ArtPropelled, i realized more than ever that Byrd Baylor had it right in 1974 when she wrote the book "EVERYBODY NEEDS A ROCK"...not just me, and not just children.
this book was part of an annual ritual in my classroom, with beach rocks piled in the center of our circle, i'd read this book to seven year olds (before we'd head out to find rocks, tell stories of rocks, draw rocks), and it began:

'everybody needs a rock.
i'm sorry for kids who don't have a rock for a friend.
i'm sorry for kids who only have tricycles, bicycles, horses, elephants, goldfish,3-room playhouses, fire engines, wind-up dragons,and things like that--
if they don't have a rock for a friend.
that's why i'm giving then my own TEN RULES for finding a rock...
not just any rock.
i mean a special rock that you find yourself and keep as long as you can--
maybe forever.'~~~~
and some of the ten rules follow:

RULE NUMBER 3
'bend over.
more.
even more.
you may have to sit on the ground with your head
almost touching the earth.
You have to look a rock right in the eye.
Otherwise, don't blame me if you can't find a good one.'and

RULE NUMBER 9
'always
sniff
a rock.
Rocks have smells.
some kids can tell by sniffing whether a rock came from
the middle of the earth or from an ocean or from a mountain
where wind and sun touched it
every day for a million years.

you'll find out that grown-ups can't tell these things.
too bad for them.
they just can't smell as well as kids can.'