Perhaps the Last Snow

First Snow

The snow

began here

this morning and all day

continued, its white

rhetoric everywhere

calling us back to why, how,

RED

Colors are universal, and throughout the ages, many different colors have been associated with different religious and spiritual meanings.


But one aspect of color holds true in every corner of the world. The colors we chose are not arbitrary, but hold personal meaning for us. Spending time in Asia, one sees clearly the spiritual meaning of the combination of marigold yellow and crimson in the Buddhist and Hindu faiths.


We definitely have certain colors that “attract us.” The colors we chose are deliberate, carefully selected, and have personal meaning to us as an expression of "who we are".


What is your primary color, your preferences? I am a seasonal person. So in December it is every shade of RED possible…but just wait, February PINK is coming up!!


It was fun going around photographing favorite items…only qualification was something RED!

These beautiful topiaries are in the rotunda of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Every season the rotunda is graced with the most beautiful plants and shrubs. You can’t take a poor photograph; every angle is bursting with fragrance, color and composition.

These adorable little hedgehogs were purchased 15 years ago in Bavaria. They just had to come home with me and every December their adorable little faces are there to smile at. The cookie tin was just that, a generic tin box. I transformed it into a little container painted ‘folk-art’ style.

Speaking of folk art, I studied this art form for many years and had the pleasure of working with several German artists to learn the true German way of painting. This red tray was done at that time. It is difficult to tuck it away after the holidays.

Let’s skip to Bali and their wonderful story-telling-puppets that are so intriguing and elegant. Just hanging them on the wall, brings a beautiful part of Asia to our home. I had the opportunity to teach an art class at my granddaughter’s class. We made our own Balinese puppets and they were fabulous.

On the Smithsonian Mall, next to the National Gallery of Art is our second favorite museum, The Native American Museum. They have an exhibition room that showcases one Native American artist’s work…of very high caliber! This red square is a sewn wall hanging constructed of RED clothing of every kind imaginable. It is at least 30' by 50’. I have never seen anything like it. It is sewn together like a puzzle…how in the world did they sew in the middle of it? It was fascinating to figure out the various garments used.

These tiles are simple ceramic bathroom tiles painted with glass paints and used for trivets during the holidays. So simple yet so charming.

This year I was gifted with two amazing bouquets of flowers. My birthday is near December so it is always a challenge for a gift giver. My sister sent the amazing RED roses and my daughter sent the equally amazing baby orchids to remind me of Bali. Who needs a Christmas tree with such beautiful flowers? They brought such happiness to my heart.

Forgotten Children

Today there is a greater awareness of the need to recycle, preserve our natural resources, to live more thoughtfully and deliberately. There is a growing, burgeoning awareness for Earth, our collective home. Even more important are those, the individual human beings who live fragile, fearful, fragmented lives in extreme poverty, war, genocide, human trafficking and natural disasters.


One cannot RECYCLE human beings.

A portion of my painting time I devote to keeping in mind these Forgotten Children. This last year I focused upon children who live in Rwanda, Congo, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Tibet. Each painting depicts children of dignity and grace.


One cannot RECYCLE human beings.

But the painting substrate could be composed of recycled materials. I set about the task of using no new substrate/panel/canvas. The paintings would solely be formed from discarded, salvaged items. It was fantastic coming up with all sorts of materials: old chopsticks, bent wire, discarded cardboard, newspapers from countries I have visited or friends sent to me, torn cheesecloth, advertisements, junk mail, used metal, corrugated cardboard, sacred prayer papers, doilies and earth pigments.


Looking at my pile of USED items, I knew I had a huge puzzle on my hands. So slowly I started piecing bits and pieces together. I formed the “new” canvases, by gluing, stapling, wiring and wrapping.

Now the fun began, as I decided what type of child/children to paint of these surfaces. It was a challenge worth taking.


Some of the Forgotten Children series were part of an exhibition, Living Green. I rather stretched the meaning.


These pieces are sold to support a charity I find great joy in. Many have read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen. I am now reading his new book, Stones into Schools. His story is so inspiring that I made it a goal to send donations through the sale of art appropriate for his cause. www.penniesforpeace.org http://www.ikat.org/

Truth and Bedevilment

TRUTH: I am in love with my iphone! My computer tags along with me wherever I go. My printer is my trusty friend. I love all electronic gadgets. A good day is browsing through Best Buy!

TRUTH: I want to be semi-literate in the electronic age of. Facebook, Blogging, Photo Editing, Websites...you name it and I want to do it. DO IT ALL!!!!

BEDEVILMENT: if you spot a red head with smoke coming out of her ears; glowing eyes neon pink; fingers trembling like the last lonely leaf on the tree, it is probably ME trying to learn all these Modern Day Madness methods of COMMUNICATING!

Case in point: PHOTOSHOP. All around me are magazines with glossy pictures created in Photoshop; open any blog and the writer "touches up" her offerings in Photoshop!!! Hundreds of magazines and books devoted to its devotees.

TRUTH: I have taken two classes (albeit years apart) in Photoshop. Bought updated programs. Own three books (and not the Dummies kind.) My sister a PHOTOSHOP-GENIUS sent me a 100.00 book, top tier!  And still the hair on my head sizzles!  So I wishy-washy between Picassa and Photoshop.  What is a girl to do?????

TRUTH: I signed up for an online course given by djpettit. http://www.djpettitt.com/ a wizard at manipulating photos to seriously die for.  It starts this week. Don't tell my family, please!

BEDEVILMENT: we had to download a form of a zipped file!! Zipped file, I thought only pants and skirts had zippers!  Okay, she suggested Stuffit Expander. At midnight, I did just that. And promptly LOST it. I searched for hours for Stuffit...I was ready to tell it where to stuff it I was so frustrated. I limped to bed with my tail between my legs, this just wasn't fair, my heart was in the right place, just not my brain.  So this morning after I finish writing, I will start all over again. RESOLVE!!

TRUTH: this isn't the last that I will write concerning  Photoshop. I will post my first efforts...and I hope you will all applaud!!!

Great Expectations--2010

When I was a very little girl with pokey pigtails and crooked bangs snagging my eyelashes, I could never have BELIEVED-IMAGINED-CONJURED the possibility of a YEAR with such BIG numbers as 2010! It was beyond the scope of my imagination!! But here it is, all wrapped in a pretty red box of high expectations.

Four of us toasted the magical midnight hour from our perch overlooking the Chesapeake Bay.  Black spindly fingers of denuded trees stood as a filter between us and the brilliantly exploding fireworks over the frigid water. May we toast a New Beginning, a New Decade? It makes one feel optimistic! It gives one a sense of adventure.

Isn't it great to start a fresh new calendar, no eraser marks, cross-outs, and illegible words? Equally exciting is to choose a new WORD to focus on for the year.  One might call it a 'personal-one-word-mantra'. This year my word is:

                                                         EXPLORE

To EXPLORE brings visions of Raiders of the Lost Ark; intrepid 19th century female archeologists shaking dust and spiders from their bodices; traversing the depths of the Indian Ocean to the brilliance of the North Star; challenges beyond what one might want to risk life and limb for.

This year will be my opportunity to learn, inquire, examine, and travel both the inner and outer life.  External-Internal-Exploring. Would you like to join me? 

My blog has a new "up-do" and name, I Paint. It is being re-purposed, to EXPLORE new and different avenues to make it interesting for you dear reader, and challenging for me; a bit of this, a bit of that; a dangling from the limb; smidgens of inner thinking, prose, poetry and lots of art and some how-to techniques. 

2010 will be a better year for all of us, if we EXPLORE its nooks and crannies together. Join me with open eyes and hearts to EXPLORE life, living and humankind.