What's it all about?

Tulip Abundance

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly,

but rarely admit the changes

it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

-- Maya Angelou

Day 3/100

Call it art. Call it hubris. 

 

This act of taking something, be it raw color, a musical note, a lump of clay, a bit of bright pixels, a seed of possibility that with the proper care might turn into a turnip, a tulip, or a new technology, this reworking of what is into something new, nurturing an essence into an expression, … this is what we do.

We call it creation, call ourselves creators, call our work creative. It’s part of each of us, perhaps the most essential aspect of this stage of development we call human. 

 

Created, we create. Evolved, we evolve the world around us. (Assuming, of course, we are fortunate enough to live in a world where our basic needs of food, water, shelter, and safety are met.)

However, the question always remains: in service of what do we create these expressions? Survival? Growth? Transformation? Beauty?

Orange Tulip from Ananda Village

Yesterday, I was filled with joy because an art piece I was working on “worked.” It pleased me.

This morning, I wonder if I added anything to the mix. Is my “Tulip Abundance" better than the actual tulip captured by my camera many mornings ago? And, is that tulip “better” than the potential residing in the bulb from whence it came? 

 

It reminds me of a song from my youth … “What’s it all about, Alfie?"

Wikipedia: "Alfie" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David to promote the 1966 film Alfie. The song was a major hit for Cilla Black (UK) and Dionne Warwick (US). 

 

 

Click here to hear Dionne Warwick sing "Alfie"

 

 

My fungus friend

Top side

Day 2/100 

 

Fungi are the interface organisms between life and death.

-- Paul Stamets

 

Shortly after I moved here in May, I noticed a fungus growing on the side of a rock planter in my patio. I expected it to die away, but it just keeps getting bigger. I've become very protective of it, putting pots around it to keep workers from accidentally kicking it when they're working around here.

 

Bottom side

Fortunately my camera has a rotating LCD so I could get a picture of the underside. I know nothing about fungi so if anyone knows anything about this one, I'd love to know more.  Google thinks it's a  lingzhi mushroom or reishi mushroom and the Vietnamese name for it means spirit/soul mushroom. If this is what it is, it has been used in Chinese medicine for 2,000 years.

 

I'm glad I'm being nice to it.

A New 100 Days of a Photo a Day

Independence Child

Today is Day 260 of this weird, worrisome and wonderful year of 2017.

A companion on the digital art journey posted that she is on a 100-day challenge to capture and post a photograph on her blog every day. My first reaction was: 100 Days! I’ve been delighted with just finishing my 30-day challenges. Second reaction was: I want to do that! Third reaction was: Sleep on it! So, I did.

This morning when I discovered that there are 105 days left in this year, which would give me 5 days of wiggle room, I decided to go for it. 

Day 1/100: Celebrating Independence

It’s the celebration of Independence here in Mexico, so I’ve taken a lot of photos over the past few days. Which to choose? 

 

Since many of the activities here are focused on the children, it’s hard not to fall in love with their faces. I call this one Independence Child and the expression on her face makes me think she was being most patient with the adults around her including me. May she stay independent ... and patient. 

I added the red backdrop to emphasize the colors of Mexico.

 

There's an option on the sidebar to the right to sign up for the blog if you want to follow along.

 

My Quinceanera Life ... a few decades after the fact

For most of you, this will be TMI ... but thank you so much for being part of the journey ...

 

From a series of intentions I created.

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009. My life changed on this day as I opened up to the world with my first personal blog post. I will be eternally grateful to my blog sister and amazing artist, Diane Walker for leading me into blogging. (Diane’s blog:  http://www.contemplativephotography.com/)

In that first post, I wrote about starting the blog and remembering the powerful quote of Maya Angelou: "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

For the past few years my life has been chaotic and filled with loss. Not wanting to dwell on my pain, I stopped writing and many untold stories gathered inside me, until Maya reminded me that not writing can also be an agony. Her words were the last prompt I needed to start this blog which, I hope, will tell the story of my journey back to joy.

I've decided to indulge myself in remembrance by looking at the posts closest to the anniversary date each year.

2010: The year I left Lafayette, Colorado to return to my beloved California and began a two-year roommate adventure with my best friend, Lynne Snead.

I celebrated my first anniversary of blogging with a quote from Bali which has become one of my favorites: Someone out there needs you, live your life so they can find you. And, I reveled in a poem by Herman Hesse: Sometimes.

Remembering the importance of time.

Sometimes when a bird cries out,


or the wind sweeps through a tree,


or a dog howls in a far-off farm,


I hold still and listen a long time.

My world turns and goes back to the place


where, a thousand forgotten years ago,


the bird and the blowing wind


were like me, and were my brothers.

My soul turns into a tree,


and an animal, and a cloud bank.


Then changed and odd it came home


and asks me questions. What should I reply?

2011: The first year I was accepted into an art gallery and truly began to think I might actually be an artist. The post that coincided with my anniversary described my first experience of taking photos of an environment and creating a piece of digital art from that. An artist friend began hosting meditation groups in her inspiring art studio and, on a whim one evening I took a mass of photos of her supplies and the objects around her studio. Those photos pulled me into a different type of art piece. It broke open a whole way of looking at the world.

2012: I finished a memoir about death and finding joy “after the fire,” and it began to set me free. The mid-September post talked about the found art of life:

This morning it occurred to me that life is found art.  Stuff comes to us … some rusty and bent … some shiny and bright … and it's our choice as to whether we weave it into the tapestry of our lives … or toss it away … or even walk past it not recognizing its potential.  A great deal of the found art of our lives comes from people: family, friends, the quick sales interaction in a department store,  a fragment of conversation heard while walking down the street.  

When we begin to notice these fleeting moments … not as something immediately practical designed to serve us … but rather, as bits of bright glass and rusty parts that help us create a new work of art … our lives … we start to accept our role as artist … creator … of this experience called life.

Beauty and Time

2013: An interesting year. I moved to the central coast of California, got accepted into a new art gallery, and almost stopped blogging. There were no posts from August through December of that year. Interestingly, the July 4th post celebrated our democratic DNA:

On this day 237 years ago, our ancestors here in the U.S., gave us the gift of great genes ...  a DNA of democracy, reverence for education, law and order, equality and justice. Like all peoples, we haven't always lived up to our potential but today is a day to remember what we were given and to renew our commitment to protecting this great gift for future generations.

Desert Wine

2014: A year of great change. I entered into a new relationship, which didn’t last but prompted me to sell my house and gave me the freedom to have a four-month-long adventure in Mexico. My near-anniversary post reflected on a celebration of the revolution in Mexico and a shout that I heard frequently: Arriba!

Reflecting on that shout, I wrote something that seems especially relevant for where we are in 2017:

… all of this has made me think about how many things begin with a shout, words said with emotion and power, to ourselves and to others. Perhaps we need a word like "Arriba!" to energize ourselves to take action, to do the things we know we want … and need … to do.  What is our shout?

There's Always One

2015: Another year of change. Returning home from Mexico, I was basically homeless. Finally, I bought a house in Grass Valley, where I thought I would stay “forever.” 😉  It was another low year for blogging and the only post in September reflected on the effects of climate change on political stability by comparing the collapse of Syria to what might happen if the same devastating drought happened in Florida, a political entity of about the same size and population.

Started making memes.

2016: Since I wasn’t associated with an art gallery, my creative energies were focused on writing. After self-publishing a novella, I began a novel inspired by one of the most inspiring videos I’ve ever watched … How Wolves Change Rivers that prompted a remarkable trip to Yellowstone for research.

My near-anniversary post begins: I want to read this book. The Secret Life of Trees.

I’m a bit chagrined that I still haven’t read it … however, I now have the audible book. So, I’m going to start listening to it … today!

2017: I’d say another year of change, but that’s becoming redundant. I was in the perfect house in the perfect community, when I decided it was time to move to Mexico. I had self-published a gratitude journal and was on the final edit of the Yellowstone book when arrived and realized that all I really wanted to do was make art.

 

So here I am in a place that has awakened all my senses. While I lost my darling companion Missy down here, I am on fire making digital art again, living a healthy, walking life-style, meeting people with the most incredible life experiences, and re-dedicating myself to this blog. 

 

I have found an online community of digital artists who inspire me every day, and I  just launched my new art website which you can see if you click here.

This is one of my favorite recent pieces of art. A young woman in her quinceanera (15th birthday) dress on the cusp of change. Who knows what new joys and sorrows will come her way? Who knows who she will become?

I don't have the dress but I still feel like I'm living on the cusp of change, not knowing what's coming my way or who I might become. There is no bigger change than the one I'm heading into. I deserve a dress!

 

Into the Unknown

Some tidbits I’ve discovered about the past nine years of this small-time, non-commercial blog: 

Page views: 193,795

Posts: 828

Most Popular posts: January, 2011, was dedicated to poems by Rumi as read by Coleman Barks. Those posts are by far the most popular ones I’ve posted. The most popular of them is “What was said to the rose …” and if you google those words, my post is #4 on the first page. Minor stardom.

The most popular of my own posts is simply a digital image: Art for Today: Intend Peace. I’m touched that the world seems to like that image and thought, so much that I reposted it yesterday and renewed my own commitments to the 11 intentions.

Audience: It surprised me to learn that other than the U.S., the largest number of page views comes from Russia, Ukraine and Israel. And PC-users outnumber Mac-users 4:1. 

Today I met an ordinary Mexican family

That doesn’t sound all that earth shaking to meet an ordinary Mexican family, but it’s actually not that common, especially for someone who is still language challenged. 

 

Most of the people we gringos interact with are other gringos. We tend to be retired people with lots of time and, generally, a bit of discretionary money. We flock to yoga, language classes, the plaza for coffee, restaurants, and all things artsy.

The Mexicans we meet tend to be service people … doctors, vets, lawyers, taxi drivers, gardeners, house keepers, restaurant servers, people who make clothes or furniture or fix things around the house. Almost everyone here except the very elderly are working, and in their leisure time, they hang out with friends and family.

But, today I met a real Mexican family and had a chance to hear a little about their lives. The parents are care-takers on an estate owned by some Tapatios (folks from Guadalajara) and they have four children. The parents are education-oriented and their two older children are attending university, studying nursing. This is a financial challenge for the entire family.

Their day begins at 4:00 a.m. in order to get the older kids on the hour-long bus ride to Guadalajara at 6:00 a.m. After taking classes all day, they will make the return trip home in order to help their parents, care for the younger kids, and do their homework. On Saturday, the family sells tacos and on Sunday, they run a cosmetics stand and take English classes. I didn’t get a chance to meet the mom because she was cooking for a party hosted by their employers.

The entire family is driven by their purpose of helping each child get an education so they can get good jobs. There is little in the way of a security net down here except family. These parents are exceptionally dedicated to educating their kids, and, so far, they are making it. However, they are on a thin edge and an unkind wind could easily blow them off track.

The family I met is not only an ordinary Mexican family, it is very much like families all over the world. Some have it easier; some have it harder. My family had it a little easier, but like most post-war families of the 50s and 60s, they knew education was the key to a better life. No one in my family finished high school let alone college. I was blessed to have parents who supported education, just as these kids are blessed to have the parents they have.

I was also blessed to grow up in an era when college was inexpensive and government helped with affordable college loans and the GI bill. As a country, we believed in the importance of education ... affordable education. Seeing this family today, struggling to help their children, makes me sad for the young people of this beautiful country who will not be able to afford an education for a better tomorrow. It also makes me sad for my own country which seems to have forgotten how important education is for our future.

A black bunny came to visit

What would he call us?

This morning a black bunny gamboled onto my patio. I’m not sure how he got there since I’m surrounded by walls, but there he was, his dark coat gleaming, obviously a pet out looking for new adventures. Yesterday I put out some sliced apple for the birds; he thought they were for him.

What does it mean when a black bunny visits you the morning after a full moon? According to some mystics, this full moon portends "a time of big energy that can be quite emotional and overwhelming.” Does that mean we can blame all of this political chaos on the moon?

They also say, "This is a good time to dream your future.” Right now the future that I would dream would use all the excess moisture from Harvey and Irma (and Jose and Katia) to quench the fiery west, with enough left over to clean the swamp spewing forth from the White House. However, that’s probably a dream beyond my measure. So, back to my bunny who is now asleep on my patio as if he might stay.

One blogger about the meanings of things reports that dark-colored animals connect us to our deeper feelings, the dreams lurking below the surface or in unexpected places. That seems a little serious for these nose-twitching, peaceful and curious beings.

While I watched him today, he munched on a stem of a flower, sampled my apple, hopped around the garden nibbling grass, slept in the sun, scratched and munched some more. I think he’s demonstrating how to live life. 

 

“Dumb bunny” is a disparaging term we call ourselves or others when they do something stupid. It makes me wonder what bunnies would call us with our complicated, striving lives and our difficulty knowing when enough is enough?

A new muse arrives: Profunda - Surprise and Mystery

Profunda (more at Digital Art Gallery above)

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the Beauty of bad photos and accompanied it with an earlier version of this painting, titled "Fashion Fairy." What a surprise when a friend asked a question that made the Fashion Fairy reveal her true identity as one of the nine digital muses.

To recap the story: deep in central Mexico, there is a sacred place where, if you stand in just the right spot, your voice echoes as if you’re in a deep valley. There is also a wooded glade known to be inhabited by elves and fairies. Visitors bring small toys and candies and hope for a glimpse of the wee folk.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to see an elf or a fairy but I did find many of the toys left for them, including one that caught my imagination and led me into using it in a painting. I knew when I saw the discarded doll that she had a regal, compelling stance and demeanor. For the entire process of creating her image, however, she withheld her identity from me, merely calling herself the Fashion Fairy. I was okay with that.

Then a friend asked me if the Fashion Fairy was one of my nine digital art muses. The question shocked me since I hadn’t even thought about that possibility. Sometime ago, I came up with a list of digital art muses (click on the heading above for more info), so I went through them to see if any of the descriptions fit the Fashion Fairy.

It took me aback when I read the words for Profunda: Surprise and Mystery … unexpected combinations or altered perceived distances or locations can create a sense of surprise or mystery that lets us see things in a new way and deepens our connection to the world.

Here was this broken and discarded toy, left in a place of mystery and mud, and some how she became a figure of fashion and beauty, a queen of the elf-world … a muse. After writing that, I heard her say, "You thought I was a castaway when actually I was an offering to the elf world. I am here to help you see beyond your eyes."

I hope she forgives my ineptitude as I now introduce Profunda, digital muse of surprise and mystery. You can meet her sister muses at the Digital Art Muses heading above and clicking on the Digital Art Gallery heading will take you to my gallery.