This morning after a blustery and perfectly pleasing walk in my neighborhood I returned home windswept in the here and now and drank an entire french press filled with organic mexican coffee. Which went brilliantly well with my homemade edamame hummus and feta on toast. I love my home so immensely. It seems to move through the rolling seawaves of the landscape rather than turning inward upon itself, which lends an exquisite feeling of danger to being here ~ almost as if the house might surrender one day to the sea and disappear with the tide. But it is the tone of the house I love the best. So strangely designed there is an acoustic wonderment to it ~ a surroundsound of wind and train whistles and speaking of tongues from the nearby abodes of worship, which swoop through the asymmetrical beamed ceilings like wild birds, searching and beautiful.
It’s not just me that feels this irreplaceable magic and grace to my home and neighborhood that has such scope for imagination. My friends feel it too, and keep coming up with excuses to drop by uninvited for coffee and wine (bearing gifts of dark chocolate and lemon tarts from Fieldstone bakery so I cannot complain) If my house has a smell, it is the scent of gold, tangerine and currants with a whisper of patchouli.
I am so content working on an article celebrating my obsession with hands which gives me an excuse to approach strangers for photo’s. As I work it occurs to me that my art and way of self expression is ultimately fueled by my intimate relationships and this makes me feel so happy. I am trading this sublime piece of art for some of my photo’s, loving these books …curious about this film ~ and still buzzing from my talk the other evening with my friend Darlene. ( Who is coming to stay in my home with her sweet husband in February ~ yay!)
The other day I was listening to music…a delicate composition by Satie whom I adore, when I was surprised to find burning tears rolling down my cheeks. The language of music is so mysterious, how it illuminates the congruences between our external lives and our emotional inner world. I have no idea why I cried which is the most surprising thing…perhaps that is the greatest beauty of art, music, dance…the true meaning often remains unknowable (perhaps even to the artist as well, sometimes)
Today I am exploring an insistent feeling of resistance so I am pondering these words from the Art of War…
“Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive Resistance the good new is, it means there’s tremendous love there too. If you didn’t love the project that is terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything. The opposite of love isn’t hate: it’s indifference. The more resistance you experience the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you ~ and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.
Well said, Steven. Now I know and can forge ahead with a sense of relief. And, oh! It is Sunday. A perfectly pleasing Sunday.
“I really don’t have any wishes. I’m happy. I might had had some, but they’ve all been fulfilled.” ~ Ray Bryant ~
(So uplifting ~ isn’t this exactly the way it should be? )
I just knew when I woke up this morning things were going my way. The sun is SHINING!!! (finally!) ~ I am wearing my favorite thrifted sweater of the week ~ crushing most madly on this man...reading lots of Keat’s poetry and hoping this film will show up at the Fifth Avenue theaters very soon. I have been dancing around the house to desafinado and as Stan Getz said
“I heartily endorse playing in the open air.”
Which I fully intend to do this weekend. Happy thanksgiving and hope your weekend is blessed with happy togetherness:)
oh! and I am having a giveaway over at Mindy’s inspiring wish studio ~ go see!
Oh Sunday, how I love you. This morning there was a sleepy walk on the beach with a thermos of coffee, returning home to light a fire, listening to Wilson Pickett (just feel it) ~ a little dancing, making me hungry whereupon I pulled out the olives and homemade humus and pita bread from last night’s party which reminded me I am rather tired today. A good day to cover poem boxes, gather the last of the apples scattered to the earth from the blustery storm the other evening, and possibly, quite possibly make a few of these.
My world is often filled with green things and hello
Today my lovely friend Debi sent me the entire chapter entitled ‘oasis’ from ‘wind, sand and stars’ to read….and these lines resonated with me (well…the whole of the chapter gave me such a profound and curious sense of dazzled recognition but these lines leapt off the page)
‘Space is not the measure of distance. A garden wall at home may enclose more secrets than the Great Wall of China, and the soul of a little girl is better guarded by silence than the Sahara’s oases by the surrounding sands. I dropped down to earth once somewhere in the world. It was near Concordia, in the Argentine, but it might have been anywhere at all, for mystery is everywhere.’
~wind, sand, and stars ~
Oh yes.
Today I am working on an interview I was asked to do for a very talented and provocative woman and I am realizing with such a fervor that I am drawn to subjects which grace the gorgeous and essential rhythms of the natural world….springtime (of course), the changes of the moon, the tides of the seas, the chatter of rivers, language of leaves and the constant and eternal presence of the stars. Amen.
Oh this weekend flew past me! But it was perfect if fleeting nonetheless There was a trip to seattle, wine and brilliant birthing of ideas, repotting my succulents for my studio, a very spicy vegetarian pasta sauce for sunday night dinner with friends, blustery walks on the beach collecting gifts from the sea….midnight music and blackberry tea when I simply could not sleep (reading ‘the war of art’ with furrowed brow and small epiphanies) and loads of crumpled papers on the floor from a terrible bout of writers block for work. A quiet pact was made with myself this weekend to not buy anything new at all this year with the exception of art supplies, books and a microphone (for my e~courses) and it feels so wonderful. The occasional visit to the thrift shop is allowed for above mentioned books however. (and perhaps the occasional vintage cardigan) I have the lovely Darlene and Kristen to thank for this new pact as I hop on board:)
I am deeply unearthing small (seven word) poems which hold me in thrall as I carefully pen delicate poems for friends as Christmas gifts. Along with these poems I am elclosing a miniature 3 x 3 print from my polaroid series. There will be gold and silver enclosed as well…because well, it is Christmas after all.
My first round of the ”yes’ e~course is almost done and I am feeling quite sad as it was such a brilliant and engaged group of participants. In the next few weeks I am testing my new photography e~course for children based on the program I am teaching in the Fine Arts school so I am looking forward to that very much.
It is Monday ~ I am making a curried broccoli soup and Irish Soda bread ~ and there is a whole week of possibility ahead of me ~ what are you up to?
Today you are ‘Queen for a day’ as an inspired group of ‘winged’ friends celebrate your beautiful spirit. As an artist your work soars between the organic and the euphoric, magically glinting with an outward expression of your inner warmth. I never cease to be touched and ignited by your startling and unique way of communicating beauty with your signature edge of plumbing the depths between light and darkness.
It is an honor to be included in your ‘winged messenger’ project. I have always felt that art should bring you closer to those you love as well as the world’s common pulse, and your winged beauties made my heart just that much bigger through the experience as I set them free.
I just wished to say that every time I am with you and talk with you on the phone I am deeply touched by your generous spirit ~ always interested and encouraging, spilling over with a fever of shared ideas, I feel as if I have spent a wonderful afternoon with my favorite muse.
I hope you have a most fabulous day visiting all the friends who are celebrating our lovely Queen for the day ~ if I could pop by I would bring champagne to toast in your honor:)
love you dearly!
~ maddie ~
a BIG thank you to Angie for organizing Susanna’s blog party ~ pop by and visit her post here with the blogroll of all the ‘queen for a day’ posts:)
It is most certainly a beautiful Sunday as I rise up this morning listening to Bob Marley records, puttering around my studio in a sleepy reverie. It is a morning of being here, (remembering there) decorating my studio and pondering where to get tiny boxes I can paint as little homes for my five word poems. (which I think will be my most humble christmas gift this year to friends) There is a sweet rabbit I am considering adopting (already i am certain she is an ‘eliza’) and loads of old family photo’s to scan in my new scanner. (the Epson Perfection V500 which is BRILLIANT!!!)
a poem…
the handspring
How me of me, I know, to blame it all
on that little hampered run, that running tiptoe
and the world swung up on your fingertips
as if it were nothing, or at least the weight of nothing.
~don paterson ~
(poems are little epiphanies , of this I am certain)
p.s. i am behind in my e~mails but for those who are asking about the color of my living room and studio I matched cloverdale paints (because i have a contact there and they are much cheaper) to benjamin moore colors ~ “firefly’ for the living room and “happily ever afer’ for the studio)
It’s ‘roid week! In amidst setting up a studio in my new home, getting my garden spruced up, and writing a blurb for a featured contributor column in an upcoming Skirt magazine issue, I managed to snap some polaroid shots. I really love this one as I have been trying to find a way to photograph my polaroids so they resemble paintings or sketches. The brilliant yellow background is actually my living room wall which is a burnished sun tint and I cannnot tell you how remarkable it is ~ entirely uplifting. I ended up repainting my studio a buttery sunlit sand yellow as well and will share photo’s with you on the weekend. My new home was actually designed by a painter and has such glorious light ~ no opportunity for light is overlooked and as the sun glints across the sky, it finds it’s way through my welcoming windows.
Color is my theme this autumn as I revel in colors …cadmium yellow, scarlet lake, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, potters pink, burnt umber…the startling allure of the red maple tree. On my daily walks to the beach with my dog I rarely make it home without leaves tumbling into my hair while the vintage jam jar on my kitchen table holds stems of crimson branches from my garden.
This morning my favorite things are blustery storms, old movie theaters, the warm afternoon sun as I collect fallen apples from my tree, and handwritten letters. What are a few of your favorite things?
I have discovered mistints! At the paintshop are shelves and shelves of paint for a mere five dollars a gallon ~ they are mistints and I am happy to report I have found some gloriously wondrous colors ~ the one you see in this photo is for my studio which is the last room in my house to be painted along with my bedroom and the bathrooms ~ of which I have found a beautiful raspberry color for. We are not afraid of color in my house:) I have been so busy the past week with work and this morning I woke up so early and puttered into my studio with a french press filled with coffee and began to download some photo’s ~ today I am puttering around the house, listening to records, taking my dog for a walk on the beach and baking apple crisp. Hope you have a lovely Monday.
