Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Wild Roses

wild roses, near the beach at Carkeek Park, Seattle

Oh, no man knows
Through what wild centuries
Roves back the rose.

~Walter De La Mare

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, May Blossoms

May opened up her basket,

And I looked in to see

A sky of blue,

The great sun too,

Both smiling out at me.

May opened up her basket,

And out the flowers fell.

Their fragrance spilled

Until it filled

All nature with its spell.

May opened up her basket,

Her choristers were there!

Their welcoming

To joy and spring

Was wafted on the air.

She opened up her basket-

The world was blithely gay.

Earth knew again

The ample regin

And blessing of the May!

~Leland B. Jacobs

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Giving Thanks for Trees and More

Sun through maple leaves at the Japanese Garden, Seattle



i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth

day of life and love and wings:and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any--lifted from the no

of all nothing--human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

~e e cummings

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, The Sound of Water

red bridge over waterfall, Kubota Gardens, Seattle

At the ancient pond

a frog plunges into

the sound of water

~Basho

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival

Drummers at the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival, Seattle Center

Live in simple faith...

Just as this simple cherry

Flower, fades and falls.

~Issa

Happy Holidays. Vintage Design Inspiration Board #11 with Creativity Quote

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on Earth, good will to men!

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Inspiration Board #11 features:

vintage millinery stamens (West Germany)

vintage gold mercury beads (Japan)

vintage crystal flower buttons (Czech)

vintage heart stampings (USA)

vintage ruby rhinestone (Austria)

vintage red silk ribbon (Japan)

vintage teal ribbon (England)

vintage checked taffeta ribbon (USA)

vintage flower cabochon (Japan)

antique Victorian Christmas scrap

vintage brass double heart pearl rhinestone chain

vintage brass bells

antique silk embroidery floss

vintage linen tea towel

mounted on 4x4 inch gallery wrapped canvas base

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Daisies and Driftwood at Discovery Park, Seattle

daisies and driftwood, Discovery Park, Seattle

Over the shoulders and slopes of the dune I saw the white daisies go down to the sea,

A host in the sunshine, an army in June, The people God sends us to set our heart free.

~William Bliss Carman

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Sunset on the Pacific Coast

...sunset at the Oregon coast...

The setting sun, and music at the close,

As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,

Writ in remembrance more than things long past.

~William Shakespeare

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Wisteria at the Japanese Garden

wisteria, Japanese Garden, Seattle

Perhaps it is possible

to be gentle no matter what, to seek not restraint

but surrender entirely, to turn

from the snarling reproach not into the keening

dismissal of hope but to whatever bright

fluttering is next, the bright fluttering

of wisteria petals...

- From "Fuschia" by Charlie Smith

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Emma's Rose

Officially called "Sheer Bliss", but known at our house as Emma's Rose, in our garden

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows

Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.

~William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

 

Personal Symbols. Mixed Media Monday. Nature Inspired Art

This is my entry for this week's challenge, Personal Symbols, at Mixed Media Monday.  This is a 6x6 inch art quilt. The base is an image of some of my handmade paper, scanned and manipulated in the computer then transferred to fabric.  I've added scraps of the original handmade paper, mica, net ribbon, a transparency with a poem, all stitched, and finally some local shells added as an embellishment. 

We were asked to reflect on the images, colors and/or themes that recur in our art.  For me it is nature, hands down.  When I look at my art, I see lots of flowers, trees, forest themes and of course the sea.  I often bring home bits and pieces of the place I have walked, be it beach or forest, to use in my art, or just to keep close (see this studio snapshot).  I feel at my best when outdoors and close to the elements, and I often use the ocean as a theme in my work.  There is a timelessness to the ocean, a sense of eternity and peace that I derive from being near it.  It helps me see myself, like ee cummings eludes to in the poem I use in this piece (see below).

In addition to images, words are also really important to me, words are powerful and evocative.  I often use them in my art, whether they can be seen by the viewer or not.

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

~ee cummings

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Rhododendrons, Japanese Garden

(beautiful rhdodendron, Japanese Garden)

...I thought of you in a clearing

green and sunlit, bordered by four

tall trees and the dusky spaces

between them where barely

discernible rhododendron

start the process of shadows...

~Elizabeth Morgan

Look What I Found. Mixed Media Monday

Oh my. All you have to do is go to Bumbershoot Supplies to see "what I found" :)

But for this week's Mixed Media Monday challenge, I focused on one of the most special places in the world to me, the ocean. We are blessed  in Seattle to be very close to water everywhere, including salt water in the form of Puget Sound. And the Pacific Ocean is not too far away.

This is a 6x6 inch art quilt using my hand dyed cloth as a base and featuring some of the treasures I have collected in my trips to the beach.

One of my favorite poets, ee cummings, captures my feelings about the sea so well:

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week

(Skagit Valley tulips)

And tulips, children love to stretch

Their fingers down, to feel in each

Its beauty’s secret nearer.

~E. B. Browning—A Flower in a Letter.

Three Muses. Bye Bye Blackbird.

This is my entry for the Three Muses Challenge this week: Bye, bye blackbird.  So, no matter how hard I tried to get these blackbirds to come out black, they came out white. Think of it as a photographic negative... albino blackbirds.  Just can't argue with the muse.  Did you know there really are albino blackbirds?  There are lots of interesting pictures and discussions on UK birding sites, for example, here.  Anyway, the major inspiration for the piece was the gorgeous Beatles song, which is now running like a tape in my head, over and over... here's a link to Paul McCartney performing it.

For this ATC, I've used vintage sheet music, gesso'd, stamped, birds perched on the music as if it is a branch, vintage mother of pearl sequins, stamped with letter stamps.

To get ideas for this theme, my family did some brainstorming and my daughter Emma did some research at www.poets.org. She found this beautiful piece by Wallace Stevens.  I thought I would share it with you - there is so much contained within it to appreciate and work with.  Parts of this poem also made their way into my ATC. In the US, April is National Poetry Month!

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Wallace Stevens

I

Among twenty snowy mountains,

The only moving thing

Was the eye of the blackbird.

II

I was of three minds,

Like a tree

In which there are three blackbirds.

III

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.

It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV

A man and a woman

Are one.

A man and a woman and a blackbird

Are one.

V

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendoes,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.

VI

Icicles filled the long window

With barbaric glass.

The shadow of the blackbird

Crossed it, to and fro.

The mood

Traced in the shadow

An indecipherable cause.

VII

O thin men of Haddam,

Why do you imagine golden birds?

Do you not see how the blackbird

Walks around the feet

Of the women about you?

VIII

I know noble accents

And lucid, inescapable rhythms;

But I know, too,

That the blackbird is involved

In what I know.

IX

When the blackbird flew out of sight,

It marked the edge

Of one of many circles.

X

At the sight of blackbirds

Flying in a green light,

Even the bawds of euphony

Would cry out sharply.

XI

He rode over Connecticut

In a glass coach.

Once, a fear pierced him,

In that he mistook

The shadow of his equipage

For blackbirds.

XII

The river is moving.

The blackbird must be flying.

XIII

It was evening all afternoon.

It was snowing

And it was going to snow.

The blackbird sat

In the cedar-limbs.

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week.

(spectacular bird, Woodland Park Zoo)

Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her,

still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.

~Victor Hugo

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week

("For Children Only", Woodland Park)

The world is a playground and life is pushing my swing.

~Natalie Kocsis

Irish Blessing. Happy St Patrick's Day!

As say the Irish:

May joy and peace surround you,

Contentment latch your door,

And happiness be with you now,

And bless you ever more.

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week. Market Tulips

(tulips, Pike Place Market)

By the pixies' magic power

do my tulips always flower...

~Maud Keary

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week.

(tidepooling, minus tide, Carkeek Park)

...it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

~ee cummings