Painting again... finally

This has been a long time coming...

A painting( IN PROGRESS) inspired by one of my favorite poems by John Berger.

This excerpt was taken from - And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief As Photos

I first came across this poem about 15 years ago (yikes) and it was so poignant for me. It would come to mind ever so often while reflecting on the meaning of love. Over time, it's meaning has only intensified.

Some may find this a bit morbid due to the subject matter, but I assure you it is not my intention as I am sure you will understand after reading the poem.

The Poem-

“What reconciles me to my own death more than anything else is the image of a place: a place where your bones and mine are buried, thrown, uncovered, together. They are strewn there pell-mell. One of your left ribs leans against my skull. A metacarpal of my left hand lies inside your pelvis. (Against my broken ribs your breast like a flower.) The hundred bones of our feet are scattered like gravel. It is strange that this image of our proximity, concerning as it does mere phosphate of calcium, should bestow a sense of peace. Yet it does. With you I can imagine a place where to be phosphate of calcium is enough.”

So... this is my humble rendering... I had recently seen a photo of an archaeological site in Italy

and it immediately brought the poem to mind. This sketch was not based on the photo however as you will see if you click on the link. I took sketches from two separate photos/sites and brought them together to give a similar effect. I promise to take better photos soon. Hopefully you can get the gist with these.

the sketch

underpainting in progress..... lots more work to be done

Would love to hear what you think :)

butterflies and bees

my boys appreciating the flowers

the bees have found the allium

a kooky one

3 baby robins right next to the house 7/4/10

frogtopia

From what I hear, frogs have it pretty rough these days... with pollution killing them off and changing he frogs into she frogs, tragic encounters with tires on the moist, warm pavement after rain, etc. :(

I am happy though that we have been seeing so many around these parts.

We have a quite a frog population here in our yard... We seem to find frogs of all kinds throughout spring and summer. N always wants to touch. I know its not that good for a frog to be handled, but we are gentle and always try to just take a quick, closer look so as not to dry out their skin. :)

Here are a few we have been lucky to see and photograph right in our yard and gardens over the past few summers...

in one of our 2 frog ponds

(Statue of THE King of Frogtopia)

on the rose trellis

in one of our frog ponds

on the hose guard (one of my favorites)

they are amazing aren't they?

Week Word- Nothing

I would love to be able to say something clever about nothing.

Maybe try to incorporate quantum mechanics, the general theory of relativity, the big bang theory or vacuum energy.

My brain gets tangled in knots when I try to wrap it around so many theories and concepts and I just try to look for the simplicity in things. Sometimes I wonder though, how amazing it is that some things that seem so simple can be intensely complex at the same time.

It is such an ambigous word and overwhelming to ponder- nothing. Yet it can also describe something trivial. How is that?

Is 'Nothing' to be feared? As in a vast Nothingness, a void, a black hole...

Like "The Nothing" from the movie -The Never Ending Story- where 'the Nothing' is inescapable and it consumes almost all of Fantasia leaving only floating bits?

Is 'Nothing' to be desired? How does one think of 'nothing'? Is nothing idyllic?

If I had no senses, I would see, smell, hear, taste and touch nothing.

I guess there would be no point to this temporal existence.

Would I also have no emotions? No sense of wonder?

Nothing can fill up space.

Nothing is a pronoun.

Nothing is something.

you can hear it

after a heavy snowfall on an early morning before everything is awakened

you can see it

paint it

it fills in the space as

sfumato around a figure

dancing air

alive, real,

it's really something.

but most important

you can choose

to believe that

what may seem like nothing

is something

even if you can't see it

or hear, or smell, or taste, or touch it

See Hanna's blog for more interpretations of "Nothing"

Thank you Hanna for a thought provoking word. :)