Ice Filled April

I just looked at my last post, from nearly a month ago (!), with those lovely pictures of the migration and the river....the view out my living room windows. Today, the scene is quite different, as we're in the grips of the last gasp of winter....so I hope! Walda is bringing winter back for a last fling...one to remember! In the last few hours I have experienced rain, wind, sleet, wintery mix, snow, thunder and lightning...let's see what's missing? It is a very odd sensation to be driving at 35 mph home from work down an ice covered road, sleet pelting the windshield, while bolts of lightning flash on all sides. Everyone I know is quite disheartened at this return of winter, even if temporary, as spring has only been coming in fits and starts as it is. This is a slow moving storm, so we have at least another day of this....oh and an accumulation of snow to look forward to....it will begin in earnest while we sleep and build up several inches (forecasts vary), lasting through the day tomorrow. Oh well. Won't we appreciate spring when it really decides to hang around for awhile! I took a few pictures the other day of an approaching thunderstorm....it was warm that day, probably close to 70 degrees.

In my last post, I talked about stopping, slowing down, pursuing depth rather than just breadth in life. I've done that somewhat....I've taken more time for reading and pondering as I try to live a little more intentionally. As we all know, life is demanding....of our time, our energy and we are easily distracted. The last two weeks I spent helping to move our library into the brand new renovated and enlarged space. It was exhausting, I must say....whole ranges of books had to be moved (hydraulic stack movers and a crew from the city of Vermillion to the rescue for that part) and I think it's safe to say every book in the library was handled at least once as they had to be shifted and reshifted, organized and reorganized. I finally have my life back and I'm once again on my course of rethinking things in my life and studio practice. I'm engaged in learning about the land where I live....as landscape, as place and as a piece of the earth's history. It's beginning to inform some new work and that feels good. The best moments are when you feed yourself with new ideas and learning and watch as it filters through you and comes back out into the world through your hands. At least for me, that's very rewarding...making the work allows my own thinking to unfold. As I draw I have a renewed understanding my widened world view, even if I cannot articulate it in language. I'll share some images of these new works soon...when they are finished. For now, here a some shots of a couple of other new pieces, including Notes From The Ancestors no.15, which will find it's way to my website in the next few days.

Notes From The Ancestors no. 15

Remnants

Chance Discovery

I'm glad to be back....gathering up a new routine, listening and awaiting each next step. I missed the conversation with you all and hope everyone is doing well. Perhaps you are enjoying the first days of spring...for some of you, summer is winding down and you are entering a time of autumn. Enjoy the seasons....even if, on occasion, like today for me, the seasons get a little unruly!

Cheers!

Winter Rhythms and Fine Reading

Winter No.2 from the Season Cycles Series

Well, somehow this felt like a big week with a couple of nice blog features for Missouri Bend Studio!  Robyn Gordon's blog Art Propelled post on Nature Lovers featured one of my recent book pages, along with the work of some other really wonderful artists.  Many of the readers of this blog are surely familiar and probably followers of Robyn's blog as well!  If not, it's a gem and I encourage you to visit just once...you'll be hooked!  I was also fortunate to be the topic of the day on the Thursday sketchbook feature on the Artisans Collective blog, which you can link to here. Since I don't really keep a bona fide sketchbook, I sort of walked through the process of making one of the book page pieces using the most recent Page from The Book Of Loose Associations.  

Also as you can see, I've moved into a winter mindset and have started up on the winter pieces in the Season Cycles series.  I have a few more in the works in the studio, but the second one was posted today.  I've been reminded of the beautiful shimmering grays that winter brings and am finding out that perhaps this is my favorite season...at least in terms of inspiration for making art!  Not to worry, I'm not letting the book pages go....they are still in process as well!

Late this afternoon I managed to spend a little time on the couch reading and that was delightful...not only to be reading and watching the gorgeous sunset with a glass of wine, but reacquainting myself with the rhythm of winter days when darkness sets in early and I tend to hunker down and surround myself with books.  That got me thinking again about books and the recent  posts about books in many of the blogs I follow.  I have books and bookshelves in every room in the house and have hauled nearly all of these friends of mine across the country and across town in recent moves.  I tried to part with them, but found I couldn't.

Many of the books I've collected have not been read and truth be told, I doubt I'll ever get to some of them, but give them away....highly unlikely...they belong here on my shelves.  Of the books I've read, so many have sent me soaring or stopped me in my tracks while whole new worlds opened up or brought me to tears when I couldn't imagine that such words strung together across a page could be quite so beautifully written or so powerful.  But ask me to tell you about them, to describe them...I'm kind of at a loss.  Perhaps my memory is not so great, but I think the issue is really that when you read a book, it's like a fine meal (the expression "devouring a book" is probably quite appropriate) that you consume and that literally becomes a part of you....in a physical way, but also emotionally as a memory of a time and place.  Enjoy a delicious meal, but in a few days time, if asked, could you describe it to someone else in any meaningful way?  You could only say in the most cursory terms how wonderful it was, or perhaps how awful, but chances are you probably couldn't even call up in your own body the very tastes you experienced.  Any good book read, once savored, is likewise absorbed by the body, nourishing even as it becomes a part of the very structure of our being....it has become who we are.  

So here's what I'm getting to...I randomly pulled a few fine dining experiences to share with you.  I can tell you this about each of these books...every one has been a part of making me who I am. They lifted and transported me to unknown places and I returned from each journey just a little larger.  

The Book of Salt by Monique Truong, beautifully written novel about Paris in the 1930s through the eyes of the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. This was her first novel and I've been looking for something new every since...

The Shape of Content by Ben Shahn...the book must be a classic and if you ask me, it is essential reading for an artist. 

River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West by Rebecca Solnit.  I think Rebecca Solnit is pure magic...here's the blurb from the cover, which I wholeheartedly endorse: "Brilliant...never less than deeply intelligent, and often very close to inspired." -- New York Time  Book Review

Now I've gotten myself all excited to reread these little gems!

So....what books have so moved you....what books have provided your best meals????  I'm anxious to hear!

A hearty welcome to the recent followers of this blog!  Have a fine weekend everyone!

Season Cycles/Spring no. 21

Season Cycles/Spring no.21 was posted this morning at my shop on Etsy.  Now, I'm excited to get down to the studio to begin some watercolors!  I'll keep up with the Season Cycles, but have been getting excited about branching out and working in a looser way in a medium I haven't touch in decades...should be interesting!  The weather is quite cool lately...rain on the way I'm sure, given this overcast sky.  A great day for working in the studio.

Novelty and Repetition

I think, as human beings, we are often torn between our desire for novelty and our need for repetition.  The cycle of the seasons is an endless repetition, on which we depend and which grounds our lives and our activities--even if not to the extent of our ancestors.  I know that I delighted by the turn of the seasons, as by the time each one rolls around, much like clockwork, I have grown weary of the old and am ready for something new!

Still delighting in the unfolding green in the landscape...the view across the Missouri River to Nebraska is greener and richer every day.

Sewn Paper

Just finished up Season Cycles/Spring no. 13 and no. 14 and added to MissouriBendStudio on etsy.com.  In my last post I showed this piece (Spring no. 14) before any of the embroidery and beads were added.  Here it is in its finished state, many hours later!  It's fun to watch what happens as each stitch is added...a very slow and meditative way of drawing!

Day by Day

What a difference in the color of the landscape day by day.  The unfolding of green seems to be accelerating at a pace I can't quite remember from years before.  A nice rain last night and this morning has given the plants a nice long drink!  Posted a couple of pieces in my etsy.com shop today and am busy working on a several others, which I hope I can post over the weekend.  We'll see...one can't quite control the creative process.

Season Cycles/Early Spring no.11 is pictured above.  Visit my shop for others in the Season Cycles series, all with detail views.

The Four Seasons

For some reason, this year the change of seasons has been on my mind alot.  I'm not only keenly aware of the change in weather, but also thinking about rhythms, cycles and the ebb and flow of time.  The heavy snows of winter have melted away finally and things are quickly beginning to turn green and come back up through the ground to begin anew. Coming to South Dakota only five years ago after decades of living in Florida, I am still astounded when the plants come back to life!

I've begun a new series of work, Season Cycles, focused on the four seasons.  We're in the early stages of spring now and the first of many pieces have been posted in my shop (www.etsy.com/shop/missouribendstudio).  The pieces will remain a consistent 5x5" with the idea that they can be mixed up a bit and shown in any combination of multiples.  All are mixed media works on handmade paper, combining painting, drawing, embroidery, collage and beads, mounted on masonite and ready for hanging.  The first in the series is shown below!

Please send any comments or queries about the work and I welcome your thoughts about how the change of seasons affects the rhythms in your life!