Ephemeral Spring

http://www.melissabluefineartandgardendesign.com

 

I adore spring, and this has been a doozy.  Cold temperatures are keeping the blooms a little longer, but they are also holding things back.  This has its advantages, because once things get going, it is hard to keep up!

I just finished this portrait of Tradescans ohioensis, a native wildflower that holds a special place in my heart.  As I look at it, I find I feel just a little melancholy.  I think that is because in my effort to capture a moment, I inadvertently  also captured the fleeting nature of that moment.  Timeless but brief, all at the same time.  Maybe it is the fact that I turn 50 tomorrow.  I don’t mind turning 50, but I do notice that my view of life has changed dramatically.

Cheers, and I hope you get to go out and enjoy some wildflowers!

 

 

 

 

 

Sacred Circle

I don’t know about you, but I seem to draw my life lessons from the oddest places.  Lately I’ve been absorbed by Cesar Milan and his show “The Dog Whisperer”.  He will say that we get the dog we need, and very often his mission isn’t so much about fixing the dog in question but in helping the owner to see how her life is out of balance.  He points out that if a dog is out of balance, the other dogs will quickly respond accordingly.

Hmmm.  Interesting.  I got to thinking how this really applies to everything.  The energy you bring to any encounter can definitely affect the outcome.

One of the things I chew on in quiet moments is religious fanaticism and simmering frictions and violence around the world.  Suddenly it hit me…could it be that we here in America are out of balance, and the Universe is holding up a mirror to show us that?  When you think of the America of the 40′s and 50′s, weren’t we about quality, home-grown products, good manners, baseball and apple pie?

Now, if you watch the Shark Tank for instance, you will learn that only one thing matters: money.  Not even just that, but money NOW, and damn the consequences.  I just read an article about one of my erstwhile heroes, Warren Buffett.  I have always admired him because while he is wildly successful at making money, he gives an enormous amount of it away.  He still lives in his $30,000 house- my kind of guy.  Now, however, he has decided to open up an enormous coal strip-mine in Montana and ship the coal to China.  To do this, he will need to expand his rail line right through the middle of a neighbor’s cattle ranch.  If the ranchers refuse, he can (and probably will) use eminent domain to take the land!

Then let’s consider our entertainment industry.  What happened to limits?  What is it not ok to say and show?  Remember the old movies, when so much emotion or excitement could be expressed without actually revealing all?  Now billboards are explicit, books are obscene… It’s enough to make me want to retreat to a mountain top and sit in lotus position saying “OM” for the rest of my days…  except my knees would never allow it!

Violence is not ok.  Not ever.  But maybe there is something to this “Ugly American” thing I hear about.  Maybe the excesses we indulge in as a nation are drawing the wrath of the Universe.  Oh, yes.  We are free.  But I think that in our insistence on our freedoms, we have somehow lost track of what the American Way of Life is truly about.

We are a powerful nation~ leaders.  There are countries that want to be us (envy) and there are countries that despise us for what we have become.  Having a leadership role comes with responsibility.  Isn’t it possible that  if we try to recapture our old dignity and civility and values, maybe the extremists out there might soften their demeanor?   Seems to me it beats slinging bombs at each other.  Of course it isn’t that simple.  Or, is it?

Renewal

When we moved into our little Cape Cod some 18 years ago, this magnolia was really struggling.  It was surrounded by silver maples previous owners had allowed to grow (UGH) and was languishing under their shade and rapacious thirst.  We cut them down but it seemed to be too late.  It continued to fail until finally I agreed to cut it down.  BUT THEN…

It started sending up new shoots!

What a glorious sight from my window.

Finally, here is another shot at the image I wanted to share last time.  This time I took a photo of the image  and then loaded it into my computer, instead of scanning it.  Honestly~ is technology helping or hindering?!  Please let me know what you think.  Would you like to see more of these?

Unfolding Story

In my last post I shared my latest pen and ink drawing, of Golden Alexanders.  Here, I’ve blended it with an image of a painting I did earlier.  I like how it came out, and the words came to me as I worked on it.  I’m not sure why it scanned so blue, though.  The actual print has a white border.

It seems there are a lot of questions in my life right now and I really hate that.  But I realize that really, even when we think we know what is around the next corner, we don’t.  A wise person once told me that we must learn to live the question.  Furthermore, she pointed out that even if we get answers to current questions, we will certainly be given new questions to live with.

And so, our stories unfold.  We each have our own unique story, yet often our threads interweave.  Thus the tapestry is woven.  This fascinates me and keeps me watching and listening.

Gurgle gurgle…

Golden Alexanders

There may not be any new paintings for awhile.  This morning, much earlier than I am accustomed to, I awoke to an odd gurgling sound.  With drips and splashes as accompaniment.  Hmmm.  Thinking I’d better see what that was all about I headed for the basement and, “oh nooooo”.  Like thousands of others today, I awoke to find my basement awash in flood water.  Well, no.  We were lucky.  Our’s was rain water, 4″ of it.  But we saw video of people facing many feet of dirty water swirling up their basement stairs.  A sink hole in Chicago  swallowed 2 cars and a pickup.  And this was just days after the tragedy in Boston.  I also read about a factory that blew up in Texas today.  whew.

So I’m sitting here thinking about all of that.  How fragile is the veneer of civilization that we rely on, and how quickly it can be torn away.  This morning (On my way to Panera for badly needed coffee and chocolate, after hours of bailing water) I heard parts of the memorial service held in Boston today.  It was deeply moving to hear the perspectives of Jewish, Muslim and Christian people speaking from their hearts and offering prayers.  In different ways, they were saying that  we must find the courage to keep loving, refuse to let bitterness and fear into our hearts and thoughts.  I particularly liked what one said; that our loving Creator allows brief blasts of darkness into our world, not to hurt us but to strengthen us.  How many times have you seen it, people rising to the occasion to help others when dreadful things happen?  Like a plant that must face wind to be strong and to become what it is meant to be, he was suggesting that we as people and as communities need that dark thread running through the beautiful pattern that goodness weaves.  I’m not putting it nearly as well as he did, but I hope I am conveying what I think he meant.  He said that not only can the darkness never extinguish the Light, in trying to do so, it can only strengthen it.

And so tonight I am sitting here in my snug room pondering what all happened today and recently.  Knowing I am fortunate to have my warm bed waiting for me, knowing I could lose it and everything else in a moment, and hoping I will have the courage to hold my heart open and soft, and to be of service to others when the need arises.

This is how we can keep weaving the beautiful tapestry of Light.

To end on a hopeful note, here is a very rare lady indeed, preparing to lay her eggs.  Life, and love, will always find a way.

~Peace~

Sandy

I wanted to share this wonderful dog with you because she represents a big life lesson for me.  Like most people, I expect, I found myself doing a lot of things I really hated.  Too much of a “pleaser”, I could not say no to requests to paint signs for businesses or toy trains for children’s walls.  Too unsure of myself as a professional, I figured I had to say yes to every request. One day it occurred to me that if I (gulp) said “no, I’m sorry” instead, I would be spending a lot less time doing things I really didn’t enjoy.  It was a scary thought, but it meant that I would have more time to do the things I wanted to be doing.

Well, here is where Sandy the fabulous yellow lab comes in.  I formally said to myself and the Universe, “no more signs, no more illustrations that pull me away from my true calling…..but I sure wish I could paint dog portraits.  I love dogs.  and gardens.”  Almost immediately, the manager of a local golf club approached me to hang several of my paintings in the clubhouse.  I was very excited~ what a great opportunity!  And THEN, the day I brought them to hang, he took me aside and asked me whether I would consider painting a portrait of his dog for his wife’s birthday.  Wow!  Don’t you just love it when things like that happen?

This has taught me that a very good path to joy is to be clear with yourself about what you want, and about what you definitely don’t want.  Give yourself permission to say “no”~ good things will flow into the space you have created.

I hope lots of good things flow into your life, too.

And don’t forget, if you want a painting of your dog (or garden), I’m your girl!

Dead River Roses

Here are some summer roses, fresh off the easel!  I don’t know about all of you, but I needed a reminder that the earth can do something besides hard, cold and grey.

Although this river is called the “Dead River”, it is anything but.  It arises in the heart of a sedge meadow that I am pretty sure is a glimpse of heaven, and flows gently toward Lake Michigan.  So slowly, in fact, it seems more like a long pond than a river.  Much of the time it is blocked by a sandbar which I believe is the reason for its name; it arises and ends right there in the park…except for when it doesn’t.  In those exciting moments when it blows out the sandbar, WATCH OUT!  It surges out into the lake, forming a standing wave of tremendous power.  People have been swept far out into the lake.  So, sort of a sleeping dragon, is my favorite river.

This and all paintings are available at http://www.melissabluefineartandgardendesign.com