June 2017 More Water Lilies

Water lilies—mirrored
sky holding deep dreams, rampant
with riotous light

Another Monet-inspired grid.  Happy June!

Mother’s Day 2017

My mother loved roses.  The Oracle caught my mood.

magic flower laughs
opens remembering heals
like stars aborning

 sacred spirit shines
between memory and rose
flowering the soul

Neo Color

My first attempt at using the Neocolor II set given to me by Kerfe 27 years ago. A very fun and forgiving medium which you can smoosh with water. I tried to give this a layered effect by adding watercolor, pencil and fine tip marker. 

Feel Gardens

Nina and I consulted with the Magnetic Poetry Oracle way back in February for this one.  I’ve been working on this illustration for a long time, but my stitching is always slow.

Cover cold wind
feel gardens
follow bright stones
behold harmony
breathe wild blooms
of secret sanctuary
listen to
the beautiful song

 Nina has a completely different interpretation for our collaborative verse which she will be posting today as well.

Spring Flowers

iPad drawing app. Just a little vase of flowers. It’s my anniversary today: 36 years married. (Kerfe was at my wedding). 

Drawing Constellations

Drawing constellations in skies of dream,
landscaped as colors growing wild, extreme,
pulsing surrounding vibrations unseen,
in star-gathered moonlight, whispering beam
unconscious, unlimited, in between

Continuing my recent star theme…I actually did this awhile ago, but I’ve been tweaking the poem on and off.  This is for Jane Dougherty’s last poetry challenge posted back in the end of September.  The poetic form was her own invention:  a single stanza of five lines of ten syllables each, and the five end of line words all rhyme.   Here’s the artwork she provided:

I miss Jane’s prompts.

Hope/#PoetsForPeace

“Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”
–Lady Bird Johnson

“If you could
have three wishes, what?”
Number one–
always “peace.”
I’ve been repeating that word
since I was a child.

What is peace?
Easy to say what
it is not–
not guns, not
bombs, not hate or violence.
Not this destruction.

There are seeds
but they need sunlight–
fertile soil
to nourish
growth, to send roots; open space
to reach for the sky.

This is not
complicated.  This
happens if
we let it–
the Earth can teach us if we
can’t find our way home.

Despite the way we mistreat it, the Earth still shares with us its bounty.  As it does each summer, the Rose of Sharon tree is blooming, surrounded by concrete and the sorrows of our world.

Writer’s Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge Theme-“Hope” #WQWWC

Join in with your poem here.

(More) Miriam Schapiro

Doesn’t Schapiro’s “Beauty of Summer”, above, look like one of Nina’s rose pictures?  Unfortunately, Nina wasn’t able to get into the city to see the show at the National Academy Museum that closed in May, but I took some photos to share when I visited.

A few years ago, Nina and I went to a show of her works at the Flomenhaft Gallery in Chelsea.  Reproductions can’t duplicate the intricacy of her painted collages.

This show was much more extensive and included work from beginning to end.

One delight and inspiration after another!

I was excited to see a few of her window works, including the one that directly inspired a monthly grid to illustrate and e.e. cummings poem last year.

The shrines really appeal to me too.

It’s difficult to take in all the detail in Schapiro’s “My History” from a photo.  This work in particular gives me a lot of ideas for both writing and art.

I have referenced this wonderful artist, who died just about a year ago, often.  You can see other posts about Miriam Schapiro here here and here.

Flowers for Tuesday

Despite my best efforts the only art related thing I did over the weekend was clean up my art room. I did this drawing the other day at work, hence the yellow daffodils done with a highlighter. I intend to start painting in oils (or maybe acrylics, seeing what Laura achieved with that medium). Meanwhile I have to get back into a work mode after a hedonistic weekend of wine drinking. 

Flowers

I first drew an impressionistic representation, and then I abstracted it.  Neocolor dipped in water.  Which version do you like?