Serene Shady Dreams

My sweet wolf having a dreamy time in the shade.

Over many cups of swirling lattes,  this watercolour sketch of my muse wolf came together.  Remembrances of a quiet afternoon, between heat spells in Sacramento, our quiet art making- moments.  Not only do wolves like to hang out at libraries, but they enjoy making all kinds of art.  This particular day I was photographing my wolf family and later made this painting.

Simultanality

Simultanality

Sometimes, things happen all at once.

No “photoshop” required.

treehorse

I made this painting in my sketchbook a few years ago. This day, right now, I could swear I just painted it as it reflects how I feel (again!).

Someone commented on my visual journal this morning at the coffee shop.  He really liked the idea of having drawings and photos in it, not just words, to show the journey.  I do as well since there are times when words just don’t describe what I’m going through or what I’m seeing.  I like that art also, being the universal language, may convey to someone who doesn’t know English what I was expressing in that moment.  I’m also intrigued with the idea that the viewer will bring their own meaning to art.  This certainly makes my little universe expand!

Considering all of these people (paintings) I live with

Acrylic and Dog (as fox) 2012

They suddenly run through my head like quick foxes – I can only glimpse the edges of furry tails with my eyes, but with Vision, I see them completely.  Completely, that is, until they stop and stand before me, boldly, fully.  At times they appear completely different but more truly than I had imagined. Once in a while they stop and I can look at them for years, whether in my head or on the easel, and neither of us knows what is going on.  Occasionally wrong, often right but just not there yet; like here, like now, she hovers in mid-leap heading for the unknown.  She’s been floating there for years.  Suspended in mid-thought we wait for the Everywhere to open this portal so that we may dive through and go for a swim.  She is more patient than I, content to contemplate the ripples in the blue while my rational mind tries desperately to construct some form, shape and meaning.  But I must wait.  Take cues from her and allow this knowledge to unfold as it will, as it intends.  Sometimes I think of this a perpetual piece – that it is actually “finished” because if it is reflecting life, always, we may be able to see a little bit ahead but it is always unknown until we are in it or passed it.  Everything is always happening but we are always in the now while we look behind and ahead.  Perhaps this is the lesson, at least for today, for the now.  It could be that the future now will bring some sort of stick to this game of fetch and some thing will take a more solid form in the blue, a recognizable being of substance.  That remains to be seen.

The other wondering I have is that this may very well be a recognizable event-cognitive happenstance, and I’ve been so busy chasing my tail, looking for the stick, over-thinking it, that this Vision has manifested and I’ve missed it.  I’d like to think not, but here

Anything

Is

Possible.

Big acrylic painting. This was started in 2004; I don't think we are finished.

The Elephant Family’s New Home

acrylic, ink and stuff in ragged sketchbook

on my 7thwolf blog creation

I love paint. "Whispered" hangs before me, nearly finished.

They’d been badgering me for years.

“You should just do it.”

“You would be good at it.”

“It’s easy.”

However, whether I believed them or not,

I Resisted.

Consciously.

I continued to draw, paint, make comix, write, play with wolves, photograph, drive around, drink coffee, watch movies, brush my dogs, and resist.

One particularly sunny afternoon when I was getting ready to go outside and see what was growing in the trees, the Word Master called me into his study.  I went in thinking he would like me to bring a cup of tea or perhaps offer a drive in the mountains.  Haha!  Silly me.  “Let’s start your blog.  What do you want to call it?”

Let’s call it, “IdontwanttoblogIwanttogooutsideandplayorsomethingIdontwanttowritestuffordiariesorwhateverthatsoknothanks.”

“That’s too long.  C’mon.  You need to do this.”

Since I’d actually been considering it for years but had no idea what I would write about, of course I imagined paintings and wolves.  “From the Everywhere,” I said.

And so it began.

watercolour wolves over coffee

A little spot in the vastness of virtual space that you, gentle traveler, have found and stayed for a few moments, here and there from time to time.  Thank you for spending time with me.

Now that I’ve been keeping this up for a year and a half, I am happy that I have.  I’ve kept the idea of my spot non-stressful, something to have fun with and enjoy.  I do a lot of artwork in between what most people call real-life – the 9-5 world.  I don’t want to go into how wrong and unhealthy the American working culture has become, but continue to offer this space for me and any visitors, the one-timers and long time followers, as a place to engage imagination.  I have a book called “The Re-Enchantment of Art” and I think it’s time to read it, to crack it’s spine, give it’s pages dog-ears and capture glimpses about other ideas about creativity and it’s place in our world at the End of the Mayan calendar.

I will continue to report my findings, both directly with commentary and “indirectly” with art.  I look forward to this continuing journey and I hope you will not only come along, but join my conversation with your own art and words.

My sweet muse

“Where did you come from Baby Dear?

Out from the Everywhere, into the here.”

-George Macdonald (1824–1905)