SELF EXCAVATION ..... AND DIGBY

Somewhere along the line I gave up reading books ..... hand held books, that is .... and I allowed that gap of time to be taken up with reading on the internet. Now with all the power failures we are experiencing I am spending less time on the computer and more time finishing the half-read books I have put aside over the last year or two. I'm also renewing my love for poetry...... Reading a poem here and there in the lamp light to ponder over while falling asleep.... several hours before my usual bedtime.

When Digby arrived I was feeling particularly frazzled. He brought with him a little gift the breeders failed to mention, besides the hernia and tummy upsets. His ringworm infestation had to be nipped in the bud before it got out of control.

Thus began the daily treatment baths and re-baths, washing and drying of doggy bedding, extra scrubbing of everything that could be scrubbed (with a little help from Digby) and extra hoovering and lifting of heavy things.

I bet you know where this is going! Of course I put my back out ...... and had no option but to slow down and read books that would soothe my feelings of overwhelm.

With the reading of inspiring books has come a phase of self excavation. These phases come in waves throughout my life (as they do), and each time I excavate a little more. The excavation theme has now overflowed into my carvings .... something that has surprised me and given me much food for thought.

I've since come to the conclusion that annoying happenings like power failures, frequent water cuts and ringworm infestations are not simply lessons in patience but they can also be positive catalysts for renewal and change .

Sighhhh ..... Well I have to think that or get completely bogged down with bitter feelings toward shady dog breeders and inefficient service providers ;-)

Painting by Simon Addy, Carved Totem by me.

"There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic" - Anais Nin

Detail of my totem, Excavation I

WATER THERAPY

Rain. Fiberglass sculpture by Nazar Bilyk. See more of Nazar's work here.

I love to be near water though I rarely swim. I would much rather walk in the shallows, soothed by the wavelets lapping at my ankles .....

Robert Rauschenberg. I found this image on Tumblr.

... or paddle knee deep in rock pools searching for pebbles and cowries that have been trapped there on the out going tide.

Jen Bradford. See more details of her work on Flickr, here.

I can't resist mountain streams whether I'm wading in them or sitting on a rock staring into the water.

Baleen by Andrew Wyeth. There are many more images here.

There is a stream on the other side of our garden wall and though I can't see it unless I'm at the wall peering over I can always hear it. It is the music I listen to while I carve or when I'm falling asleep at night.

Detail from The River Map Scrolls by Lorna Crane. I love this piece! Read blog post about The River Map Scrolls here.

Water from the River by Lorna Crane. See Lorna's website here.


WATER by Pablo Neruda
Everything on the earth bristled, the bramble

pricked and the green thread
nibbled away, the petal fell, falling
until the only flower was the falling itself.
Water is another matter,
has no direction but its own bright grace,
runs through all imaginable colors,
takes limpid lessons
from stone,
and in those functionings plays out
the unrealized ambitions of the foam.

Water Overflowing by Linda Nardelli. This piece takes me straight to the beach shallows. See Linda's website here.

Oh if only ! Water Swing (in Dalyan, Turkey) by Emma Holland. Flickr photo stream here.

Shallows by Hanna Kay. See more of Hanna's work here.

Tryptic by Stuart King.

Beach Walk by Cindy Tonkin. Acrylic and collage. See more of Cindy's work here.

Kathryn Frund at the Chase Gallery. See more of Kathryn's work here.

Corroboration by Anthony J. White. Oil on Linen. See website here.

A TANGLE OF TWISTING PATHS

Anne-Laure Djabllah. (Oil, mixed media on canvas). See Flickr photo stream here.

I have been planning this post for a while and when I re-discovered Anne-Laure Djaballah's blog it all came together. Much of Anne-Laure's work revolves around the fragile threads of life .... connecting ... disconnecting, tangling... untangling; Path's crossing, twisting, meandering .... beginning and ending. In most of her pieces there is a line, a thread, a wire linking elements .... much like life. Our lives are connected by threads, journeys and stories.

Detail from work in progress by Anne-Laure Djaballah. See blog post here.

"Lines, broken up, tangled, linking the dots, drawn by hand, made of paint, thread, string or wire, the line connects one place to the next, suggesting a path, and telling a story". - Anne-Laure Djaballah

Assemblage by Anne-Laure Djaballah.


I wallowed in Anne Laure's blog for a while before moving on to other artists who are intrigued by life's tangles, both organized and disorganized .....

Enthicket 2 by John Bonick. See more of John's work here.

...... and then this poem by Naomi Shihab Nye fell in my lap....

Life is a tangle of

twisting paths.

Some short.

Some long.

There are dead ends.

And there are choices.

And wrong turns,

and detours,

and yield signs,

and instruction booklets,

and star maps,

and happiness,

and loneliness.

And friends.

And sisters.

And love.

And poetry.

Life is a maze.

You are a maze.

Amazed.

And amazing.

-- Naomi Shihab Nye from the book A Maze Me

Stefany Hemming. See more of Stefany's work at the Bill Lowe Gallery, here.

Brice Marden. See more here.

Free Advice by DJ Simpson. See more here.

Alexander Faley. See more of Alexander's work at Koller Art House here.

Alexander Faley. See more here.

Sam Reveles. See more of Sam's work here.

Diane Cooper. See many more tangled pieces at Diane's website, here.


Kay Sekimachi

Necklace by Kay Sekimachi. See more of Kay's work at the Jane Sauer Gallery, here.

Ceramic piece by Gudrun Klix. See website here.

A whimsical sculpture I found on Tumblr. If anyone knows the name of the artist please let me know .

STRIPES, STRIPY, STRIPED

Sean Scully. See more of Sean's work here.

Sean Scully immediately comes to mind when thinking of stripes in contemporary art but there are also many other wonderful artists incorporating stripes into their work. These are just a few of my favourite pieces.

Minnie Pwerle. Acrylic on linen. See more here.

Minnie Pwerle. Acrylic on linen.

Stripes #4, oil and mixed media on panel by Rebecca Crowell. See website here.

Tea Bag Quilt by Sophie Truong. See Sophie's Flickr photo stream here.


Mathew Harris. See more of Mathew's textile art on his website here.

Bill Gingles. See website here.

Sam Lock. Website here.

Detail from sculpture by Ursula von Rydingsvard. Photo taken by Mathew Felix Sun. See Mathew's blog here.

Large ceramic pieces by South African artist Louise Gelderblom. See website here.

"The shape of the piece and the surface markings on it create a rhythm, a percussion beat that I think of as a wordless tactile language." - Louise Gelderblom