A HOOT OF OWLS

Owl Teapot by Leanne Pizio

"A Barred Owl"

by Richard Wilbur

The warping night-air having brought the boom

Of an owl's voice into her darkened room,

We tell the wakened child that all she heard

Was an odd question from a forest bird,

Asking of us, if rightly listened to,

"Who cooks for you?" and then "Who cooks for you?"

Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,

Can also thus domesticate a fear,

And send a small child back to sleep at night

Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight

Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw

Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.

Stone Owl Sculpture by John Philip Capello

Looking at the stone sculpture by John Philip Capello makes me think of a little altercation I had with my mom during my early teens. I can distinctly hear my mother's voice rising up from behind me. "Robyn, what on earth are you doing?"

Horror of all horrors........ caught red handed. ....mincing fieldmice... fur...tails...bones and all .....in mom's mincer. I had 2 hungry owlets that had to be fed. Our induna's children had brought me several limp field mice they had caught caught in primitive tin can traps that very morning. These they usually roasted on sticks over a fire before eating them...with relish I might add. But today they had "gifted" the mice to me in exchange for sweets. Anyway after mom looked into her mincer and saw the mangled mess of mouse I was threatened within an inch of my life so had to revert to wrapping minced beef in cottonwool to feed my hungry pets. Such is life growing up on a farm.

Wire Owl by Elizabeth Berrien

I posted this Stainedglass Owl by Jay Gubitz for Chris over at Shady Grove

Picasso Owl Print

CREATIVE PEOPLE

Something that really interests me is the creative process and studying the process in different artists, different mediums and different cultures.......which is probably why I am addicted to arty blogs.

Seth over at the altered page has designed a project "to bring together the online artistic community, introduce you to new artists, and help you to know some familiar ones better.

95 artists answered 7 questions and, in doing so, opened a window into their artistic process and imaginative minds."

The third episode of The Pulse is out! Many of us are participating and had great fun answering the questions......and Seth?...well it must have been a mammoth task so a big thank you to Seth for putting it all together for us.

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

We are home from our little jaunt out of town. First stop was at the farmers market which turned out to be far more than a few stalls selling farm produce.

It was practically a village of brightly coloured gazebos touting anything from ostrich windpipes for doggie treats to man sized metal roosters, Yoruba artefacts and the most foul smelling, rainbow striped cheeses.

Speaking of dogs...everybody brought along their deliriously happy canines on leads, all behaving excellently I might add. A lot of giants like Great Danes and Newfoundlands greeting each other very politely, a little sniff here and a little sniff there and then off on their curcuitous way.

A labrador plopped down on the grass opposite the doggie treat stand (he had done this before) and tentatively stretched his neck out, his nose twitching delicately at the basket of ostrich windpipes. He was rewarded for his good manners and his mistress left with two packets brimming with pigs ears, giant bones and dried ostrich tendons.

I was thrilled to see a familiar face, an african gent from Nigeria who has sold me a few Yoruba pieces before. What I like about his artefacts is that though he sells curios and a few knock offs he also sells the genuine thing.

WE left with a basket of goodies just in the nick of time before it started to rain.... and as usual we forgot to buy the vegetables that had brought us to the market in the first place.

Next stop... the gallery to drop off a few carvings .......

..... a quick cappuccino at the Artscafe.....

........ take a few photos of the street murals and then.... home again, home again...jiggedy jig.

BEACHCOMBER

"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown for going out, I found, was really going in." - John Muir.



From the moment my toes sink into wet shingle I feel cleansed of the city buzz. There's something so calming about being at the sea. Breathing in the salty air, gazing out as far as the eye can see and generally just slowing down from the rushing about that we all do.

......And then there is the searching, the unearthing and the gathering of sea treasures.

Our family has been collecting cowrie shells for as long as I can remember. If a cowrie washes up on the sand we see it as a message from our loved ones who have passed on. A message of love. We see you, we hear you, we are here.

My eldest daughter favoured the spotless white cowries and my youngest, the little brown speckled ones. I love the sand buffed, worn cowries....though I have to admit that the first siting of a perfect new cowrie makes my heart sing.

I have been working on my "Beachcomber" totem for the past week and reliving those long languid days, wandering along the sea shore.

THE SIMPLE THINGS

I read the Newspaper about once a month, if that, because it unsettles me to read about the turmoil in my country every day. We have unacceptable crime levels. Rape and murder are so commonplace they don't even elicit a shocked reaction anymore. I'm tired of reading about fraud, bribes, greed, corruption, theft, burglaries, violence. We have regular strikes, demonstrations and electricity load shedding which is crippling business and as if the electricity blackouts aren't enough we can now look forward to water shortages too......And lets not even talk about the goings on in Zimbabwe.

As far as I'm concerned, "if it happens it happens" but I would rather not dwell on it by reading about it in the newspaper everyday. I certainly feel a lot more content since I've been avoiding the news.

Today I count my blessings and focus on the simple things in life.

Working quietly in the courtyard, the sound of the stream gurgling in the backround and the loeries calling overhead. My work is my meditation.

Sitting on the lawn with the dogs, gazing up at an amazing sky. Clouds with silver linings.

Breathing in the fragrance of crushed rose geranium leaves.

Orchids flowering on the meditation tree.

The scent of camphor as I remove clean sheets from mom's old camphor chest.

Gathering metal bits and pieces to use in my art ....or just gathering for the sake of gathering.

Listening to my daughter's unbridled laughter. Appreciating my husband's quirky sense of humour.

.........And while I am tapping away at the keys, loving being part of this blogging community, the phone rings. Someone has just purchased two of my carved doors at the gallery..."please send more." It's such a great day!

THE HYENA MEN OF NIGERIA

Pieter Hugo is a South African based photographer who was selected as the Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2007. His photographic series of the Hyena men of Nigeria is phenomenal!

The story I heard and later read here, was that a friend sent Pieter a cell phone photograph of a group of men leading chained hyenas down a street in Lagos. This is a sight I would find totally amazing because full grown hyenas aren't the most friendly creatures and I wouldn't put it past one to snap an arm off as easily as snapping a piece of celery. Their jaws are extremely powerful. On the other hand I have heard that when reared from puppies they make the most charming and amiable pets.

Anyway to cut a long story short, Pieter hopped onto a plane for Lagos, found the Hyena Men and actually traveled with them for 8 days.

The "Gadawan Kura" (hyena handlers) are a group of travelling entertainers who earn a living by performing with these hyenas..... as well as a few baboons and rock pythons.



The photographs of this unlikely coexistence are so extraordinary that I have returned to look at them several times but I must admit they do leave me feeling rather unsettled.

CHICKEN WIRE MASTERPIECES

Jean-Michael Basquiat by Ivan Lovatt


Australian sculptor, Ivan Lovatt , creates wonders with chicken wire. It must be one of the most difficult ways to create art which is probably why you don't find many people doing it in quite the unique style that Lovatt does. All the layers of mesh twisted and folded to form the hills and dales that make up a face like Einstein's.....



or a man's jacket or Dame Ednas purple possum picker ........



.....or an owl.


The man's clearly a genius.

CROW

Curious Crow by James Kitchen

In Africa crows are considered to be guides, protector spirits and messengers.They warn people that danger is approaching.

I love this hand carved flock of crows by Allen & Mary Dee

For some reason artists have found crows highly portrayable and a lot of the art portrays them in a humorous light. 

Another delightful crow, carved and handpainted by Allen & Mary Dee

When I was just a kid my brother arrived home with a poor pinioned crow that had been advertised in the Pets for Sale column. The owner couldn't handle him so my brother bought him for me to tame. Crow, however wasn't going to be tamed by anyone. He had the meanest of mean streaks and if he hadn't been pinioned we would have set him free.

We put him in the avery outside the bathroom window where he could chat to all the wild birds in the garden. He mimiced everything including running water, flushing toilets, ringing telephones and a whole repertoire of bird calls. He had us on the hop from morning til night and became extremely excited when we rushed around the garden looking for gushing taps and then back inside to answer the telephone.

Sculpture by Gunter Reimnitz

Eventually he managed to entice my Indian Minor (which I had reared from a featherless fledgling) to the wire and before anyone could blink he had yanked poor Zombie's head through the wire and swallowed it whole. That was the end of that...... Crow had to go!

Craven (half crow and half raven) by Rod Bearup

A friend of my husband's owned a pub....and a crow. The crow kept the patrons entertained every evening. She would strut up and down dipping her beak into glasses getting horribly drunk and rather raucous. Her favourite trick was to take an ice block out of a glass when nobody was looking and then rush to the other side of the pub challenging anyone to give chase. When she was sure that nobody was looking she would hide the ice block, either under the corner of a mat or behind a curtain. She then strolled nonchalantly to the other side of the room from where she kept watch, making sure nobody went anywhere near the hiding place. Of course the ice melted and inevitably she couldn't contain herself a minute longer and had to have a little peep at her hidden treasure.....only to find that it had been "stolen". She flew into a rage, jumping up and down flapping her wings much to the delight of all the patrons.

Clay crow sculpture by Virginia Wyoming

Crow or Raven art by Mark Orr

STREET ART

I woke in the early hours and peered at the luminous hands of my watch. Not much use going back to sleep at 6.10 a.m. and anyway it would be a good opportunity to browse the internet. Once settled in my chair, wreathed in rugs, it dawned on me that I had got the hands of my watch mixed up....... yet again. It was actually 2.30 a.m....not 6.10 a.m. but by then I was far too interested in what was on my computer screen to go back to bed.




Snuggling deeper into the rugs (it's rather chilly), I enjoyed a few hours on Wooster Collective , a wonderful site that "celebrates street art".




People from all over the world send in photographs of the art they have seen on the streets or of the art they have created themselves.




Most of the time I stare with mouth agape.




I have a good giggle too.




The art is phenomenal!