ENJOYING A LITTLE QUIET TIME

I spent the morning carving a small nature box to hold some of my found objects and found great comfort in doing something so simple. For the first time in weeks I could actually feel the tension seep away as I relaxed into my work. Creating in solitude works every time. It's not that I'm antisocial but I feel so much better in my self if I can maintain a balance between my social and my solitary pursuits.

The christmas beetles have arrived in full force and they sing heartily from the forests. These cicadas usually come with the heat of summer, reminding me of my childhood. The first cicada song always sent me into a wild spin because it meant christmas was just around the corner.

I've been doing a lot of reading over the past few days. Dipping into old favourites rather than reading something new from beginning to end.

Susan Woolridge offers many nuggets of wisdom in her book Foolsgold.

"Maybe some of us need to dive into the depths of self, no matter how dangerous it seems, to uncover more meaning, passion, expression of soul, and, indeed, more light. We might feel most alive in the presence of what seems most dark within us. There are many ways for us to begin to plumb our unknown depths and free creativity without going crazy. To honor our boundless nature, it helps to shift perspectives and turn ourselves inside out and upside down."

"Go to wild places and invite the unexpected. Gather what you want onto a page or into a small box and allow yourself to sense the mystery in whatever is around you. Travel as much as you can, even within your own yard or town. Spend time contemplating water. There are many activities that can jog our brains and hearts and help us tap hidden tunnels leading to bottomlessness. Inviting playfully expansive "craziness" as well as regular depth soundings in our lives might help us stay more deeply sane, in touch with the ongoing present moment and with our true boundless and timeless natures, where the depth we seek is simply waiting to be perceived. "

A FLOCK OF BIRDS BEFORE MY EYES......

"Hands Like Wings" fibre art by Renie Beskin Adams.

A flock of birds before my eyes when will be my next surprise. I can remember as a child when we all clambered into the car for a long drive to the beach for the day. Great Excitement! We would play "I spy with my little eye" to pass the time. When that became tiresome we searched the sky for birds. We probably drove my parents scatty with our piping voices "A flock of birds before my eyes, when will be my next surprise?" My stepdad would always say "Christmas" which prompted many howls of "Nooooo, that's too long to wait". 

Escher's birds/fishes have always fascinated me.

Year 2: Still Counting, by Don Wesley

Don Wesley pays tribute to the US soldiers killed in Iraq. "For every soldier that has perished in the conflict, Wesley paints a bird on a six foot wide painting that represents the total lives lost for that year. Each anniversary of the conflict marks the end of that year's painting. Then, Wesley begins another painting. There are now 6 of these large canvases with the sixth year now in progress."

"The Bird Tomb" of Neferherenptah at Saqqara.

Steampunk birds by Jim Mullan.

Illustration by Ken Orvidas.

"Wheatfield with Crows" by Vincent van Gogh. (the last painting Van Gogh painted)

My favourite piece is the perfect flock of wooden birds carved by South African artist, Daan Samuels. This sculpture was voted the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa at the Design Indaba Expo held in February.

MAKING THE BEST OF IT....during daylight anyway

"Everything has a value, provided it appears at the right place at the right time. It's a matter of recognizing that value, that quality, and then transform it into something that can be used. If you come across something valuable and tuck it away in your metaphysical suitcase there's sure to come a moment when you can make use of it." - Jurgen Bey.

We had two days of power outages during which three of my kitchen applainces blew. At 9.00 a.m. on the first day we heard we would be without electricity for about 12 hours. Okay! I could either seethe about it or make the best of it. Since I had managed to make a cup of coffee just in the nick of time (which goes a long way to soothe frazzled nerves) I decided to be grown up about it and take advantage of being without appliances. No vacuuming or washing and ironing! What more could a girl ask for?


The weather was perfect for outdoor carving so most of my day was taken care of, whittling, hammering, attaching, contemplating and generally being gratefull that I could get on with my work. Added to that I had a chunk of free time to collage my next assignment for the Shelley Klammer Course I'm doing.


All in all it was a good day though I don't profess to being happy without my computer all evening. The air was a little blue for a while !

CARVED BONE

With all this talk of bone collecting I decided to feature the work of one of our local but internationally acclaimed sculptors, Carl Roberts.




His work is brilliant and though he carves in wood a lot of the time he also carves wonderfully whimsical pieces from found bones such as the scapula of an elephant or buffalo, the pelvis or humerus of a giraffe, the mandible of a hippo or the vertebra of a whale.




The shape dictates what he will carve. A scapula, for example, lends itself to carving trees with lattice type branches, sometimes housing baboons, leopards, owls or .....a man.

"Like the Rorschach (ink blot) test, the material often suggests images and sometimes presents them in an unusual way. " says Roberts.

"I work like the automatic artists of the Surrealist movement in that I trust my subconscious to generate ideas."

"The image made depends ultimately upon what lies in the subconscious, elements of chance and the spirit of the times." - Carl Roberts

The Stormbringer by Carl Roberts. All photos from the Carl Roberts website.