MERAKI

Leaf Forms by Barry Smith. See blog, here.

While preparing for this post I kept coming back to Barry Smith's metal leaf forms. Barry is a generous soul who creates his metal artworks with love. He teaches his craft to others and sends his leaves into the world like little ambassadors, spreading peace and goodwill wherever they land.

Leslie Avon Miller. See blog, here.

Leslie Avon Miller's art speaks to me on an emotional level. I can't put my finger on it, but I'm thinking it has something to do with meraki.

"Please keep demonstrating the courage that it takes to swim upstream in a world that prefers putting away for retirement to putting pen to paper, that chooses practicality over poetry, that values you more for going to the gym than going to the deepest places in your soul. Please keep making your art for people like me, people who need the magic and imagination and honesty of great art to make the day-to day world a little more bearable". - Shauna Niequist

History by Donna Watson. See more from this series, here.

When Donna was struggling with a creative block I kept thinking ..... when she returns she will create art that will catapult her to another level ..... and I wasn't mistaken! Her new pieces incorporating cold wax, oils and collage are beautiful. 

Leaving Egypt by Mary Ann Lehrer Plansky. See blog, here.

A lot of research goes into Mary Ann's art. I enjoy tracking the ideas and thoughts that gently meander through her blog, culminating in beautiful artworks. 

Gabriel Lalonde. See blog, here.

I visit Gabriel Lalonde's blog regularly because I enjoy his work. I detect a playful spirit with a "what if" attitude when it comes to his art. 

Hanelore Baron

This exhibition of Hanelore's work is well worth the browse. I enjoyed reading the press release too.

Lawrence Carroll

Ikuko Ando. See more, here.

" I would like to envelop myself ..... to enclose a sense of space, of landscape, within clay. Creating day by day, like putting entries in a diary"  --  Ikuko Ando

Lynn Chadwick

"And what is it to work with love?
It is to charge all things you fashion with 
a breath of your own spirit." 
- Khalil Gibran

Totem by Robyn Gordon. Website, here.

I felt a deep connection to this piece. The person who commissioned it shared just enough of her story for me to recognize similarities in my own life. I could relate to her story and was able to create the totem for the both of us.

"One of the loveliest words in the English language is the word 'inspiration'. It signifies the creative breath. It also has to do with spontaneity, with the arrival of the unexpected image or idea in the mind. Inspiration is the flash of connecting light that suddenly comes from elsewhere and illuminates."  -  John O'Donohue

A BOOK FOR SHELTERING POEMS

Homemade poetry book from a manilla folder. See how it's done here

At the beginning of the year I started a journal for favourite poems,  quotes and thoughts. I call it my stillness journal.  It has become quite important to me though it really isn't anything special on the outside (but that will change when the time is right).  On the inside however,  it is exactly the way I want it. I'm filling it with poems and quotes that make my heart leap in recognition. Recognition of my thoughts and ideas about life that I have difficulty expressing in my own words. I don't want it to be a book that I'm afraid to write in.  It has lines because crooked poems would worry me.  I use pencil rather than pen and it's the sort of book  that I  can jot down comments in the margin without feeling that I'm spoiling the pristine pages. Leslie sent me an envelope of "scraps" from her studio. Leslie's scraps are my treasure and they beautify my journal. 

Page in progress. A "scrap" by Leslie Avon Miller  and a poem by Mary Oliver

I've been noticing many journals that would be beautiful for sheltering poems in. I love Lotta Helleberg's journals. Treat yourself to an interview with Lotta here . You won't be disappointed!

 Lotta Helleberg creates amazing journals. See website here.

 Lotta Helleberg's journals.

 Lotta Helleberg

Breathe in, Breathe out by Leslie Avon Miller. See more of Leslie's books here.

 A page in Elizabeth Couloigner's art sketchbook. See Elizabeth's pages here .... and be delighted.

 Ward Schumaker. See blog here and website here.

 Ward Schumaker. Blog here.

Miklos Szuts. See more on Pinterest here   and website here

Susan Bouwer's first artist's book. Read blog post and see more images here.

Nag Hammadi by Dorothy Krause. See website here

"And I have always wanted to write about everything. That does not mean to write a book that covers everything -- which would be impossible. But a book into which everything can go. A book with a little of everything that creates itself out of everything. That has its own life. A faithful book. I no longer look at it as a "book"."  -  Thomas Merton
(Thanks Shawna Lemay)

India Flint mentioned a workshop being taught in Scotland by Sandra Brownlee in August. TACTILE NOTEBOOKS. It sounds wonderful! Click here to read more about it.

HUNDREDS OF WAYS TO KNEEL AND KISS THE GROUND

 Nature photography by Mary Jo Hoffman. See website here

After a week spent absorbing 
the natural beauty of the Wild Coast
I mentioned to a friend 
that the whole holiday
felt like a prayer of gratitude 

Wild Coast by Robyn Gordon 

..... which got me thinking about a quotation by Meister Eckhart
"If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough."

.... which lead to a favourite quote by Rumi
"Let the beauty we love be what we do. 
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."

Photography by Klaus Oppenheimer. See website here

There are indeed hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground

Photo from Lisa Haneberg's website here

Leslie Avon Miller observes nature through her camera lens.  See blog here

Observing the miracles of nature is at the top of my list

Nature Photography by Kevin Jones. See blog post about Photography as Meditation here.

Practicing mindful photography

Photo by Kevin Jones

Photo by Kevin Jones.

" If I really wanted to pray I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep deep woods and I'd look up into the sky -- up -- up-- up -- into the lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd feel a prayer." -- L M Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

I love this photograph by Sarah Gillespie. See website here

As an artist I am aware of something greater than myself
every time I create art.
When I look at the work of many, many artists 
I can feel the sacred in their work. 
I'm certain their art is their meditation.

Sarah Gillespie at work. See Sarah's Blog here

Winter Birds (oil on canvas) by Sarah Gillespie. See website here

I remember the way we were taught to pray at school 
Prayers always seemed so elaborate 
A far cry from Mary Oliver's ideas of prayer

PRAYING by Mary Oliver

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate,
this isn't a contest but a doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

By Fiona Watson. See Flickr photo stream here

FRAGILE

The fragile work of Atsum Izumi. Read more about her process here.

I've enjoyed reading Neil Gaiman's thoughts on fragile things.

"Stories, like people and butterflies and songbirds' eggs and human hearts and dreams, are also fragile things, made up of nothing stronger or more lasting than twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation marks. Or they are words on the air, composed of sounds and ideas-abstract, invisible, gone once they've been spoken- and what would be more frail than that? But some stories, small, simple ones about setting out on adventures or people doing wonders, tales of miracles and monsters, have outlasted all the people who told them, and some of them have outlasted the lands in which they were created."  - Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things

Exquisite porcelain pieces by Atsum Izumi

"It occurs to me that the peculiarity of most things we think of as fragile is how tough they truly are. There were tricks we did with eggs, as children, to show how they were, in reality, tiny load-bearing marble halls ....."  -  Neil Gaiman

Atsum Izumi's porcelain pieces. See more here.

"Hearts may break, but hearts are the toughest of muscles, able to pump for a lifetime, seventy times a minute, and scarcely falter along the way. Even dreams, the most delicate and intangible of things, can prove remarkably difficult to kill."  -  Neil Gaiman

An inspiring video peaked my curiosity about Neil Gaiman. If you have the time, watch it here from beginning to end.

Porcelain sculpture by Cheryl Ann Thomas. See website here.

Cheryl Ann Thomas constructs her intriguing pieces by building tall thin vessels of coiled porcelain which when fired collapse and fold in on themselves.

Leslie Avon Miller's exquisite self portrait series. See the rest of the series here.

"The self portrait eggs are fragile. 
They have cracked but not broken, 
have been mended, 
making them all the stronger 
yet remaining open to new experiences. 
Treasured. 
Tucked into special places for safe keeping."
-  Leslie Avon Miller

Whitewash by Deeann Rieves. See website here.

Her Tattered Covering by Deeann Rieves ( embroidery, lace and acrylic). See website here.

 Detail of Her Tattered Covering. 

 No Longer Bound by Deeann Rieves. 

Lace by Laura J. Wellner. See blog here.

"Artists are not fragile, but we are delicate."  -  Julia Cameron

A BIT DOTTY

Feather by Maureen Shaughnessy

Guinea fowl feathers float around

in almost every room of our house.

I can't resist picking them up

when I'm out walking.

I'm dotty about the spots!

White spots on black...

Black spots on white ....

Intimate Conversation I by Leslie Avon Miller.

.... spots, speckles and dots in nature

and in art.

Mathias Goeritz

Mathias Goeritz

Eunice Kim

Olivia Jeffries (burn holes in book cover) 

Patti Roberts-Pizzuto

Patti Roberts-Pizzuto

Ghassan Ghazal

Jimmie James

Mixed Media Collage by Donna Watson

With Thanks to the Field Sparrow,

Whose Voice Is so Delicate and Humble

by Mary Oliver

I do not live happily or comfortably

with the cleverness of our times.

The talk is all about computers,

the news is all about bombs and blood.

This morning, in the fresh field,

I came upon a hidden nest.

It held four warm, speckled eggs.

I touched them.

Then went away softly,

having felt something more wonderful

than all the electricity of New York City.

Pinch pot by Priscilla Mouritzen