A DREAM OF TREES

Garden of Memories. Beautiful lithograph by Egidijus Rudinskas. Please click here for enlarged image and here for more about Rudinskas

A Dream of Trees by Mary Oliver

"There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,
A quiet house, some green and modest acres
A little way from every troubling town,
A little way from factories, schools, laments.
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,

With only streams and birds for company,
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.
And then it came to me, that so was death,
A little way away from everywhere.

There is a thing in me still dreams of trees,
But let it go. Homesick for moderation,
Half the world's artists shrink or fall away.
If any find solution, let him tell it.
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation
Where, as the times implore our true involvement,
The blades of every crisis point the way.

I would it were not so, but it is.
Who ever made music of a mild day?" - Mary Oliver

Brainwave. Mixed Media Collage by Wen Redmond. See website here.


Mixed Media piece by Lynnette Miller. See Tumblr blog here and other blog here.

Growing in the Dark. Mixed media on paper by Jeane Myers. See website here.

Tendrils of Time. Photo-Surrealism by Michael Ticcino. See Flickr photo stream here.

Sophie Munns is an artist of seeds, leaves and anything pertaining to plants. This piece glows! See more of Sophie's work here and here.

Music and Nature by Donna Malone. See Flickr photo stream here.

Blue Trees in the Afternoon by Ken Swinson. See more of Ken's work here.

Memories of Trees by Robyn Gordon. Website here.

The Most Awkward Dance by Marcella Anna Stasa. See more of Anna's quirky sculptures, here.

Art in Nature by Rumen (Popa) Dimitrov. See more sculpture here.

Art in Nature by Rumen (Popa) Dimitrov . See more art here.

"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life. " - Hermann Hesse

Just over 6 months before Seth Apter's book is out ! At last his hard work is coming to fruition and I am so chuffed to be in it!

CAGED BY CIRCUMSTANCES

Mihaela Nicolcioiu-Savu.

To cut a long story short I am feeling restricted and confined due to power outages and puppy ailments. It seems like the right time to do a post on cages since I'm confined to home for the next few weeks looking after a very dear, very good little bull terrier puppy named Digby.

.....So on with the post while the power is on.

Cages and Enclosures Series by Dawn Nakashima

Dawn Nakashima was inspired to do a very moving series on Cages & Enclosures, after her parents spoke about their experience in the concentration camps during World War II. Read the story here.

"The rice bowls held within the cages represent the individual. I chose the rice bowls because when people immigrate to other countries their ethnic food tends to be the last thing to go in terms of assimilating into another culture".

"The tags that are attached to the cages mirror the ones that were attached to the internees and their belongings when they were in transit to the camps... ". - Dawn Nakishima

Sculpture using Eucalupt branches by Ken Unsworth. See more here.

Cage by Alberto Giacometti
Sculpture by Bard Breivik. See website here.

Sculpture by Martin Puryear. See more here.

Sculpture by Chen Zhen. Website here.

Uncaged Series (ceramic) by Alice Walton. See more here.

Caged Man (Wood) by Bruce Chapin. See website here.

Birdcage series, collage on matboard by Lynda Andrus. See link here.



.........and this is Digby!

CONTEMPORARY PALIMPSEST II

My Secret Thoughts by Patricia Oblack. See Website here.

The definition of Palimpsest according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary is:
1. Writing material (as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased.
2. Something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface.

In this post I have featured artists who have used this concept in their art.

Handwriting on the Wall by Patricia Oblack. See Tumblr blog here.

The two paintings (above) by Patricia Oblack were done on a piece of plywood which Patricia's daughter had used as a diary of sorts to jot down her thoughts , phone numbers etc, late at night .... which of coarse is the ideal time to jot down secrets on the board that supports one's mattress. The board was eventually sawn in two and Patricia used these late night jottings as inspiration for the paintings and named them appropriately... My Secret Thoughts and Handwriting on the Wall.

Currents #3 by Alice Spencer. Each print in this series of monotypes is made of as many as 6 layers using a combination of plates and stencils.

Ivy Arabesque by Alice Spencer. Precision foam board with acrylic and sand. See more here.

Plaster Relief by Laurie Pearsall. Read her blog post here.

Palimpsest by Raymond Pousette-Dart

Solo Moments by Carol Ann Carter. See more of Carol's work here.

Proof is in the binding by Naomi Sultanik. See Naomi's website here.

Georges Noel

On Land and Sea by Lisa Creed. See website here.

Shadow (encaustic) by Lisa Pressman. See website here.

Ann Baldwin. See more work by Ann, here and a step by step layering process here.

Rug Sampler by David Chalmers Alesworth. Dyed wool yarn upon a Persian carpet fragment. Website here.

Contemporary Palimpsest - Jose Parla. See post here.

SOMEWHERE, SOMETHING INCREDIBLE .....

Today I discovered the amazing art of Michael Zelehoski. At first I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing on the computer screen.



Were they actual boxes and pallets? Photographs ? Paintings?

What Michael has done, in his own words....

"involves the literal collapse of three-dimensional objects and structures into the picture plane. This simple gesture – which is basically just taking things apart and putting them back together flat – is at the heart of what we think of as two-dimensional, representational art."

I was so enthralled when I made this discovery that I called my husband to look. He had a puzzled expression on his face. LOOK! this guy has flattened a box and made a picture from it so it still looks like a box and you aren't even sure whether it is 3 dimensional or two!!! And do you know what he said ?

"I don't get it."

In all fairness, I did drag him away from the rugby ...... and he usually gets it.

Have a look at Michael's process here to see how he collapses the object and puts it all together again.

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." - Carl Sagan

SYNCHRONICITY, BIRDS AND HEALING

Every year Seth Apter organizes a "Treasure Hunt" for favourite blog posts. You can find links to other bloggers taking part in the treasure hunt, here. I have chosen Synchronicity, Birds and Healing for my Buried Treasure post. The bird sculptures in this post are all created by Geoffrey Gorman.

When my husband was gravely ill he spent many months in bed recovering from several surgeries and radical chemotherapy. To distract ourselves from the situation I decided to hang bird feeding platforms outside our bedroom window to see how many bird species we could attract to the garden. Every day I prepared a feast that soon became the talk of the town and within days every bird and his wife descended on our garden.

Once we had attracted the birds to the garden I purchased a nesting log made from palm stem. It wasn't completely hollowed out because apparently it is best to keep everything as natural as possible. Armed with wire and pliers I climbed into the tree closest to the bedroom window and fixed the log so that Martin would be able to see it directly from the bed.


Coming back through the kitchen door I called out that it may be a few weeks before the birds become used to the log. Almost immediately, Martin answered, "Come and have a look! ".

I have goosebumps thinking about it even now for there perched on the log were two Black Collared Barbets and while we watched with mouths agape they started pecking the soft pith out from the centre of the log.

It took several weeks for them to hollow it out to their liking but eventually the Barbets were satisfied and they began to build a nest inside the log. They were in that tree, building, nesting, feeding and rearing young for the rest of Martin's treatment.

Our visitors all congregated in the bedroom to watch, mesmerized as the little Barbet family went about their business. We are convinced that they played a very important part in my husband's healing. What are the odds that a family of shy birds will take up residence in a tree only minutes after putting up the nesting log? I have given palm logs as gifts over the years and most people report that no bird will go near it for the first month, if ever. We experienced many synchronicities during the two years that my husband was ill and this is definitely one we will never forget.

See more of Geoffrey Gorman's work here and his blog here.