MAKING MUSIC AGAINST THE HARD EDGES

 Into the Hartz (oil on paper) by Caroline Rannersberger. See website here

We, in our immediate family,  seem to discuss the serious, deeper things in life early in the morning over our first cup of coffee. The discussion some times stretches to a second and a third cup. This week we had a three cuppa conversation about the way humans tend to fight against the natural flow of life ..... which brought to mind a poem I love .................

Caroline Rannersberger. See exhibition here

Passage by John Brehm

In all the woods that day I was
the only living thing
fretful, exhausted, or unsure.
Giant fir and spruce and cedar trees
that had stood their ground
three hundred years
stretched in sunlight calmly
unimpressed by whatever
it was that held me
hunched and tense above the stream,
biting my nails, calculating all
my impossibilities.
Nor did the water pause
to reflect or enter into
my considerations.
It found its way
over and around a crowd
of rocks in easy flourishes,
in laughing evasions and
shifts in direction.
Nothing could slow it down for long.
It even made a little song
out of all the things
that got in its way,
a music against the hard edges
of whatever might interrupt its going.

 Caroline Rannersberger. 

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." - Lao Tzu

The Treeness of Trees by Bridgette Guerzon Mills. Read blog post here

"If you watch nature,
how nature deals with adversity, 
continually renewing itself, 
you can't help but learn .... "  -  Bernie Siegel

 Deposit of Silence(3) by Xavier Verhoest. See website here

Stone Speaks to Water by Bill Gingles. See website here

 Talking Low in a Boat by Bill Gingles

Undercurrents by Judith White. See more of Judith's work here    and here

Julie Shackson. See more of Julie's work here    and blog here

"I look at a stream and I see myself; a South African, flowing irresistibly over hard obstacles until they become smooth, and one day, disappear."  -  Miriam Makeba 

Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award-winning South African singer and civil rights activist. You might recognize Pata Pata, the click song, here

Scanned Assemblage found at Morning Earth. I will definitely go back to browse! Click here.

HINGED

Map ed Veveiis, artist's book by Genevieve Seille  

"Hinges, by definition, are not autonomous -- they can exist by themselves, but for them to perform their function, fulfill their humble nature -- they rely upon other completely different, yet intertwined parts"  -  M. Snowe

Shrine by Donna Flax  (I believe Donna runs workshops but I havn't been able to find a link).See more Altars, Shrines and Holy Thing on Pinterest, here 

Artists use hinges in any variety of ways 
Some hinges are used on doors 
Others to join two or more elements together
Found hinges are adapted to create jewellery or mini sculptures....
and then there is the hinge that  serves no purpose at all except to look rusty.

Artists are known to be resourceful and will create their own hinges
Some are as simple as a few loops or  ties connecting several pieces together
Others are more complicated.

Sue Brown creates the most beautiful enamelled concertina books and note books. See here and here and here. 

Field Notes by Sue Brown

Found object jewellery by Monique Weston. See here.

Experimental book by Odine Lang. See website here.

Altered book triptych by Glen Skein. Found here.      See Glen's website here.

Log Book by Ronald King. See more here

Waxed Diptych and stylus. Diptychs were known among the Greeks from the sixth century before Christ. They served as copy-books for the exercise of penmanship,  for correspondence and various other uses. Read an interesting article here.

Wax tablets have been found in various forms, ranging from a single slab of wood with waxen surface to a ten or more paged book.

A book of wax tablets shown at the National Museum for Art and Cultural History in Bremen, Germany

Very old bird cage, found 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

SILENT CHATTER

There was a time 
before I started selling my totems.... 
(before I was brave enough to put them out there) 
when I created solely for myself. 
The walls of my little studio were lined
 with totem after totem
stacked one against the other
their weathered faces watching over me.

I discovered a quote by Wosene Kosrof
which was an Aha! moment for me
He said "The more I go to the studio, 
the more I create my spiritual crowd".
I felt strongly that I had created
my own spiritual crowd. 

After my first exhibition my studio emptied
It was a time to rejoice 
but I also experienced feelings of loss.
Thankfully my work sells quickly.
I am grateful that people feel a connection to my work
and I wouldn't have it any other way.....
but I do miss my spiritual crowd
filling my studio
with their silent chatter.

Setting out on a road trip. Weaver wondered about my neck of the woods, KwaZulu Natal. Click here and scroll to get a general idea of where I live.

SIMPLE PLEASURES

 Simple Pleasures by Jason Theaker. See Jason's photos here 

A poem by William Stafford ...

You, Reading This, Be Ready

Starting here, what do you remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
Sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
Than the breathing respect that you carry
Wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
For time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
New glimpse that you found; carry into evening
All that you want from this day. This interval you spent
Reading or hearing this, keep it for life --

What can anyone give you greater than now,
Starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

Having discovered Jason Theaker's beautiful photography here,  I found his list of Simple Pleasures here which got me thinking about a few simple pleasures in my own life....

Early morning mist in the forest
The slate blue of stormy skies
The smell of wood smoke on an icy breeze
The contented chirp of guinea fowl scratching for food
Walking for miles along an empty beach
Following the cows home at dusk after a day's fishing

A cache of Wild Coast pebbles

A sun beam shining across my desk
Book browsing and coffee 

Soft piles of wood shavings....
Forgetting everything but the piece I'm carving

All photos are mine except for the first photo by Jason Theaker

FLAGS FOR PEACE

Friday the 21st September is International Day of Peace. People from all over the world are taking part in the flags for peace project to create awareness....

..... even if it's just to fly flags in one's own garden.

I decided to create my flags out of Shweshwe cloth since Shweshwe has a long history in South Africa. Apparently it dates as far back as early Arab and Phoenician trade along the eastern seaboard.

The name Shweshwe is derived from the sound it makes before the starch is washed out. 

The flags have already caused a gentle stir in my neighbourhood. When I put them up in the tree my neighbour's laundry lady told all the neighbours within shouting distance to look at my flags. I don't think they knew it was International Peace Day so it has given them food for thought.

Mary-Jane Dodd has created a blog especially for the project so go here and find out what other participants are doing. There are some very creative flags "flying" for peace.

"flags for peace is a project aimed at uniting those from all over the world in a mindful, cooperative and interactive way" - Mary-Jane Dodd.

 Thank you Mary-Jane for bringing many of us together for this project. See Maire's blog here
....and see here.

Diggity Dog did his best to help hang the peace flags.

THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN QUILT

My wood quilt has been a long time in the brewing ... the tinkering.....

the carving .... and finally the assembling.

I intended to take my time with it but a part of me kept niggling...

it ought to be finished by now.

"I really do prefer to give the ideas time to surface .... and I need to work repetitively with impulses to make them part of my vocabulary or language .... a way has to be found into the rhythm that works ... quite simply". - Sophie Munns

I found my rhythm as I was creating each "patch" of the wood quilt but when it came to putting them all together I lost my way and spent many weeks pondering. Eventually I decided not to "sew" the pieces together as originally planned because the quilt was busy enough and I glued them instead. Even then it was not quite right. Another few weeks of tweaking ensued. On the day I deemed it fit for the gallery it sold to a regular customer who just happened to email me on that very day. It was meant to be!

As with a patchwork quilt made of cloth this piece has memories and stories worked into each square. You can see a few of my ideas here. I kept in mind that in Africa nothing is wasted and had fun using found objects and rusty bits that had been lying around in the bottom of boxes. I also wanted to use elements that reminded me of Africa.

(The name for the piece came to me while I was assembling it, inspired by a favourite book ... The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner)

Shards from an old African pot.

Pebbles, driftwood and shells from Transkei beaches.

Cowries symbolizing feminine energy and wealth.

White seed beads symbolizing purity and protection, faithfulness, spirituality, holiness.

A carved wooden sun bristling with nails for protection.

Black and white patterns which represent the contrast of:

dark and light

good and evil

male and female