Nee Mama's Bluebells and our Solomon Seal
Progress is slow these spring weeks, but still coming along.
The violets have already come and gone.Saturday, April 19, 2008
Spring!
Nee Mama's Bluebells and our Solomon Seal The violets have already come and gone.Sunday, March 30, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Nice weekend after a long week.
Friday evening, we said goodbye to the boys (and Dad), drove through Tiny Town and Sweet City to meet our most spontaneous friends, TD and M at a cabin on Lake Russell: games -- wine -- good conversation -- much laughter.
Finished the blog for the new paintings. Check it out! http://jwallacepaintings.blogspot.com/
Watched Being John Malchovich. Visited with Paula. Slept a lot. Toasted the beginning of "Sam's 16th Birthday Week." Now I'm going to put the wire on the art and call it a night.
Finished the blog for the new paintings. Check it out! http://jwallacepaintings.blogspot.com/
Watched Being John Malchovich. Visited with Paula. Slept a lot. Toasted the beginning of "Sam's 16th Birthday Week." Now I'm going to put the wire on the art and call it a night.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
Friday's Movie
Took the day off and painted for most of it. Have finished the series of 12 and am now working on three large canvases that have been around a while.
Using up paint.
Listened to the new Sheryl Crow CD and find it very inspiring.
Watched (fast-forwarding wildly) several past episodes of Top Chef.
Took photos and updated the other (painting) blog.
Caught up on laundry.
Made dinner.
A great day!
Using up paint.
Listened to the new Sheryl Crow CD and find it very inspiring.
Watched (fast-forwarding wildly) several past episodes of Top Chef.
Took photos and updated the other (painting) blog.
Caught up on laundry.
Made dinner.
A great day!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Lisa's New Office!
Lisa knocked a rather thick malaise off my shoulders this evening. I can rarely recommend anything as enthusiastically as a massage from Lisa.
The Latest from Franklin
why I burn incense
the seller of scents
in the Mysore market
assured me:
only the best
sandalwood sawdust
mixed with honey
hand rolled onto
a sliver of bamboo
when I strike
a match
to make an
ember glow
on the tip
the smoke
goes straight
to my nose
inspiration is
inevitable
a poem, a song
a solution to a puzzle
a prayer
breathed out
soaring over circumstance
now can I doubt
heaven will hear
and then I inhale
again
only deeper
the seller of scents
his sad eyes
meet mine
only the best
smoke rising
in roundabout rings
spiraling
into the invisible
sooner or later
the ember is spent
the scent lingers
like hope
after a kiss
Franklin Abbott
22,23 February 2008
Stone Mountain
The market in the south Indian city of Mysore is one
of the country's most famous. Mysore itself is famous
for sandalwood and produces the best sandalwood
products in the world. The market is vast and I was
looking for a spice shop owned by the family of a friend.
He told me it was across from a perfume shop. It was
but not the one where I met the man in the picture below.
He gave me chai and told me stories, filled my nose
with one scent and another describing each as "only
the best." I bought a few vials of oil and he gave me a
bundle of incense, "only the best," he said explaining
how it was made.
www.theninthmuse.com
www.windhorserisingworkshops.com
the seller of scents
in the Mysore market
assured me:
only the best
sandalwood sawdust
mixed with honey
hand rolled onto
a sliver of bamboo
when I strike
a match
to make an
ember glow
on the tip
the smoke
goes straight
to my nose
inspiration is
inevitable
a poem, a song
a solution to a puzzle
a prayer
breathed out
soaring over circumstance
now can I doubt
heaven will hear
and then I inhale
again
only deeper
the seller of scents
his sad eyes
meet mine
only the best
smoke rising
in roundabout rings
spiraling
into the invisible
sooner or later
the ember is spent
the scent lingers
like hope
after a kiss
Franklin Abbott
22,23 February 2008
Stone Mountain
The market in the south Indian city of Mysore is one
of the country's most famous. Mysore itself is famous
for sandalwood and produces the best sandalwood
products in the world. The market is vast and I was
looking for a spice shop owned by the family of a friend.
He told me it was across from a perfume shop. It was
but not the one where I met the man in the picture below.
He gave me chai and told me stories, filled my nose
with one scent and another describing each as "only
the best." I bought a few vials of oil and he gave me a
bundle of incense, "only the best," he said explaining
how it was made.
www.theninthmuse.com
www.windhorserisingworkshops.com
Sunday Morning
I'm painting and thinking about painting. One more makes 12 and I'm finished with the current work for Dr. Swagler's waiting room. I'm also thinking about that young stand of long leaf pine I saw in Wrightsville -- and also about that book, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, which taught me about long leaf pine in the first place.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Beautiful -- Otherworldly -- For the Animal Lovers
http://www.ashesandsnow.org
The Mexico City opening will mark the fifth installation of Ashes and Snow, Gregory Colbert's sixteen-year personal and artistic odyssey. The exhibition will be shown at the Nomadic Museum, in the historic Zócalo, from 19 January through 27 April 2008. Ashes and Snow is an ongoing project that weaves together photographic works, film, art installations and a novel in letters. The exhibition consists of more than 50 large-scale photographic artworks, a 60-minute feature film and two short film haikus. To date, more than a million and a half people around the world have visited the exhibition.The Nomadic Museum in Mexico City, designed by Colombian architect Simón Vélez, is the first of its kind. The 5,130-square-meter structure is composed primarily of bamboo and utilizes other recyclable and reusable materials that demonstrate sustainable practices and an innovative architectural approach.
The Mexico City opening will mark the fifth installation of Ashes and Snow, Gregory Colbert's sixteen-year personal and artistic odyssey. The exhibition will be shown at the Nomadic Museum, in the historic Zócalo, from 19 January through 27 April 2008. Ashes and Snow is an ongoing project that weaves together photographic works, film, art installations and a novel in letters. The exhibition consists of more than 50 large-scale photographic artworks, a 60-minute feature film and two short film haikus. To date, more than a million and a half people around the world have visited the exhibition.The Nomadic Museum in Mexico City, designed by Colombian architect Simón Vélez, is the first of its kind. The 5,130-square-meter structure is composed primarily of bamboo and utilizes other recyclable and reusable materials that demonstrate sustainable practices and an innovative architectural approach.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Scenes from Wrightville
Burning off a field before planting.
Micky is recovering, but healing from open-heart surgery is a long process. The reclining chair was an absolute Godsend
Long-leaf Pine -- It's nice to see fields planted in this lovely, native variety.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Lessons in Manifestaion #1
With faith that it would be so, in a single day I found, bought cheaply, and delivered to Wrightsville the electric lift/recliner Micky needed. I felt like super-woman and am so greatful. "Ask and ye shall reveive!" -- but you have to ask!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
And then another. . .
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
by E. E. Cummings
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands
by E. E. Cummings
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands
and from my love to me . . .
A Blessing
by James Wright
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.
by James Wright
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.
My Valentine (and Harris of the Long Arms)
Sonnets on Love XIII
by Jean de Sponde Translated by David R. Slavett
"Give me a place to stand," Archimedes said,
"and I can move the world." Paradoxical, clever,
his remark which first explained the use of the lever
was an academic joke. But if that dead
sage could return to life, he would find a clear
demonstration of his idea, which is not
pure theory after all. That putative spot
exists in the love I feel for you, my dear.
What could be more immovable or stronger?
What becomes more and more secure, the longer
it is battered by inconstancy and the stress
we find in our lives? Here is that fine fixed point
from which to move a world that is out of joint,
as he could have done, had he known a love like this.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Winds of Change Blowing Hard
Today the daffodils are a yellow blanket out my kitchen window, and the quince bushes bloom read and white.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
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