I lie on velvet red rectangle upon cool emerald carpet. The setting sun warms my face even as evening begins to chill. Lazily I watch metallic birds glide across slate clouded sky. Winged flocks pass as sure as shifting constellations. Closer to earth, bees perform their dinner dance above the clover tufts. Pink washes the sky. Birds sing the light away. Fireflies take the stage, yellow beacons in the falling gray.
Drawing/painting the figure – pose 2 May 20, 2008
I am 3 weeks into this second pose. The goals I set for myself after the first pose were to draw at a larger scale and to keep the technique cleaner, the tones clearer. Of course the ever present struggle for better angles, proportions, relationships, is there driving me on as well.
My take away from the teaching this week was technical. I need to get a stiff brush and use it to soften the form and push the graphite into the graininess of the paper. It flattens the dark tones and unifies the drawing.
Prayer May 14, 2008
I need to believe You are found in the silent places, in the pause. That rest and restoration come, not in dogged clinging, but in release. That space for process is progress and there is no formulaic fix. That going inward means gathering strength to live and give again. That I can choose joy to help me bear this present suffering. That this is my time for Sabbath. That I don’t need to change what I am doing at this present moment for other’s opinions of what I should and shouldn’t do, of what is best, or right, or good.
Storm May 12, 2008
Some days I think I know you well; other days you seem a stranger. You hide behind clouds of gloom. The weather shifts across your face; agitation turns you without warning. If I see it from your eyes, I feel compassion, find the reasons why. But still, those reasons are not excuses. And when I see it from my eyes, I am the one who has reason to feel depressed and to feel angry. And I do.
Fill with sound May 5, 2008
Sound the minor key upon this leaving, rich with timbre, darkly velvet. One has capacity to hold complexities of vibrations warm and bright, melancholy, low. Expand – let the sounds fill your chest, coexist. Just feel. Feel the music, listen. Listen long. Feel and do not think. Quiet your mind. Embrace the song that raises the hair on your skin, whispers and sometimes rages.
