Sonnet Challenge #24

My friend and neighbor Bob and I usually get into some kind of philosophical discussion over dinner.  He usually comes to dinner on Mondays but he’s snowbirding at the moment so I get a few months off from trying to cook the healthy stuff he needs to eat.  A few weeks ago he was talking about visiting the graves of friends and relatives who have gone on to the next plane.  He said “I know they’re not there, but it’s like the last place they were, and it helps me to focus on ‘visiting’ with them.”  We both knew a sonnet was inevitable from that conversation.

Standing at your grave
Standing at your grave, you are not here.

Though bone or ash remains, your spirit’s flown;

and yet I came to visit one who’s dear

but taken flight.  This, your departure lounge,

a hollow hall where I can stand and wave

and visit memories you left behind.

It’s mostly when I stand here at your grave

the things you were come easily to mind

for me.  I know you wait ahead

with your side of the story that we are.

I’ll finish mine and see you when I’m dead,

where there’s no time and distances aren’t far

But now, beside your grave, I miss your face

and wish somehow you were here in this place.

Advertisements

Newer work #81

Well, a couple of paintings from a recent batch ended up going to forever homes before I had time to post them here!  Better get a few more up before the next show takes them away (I hope).  Though there are a few I wish I could hang onto for a while before they fledge the nest.

#1353 New Umbrella. Mixed media on panel. 9×12″ $90. Ready to hang and very shippable!

Second Place!

Before you get too excited about my achieving second place with my chalk painting last Saturday in Moreno Valley, it was a very small field of competitors.  I also had a small booth at the art fair and my beloved was being the store keeper for me, while I wore off my fingerprints.  I discovered fairly early on that our choice of space to set up (chosen because putting Doug under the tree in the shade would allow me to use the umbrella to keep the blacktop I was working on from melting my fingers), was in front of the band.  The band (there were several during the course of the day) and the between-bands background music was LOUD.  So, to relieve Doug and allow him to walk around and repair his eardrums and sanity, I hurried through my work.

The need for speed was exacerbated by wind which took the umbrella for a tumble and meant I had to chalk with one hand while quickly rubbing the chalk into the now-scorching blacktop with the other.  I finished in 2 hours, and apparently was the only one who completely finished, though other chalkers, intending to take until 4pm created larger compositions.

I had a limited amount of blue, so did the surrounding ‘atmosphere’ in red, rather than follow the original, and created far less clouds than on the mixed media painting this was based on. For this it’s more about the message than the accuracy of the map.

“That the world is round reminds us that we are on the same side.”

Pets and animals show.

On Friday I hung a group show featuring work of pets and animals at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley.  It features the following artists (just in the order they are on the wall):  Sandy Zelasko, Mike Holder, Kelly Vela, Jeni Bate, Terry d’Chacon, Kay Levie, Diane Morgan and sculpture pieces by Janice Osborne and Alana Marston.  The show will be up through June 28th.

From the right: 4 paintings by Diane Morgan, 3 photos by Kay Levie, 1 painting by Terry Chacon. Under, a basket of prints by Mike Holder

Four paintings by Terry Chacon on the right, to the left, a photo by Kelly Vela, two paintings by Jeni Bate and two of Janice Osborne’s glass sculptures

From Right, 2 paintings by Terry Chacon, 7 photos by Kelly Vela, 2 paintings by Jeni Bate and 2 glass sculptures by Janice Osborne.

From the left this time, 4 photos by Sandy Zelasko, 3 paintings by Mike Holder, 4 photos by Kelly Vela.

Four glass animals by Janice Osborne.

Four horse pieces by Alana Marston.

Monthly newsletter for June

#1359 “I Love Morning” . Refractured Watercolor, 14×11 in mat ready to frame to 20×16″

Here’s my monthly newsletter – yes, there’s a lot of biology in art:

 

Newer work #80

I realize it’s been awhile since I’ve specifically posted a ‘Newer work’ post.  This one is from a new batch, and a little different than many of my other refractured watercolor/acrylic/poetry pieces in that I put the poetry on the acrylic in places obvious to the viewer, rather than hidden in the clouds.  I’m looking forward to seeing the reaction on this one when I take it out for the first time this weekend.

#1351 “Heaven’s Gate”. Mixed media on panel, 14×11″. Inscription reads: Hevean’s gates have bars. You can see in but you can’t go there yet.

 

Sonnet Challenge #23

Muddle Through
We don’t know how to get from A to B,

the roads are blocked, the way through is unclear

.The truck in front blocks signs we need to see

,we take wrong turns trying to get out of here

but muddle through, then find the metaphor

for life – journey without a decent map.

The scenic route that lacks a guided tour.

Don’t know if we’ll arrive without mishap

or even know when we’ve arrived at all.

Our end point might just feel like we’re waylaid

and each attempt at progress we will fall

until we realize this is where we aged.

There’s no set path for anything we do

For most things, we’ll just have to muddle through.