Painting Dragons
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- Hand Dropping
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- Flying
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- Among the Reeds
I’ve been painting dragons lately. On canvas, in my mind, and with words. Dragons are amazingly, and almost inexplicably present in a huge range of cultures. Scratch beneath the surface of ideas of where they came from and you’ll find that the theories are shaky at best, and nobody really knows how dragons first entered human culture. They are depicted on ancient Mesopotamian pottery from approximately 10,000 years ago.
They were known to change shape, share wisdom and knowledge and were associated benevolently and destructively with water, rain, and crops. Very different from the mad, destructive, fire-breathing beasts that permeate our culture today…
These mysterious creatures seem to have existed, with their own goals, alongside humans for thousands of years. I wonder where they came from, and where they went.
If anywhere…
Irrational Beauty
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- Blue Flowers
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- Sunflower and Bee
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- Tulip
I am constantly amazed by the complex order of nature.
Take trees for example. You look at most of them and they’re pretty random, right?
Wrong!
The branches on many trees diverge according to a proportion known as the ‘Golden Mean’ or PHI (pronounced ‘fie’) which is 1 to (1+5^(1/2))/2) or 1 to 1.6180339887… That is, a little under two thirds of the way up a branch, another branch will begin.
Directly related to the Golden Mean is the Fibonacci sequence (1,1,2,3,5,8,13…) which has a closed mathematical formula based on PHI. The next number in the Fibonacci sequence can be found by adding the last two. For example, the next number in the sequence above is 21 because 8+13=21. This ratio appears consistently in nature in the form of spiral growth patterns (e.g. nautalis shell, leaves around a stem), petal numbers and arrangements, and even human proportions (think of the ratio of the length of your arm from elbow to fingertip compared to the length of your arm from elbow to wrist). That great DaVinci ‘Vitruvian Man’ picture was carefully composed according to PHI.
I think it’s great that some of the things we as humans find most beautiful on a primal level are carefully, naturally, and beautifully ordered. Truly Divine!
PS, If you’re interested, there is a neat book called Divine Proportion: Phi In Art, Nature, and Science
Stalled
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- human in there
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- proof of impact
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- face in a jar
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- public private
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- alone
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- impossible conditions
On Saturday we saw a man trying to commit suicide. He had one leg hooked over the bridge railing and was staring towards the lights of the Inner Harbour. It was night and he was dressed in a dark track suit with sneakers and white socks. He strode purposefully over the bridge and stopped off centre where he hooked his leg and stood staring at the water as we drove by. We turned the car around and stopped in our lane right behind him.
I asked him if he was okay and he didn’t answer. I asked again and he still didn’t answer. He had his leg hooked over the railing and just stared towards the harbour. I could feel the distance between us. It was like a cement glass bubble. The sensation made my fingertips itch.
We drove across the bridge and called the police. He sat down on the sidewalk and put his head in his hands.
We drove across the bridge again in the opposite direction. He stood up again and put his leg back over the railing.
I got out of the car and watched him from one end of the bridge. We were both dressed in black. The water was dark. I spied on this man as he worked up the despair to jump.
Two people drove by asking about him. I told them I had called the police.
I watched. I thought about what would happen if he jumped. I would run into the water after him. I thought about his life stopping. How the world would miss him. like a painting missing a colour. You would notice the absence. The agony his mother would be in without him. My neck hurt with the tension. I watched. It was cold. The street lights were cold and orange. The police came and stopped in the middle of the bridge. The flashing lights of the police car were cold. The siren barked.
I left.
I got into my warm car with my family and we drove to our home that smelled of coffee.
As I write this I want to cry.
Vivacious Fall
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- Japanese Maple Leaves
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- Zetti Sprites
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- Quiet Please
I love the fall.
I love the healthy, sweetly decaying smell of fall. I love the driving rain that rattles the leaves from the trees. I love the bold, infinitely variable swaths of colour that dress the trees before they strip themselves naked and black against the mercurial sky.
It rained for a week straight here. Rain pounded through the night and the days were dark and dramatic. My little Portuguese-painted pot of sad succulents has overflown and turned into a miniature swamp. My orange lantern plant has dropped its moldery little lights and looks like a collection of skeletal, withered spears. I cannot see my lawn or flower beds for the golden leaves.
Today it was beautiful. The sunlight stabbed through the trees with a vengeance, burning away the cloudy remains of the week. My whole family squinted at the windows as we carried on our daily activities, like our eyes had forgotten the light. The cold air and the blinding light. Glorious.
I savor these days because I know January and February are coming. I hate January and February. Endless days of gray. No rain, no sun, just gray. It’s like Hades dredges himself up from the underworld and takes a vacation on the Island for those heavy, colourless months.
Fall is like nature’s Mardi Gras.
Creative Crescendo
Well, the countdown is finally here. I am so excited that everything is finally coming together! I’m getting used to Quickbooks (seriously, double-bookkeeping is as complicated as discrete mathematics to me), just about everything is inventoried, I’ve decided which pieces I’m going to focus on for now, and the creations are under way! Hooray!
So here’s what you can expect from me over the next few weeks:
- Lots of original sterling silver jewelry featuring gemstones, pearls, gorgeous artisan lampwork and porcelain beads, stunning (crazy sparkle) crystal, and unique hammered components made by yours truly
- Original mixed-media on canvas art and giclee prints of various sizes
- And, my original signature pieces, miniature diorama pendant necklaces of sterling silver and mixed media. Each one inch pendant is composed of several layers and is completely original and unique. The pictures below are a sneak peek of three of these incredible pendants. The depth of these works of art is amazing and can’t be adequately captured in the photos, but when you turn them, different elements seem to be floating on top of one another. More to come…!
Note the key word above: ORIGINAL. That’s right, everything is made from my own art, photography, and designs.
Want to say something beautiful to your loved one that no one else will be able to? Want to show a unique facet of your personality through original, wearable art? If you are looking for special gift ideas, why not give something that reflects the unique qualities of you and the person receiving the gift? Any person receiving a handmade original will appreciate the thought and effort that not only went in to creating it, but selecting it especially for them. Every item here is carefully packaged and thoughtfully gift-wrapped. I’ll keep posting new creations as I make them available. Enjoy the previews below!
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- Pomegranate
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- Shapes of Nature
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- Urban Forest
