Category Archives: Eco-systems provide art inspiration

Time Marches Forward

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“In all things of nature, there is something marvelous.” ~ Aristotle

During the final days of February I marched myself down to New Mexico, while my husband went off to Alaska to coach the Colorado Mountain College ski team. I’d gone to spend a little time with the birthday boy, our son!

Over the next few days I will share a few of my travels.

If you are ever in the area of Tent Rocks National Monument located between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, do stop! Ecologically speaking, it is quite unique. Not even to mention the scenery. If you go, be on the lookout for “Apache tears” – rounded, clear pieces of obsidian. Hot lava created the “tent rocks” some 6 to 7 million years ago, and the “apache tears” were caused by obsidian rock abruptly cooling.

Images will much better tell the story of tent rocks! Follow me through the slot canyons deep into the park.

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IMG_20150221_123313_835Oh, the climb was so worth what we saw at the top! Thanks for entertaining me Meghan and Marc. It was great being with you and happy 27th birthday, Marc!

This blog is brought to you by the award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and Short Stories: Lessons of Heart & Soul.

Lettuce Thank Them

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“We are all one Energy Stream, but what makes the separations or distinguishes the differences is perspective. You are a unique and individual perspective.” ~ Abraham-Hicks

We all know people who even as young children have “marched to the sound of a different drummer” or “keep a different pace than their peers” or perhaps it could be said “they go their own sweet way.”

Some people have a greater tolerance and understanding for deviations in personalities  than others. Thankfully “creative spirit” is not frowned upon in children as much as when I was growing up. People have grown to appreciate and celebrate creative thinking more, and the gifts unique perspectives bring to the world.

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When I saw this image below, I couldn’t help but ponder what extraordinary thinking and perspective!  It’s really cool couture! Yep, it’s a composition made with lettuce and etching.

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Today  we are celebrating creative thinking and creative spirits on All Things Fulfilling.

If the energy is positively channeled, sometimes magnificent things become of children who go along looking at life a little differently. It is what makes life interesting!

See you tomorrow we will have more to say on ways to BE!

This blog is brought to you by the award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and Short Stories: Lessons of Heart & Soul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Insights Into the Soul

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Love unlocks doors and opens windows that were not there before. ~ Mignon McLaughlin

“There’s so much to see,” I said to my husband as we took a pace that was much too quick for both of us through the Denver Botanic Gardens. We wanted to see it all. “As much as I am enjoying the Chuhily exhibit, the structural elements and hardscapes that are incorporated into this garden are amazing. You can really see it this time of the year, without all the flowers. There is a real art to having something of interest in the garden year round  when flowers are practically non-existent or ‘bare bones.’ They’ve done an amazing job.”

“I agree,” said Terry. His father was a landscaper, and both of us have an interest and eye for design in the garden. My dad was a custom home builder so I’ve always loved architecture. I find doors and windows incorporated into any kind of structures interesting.

Today on All Things Fulfilling, travel with me through some of my favorite doors and windows that I came across in the Denver Botanic Gardens. I captured these visual images over a very fulfilling trip during the Thanksgiving weekend.

A small key opens big doors – Turkish Proverb

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Commitment opens the doors of imagination, allows vision, and gives us the right stuff to turn our dreams into reality. ~ James Womack

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Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.~ Joseph Campbell

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There are things known and things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception – Aldous Huxley

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 All the windows of my heart I open to this day ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

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 Let there be many windows to your soul, that all the glory of the world may beautify it ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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“Happiness sneaks in through a door we didn’t know we left open.” ~ Unknown

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 When one door is closed, don’t you know another is open. ~ Bob Marley

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How can I know anything about the past or the future, when the light of the Beloved shines now. ~ Rumi

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Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.  ~Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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The heart of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. ~ Audrey Hepburn

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For more insight into the soul of what makes this woman’s heart tick, check out Sue Batton Leonard’s award-winning memoir “Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.” http://amzn.to/1vDFUMt

See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling.

Glassworks in the Garden

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“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure in the landscape – the loneliness of it – the dead feeling of winter.  Something waits beneath it – the whole story doesn’t show.” –  Andrew Wyeth

The remains of summer, now shades of gray, ocher, umber, gold, crimson, wheat, rust and garnet lay dead and dried covering the forest floor and spaces of the outdoor gallery of the Denver Botanic Gardens. Then Pow!  Just as you rounded another corner intense spurts of color were exhibited in creative settings picking up the energy of the gardens where the plants are bedded down for their long winter’s rest.

IMG_20141128_152131_052On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, my husband and I snubbed shopping the stores and malls  and visited the Denver Botanic Gardens. Even though we were visiting during one of the darkest seasons it was filled with glory, brightly highlighted by the work of international glass artist Dale Chihuly. Color was present in the natural landscapes, in ponds and in streams. It was a sight to behold.

For more information on Dale Chihuly and the publications that chronical his education and work as a young man on a Fulbright Fellowship at the Venini glass factory in Venice, Italy and subsequent forming of the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State, please visit these sites.www.pilchuck.com and http://www.chihuly.com.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Our only regrets were that we hadn’t visited much earlier in the season also when the flowers were blooming and we could see the whole story.

Enjoy the journey through these visual images of the Chihuly exhibition, and return to All Things Fulfilling tomorrow. I will share something else that I found besides glassworks in the bare bones of the winter garden.

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This blog is brought to you by the award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. For information on her book Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected, please visit this link. http://amzn.to/1vDFUMt.

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Acorns in Rock Hall

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“There is something incredibly nostalgic and significant about the annual cascade of autumn leaves.” ― Joe L. Wheeler

It’s crazy! Yesterday morning I was awake at 4am thinking of my travels of the day before. I had visited with my parents a church of historical importance in Rock Hall, Maryland. St Paul’s Kent http://www.stpaulkent.org was established in 1692 and probably the earliest surviving Anglican Church on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

The church is set among 19 acres of huge trees which dwarf the edifice itself. There, among the rotted leaves of fall, I came across something that set off a whole plethora of unrelated nostalgic images. I began to think of things I hadn’t thought about for decades.

IMG_20141028_150153_927Thousands and thousands of acorns lay on the ground among crisp, rustling brown oak leaves that had fallen from the trees. The smell of autumn was so earthy and pungent that it was like sensory overload from my past. As children, my sister and my two brothers and I spent hours every fall cavorting and frolicing in piles of leaves in pure unadulterated bliss!

“Look, Mom,” I shouted out, with the delight of a 10 year old little girl. Remember how we used to collect acorns and pretend they were Brownies (aka young Girl Scouts)?

“I sure do!” my mom said. Even at 85 her memory is rather good. Besides she was an assistant trooper leader, so I had little doubt she would have forgotten.

“Remember how sometimes we used acorns for craft projects? We painted girl’s faces on the nut  and the top of the acorn,  looks like a Brownie’s cap.” I said to my mother.

“Yep! You girls sure had fun doing that,” said my mom, bending down to pick up a handful of acorns laying at her feet.

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Now, here comes the big question – How did I get from the image of an acorn looking like a “Brownie” with a round face and cap to the memory of making fried marble jewelry this morning?  That is where my mind  traveled next. Egads – my brain must be all scrambled up! I hope I don’t make fried marble jewelry for breakfast. Funny how our mind goes with no logical reason.

Today I’ll share images of the lovely churchyard at St Paul’s Parish, Kent in Rock Hall, Maryland.

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Note:  Many gravestones date back to the late 1600s. Sea captains and other well-known people including Tallulah Bankhead are buried in this 19 acre churchyard.

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Do return tomorrow I will be sharing images of the structures that were built some 300 years ago with Flemish bond brickwork.

This blog brought to you by the award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. For information on her EVVY award winning memoir “Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected” please visit this link.http://amzn.to/1vDFUMt.

Nature’s Spectrums

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I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. ~George Washington Carver

God sure swished one big paintbrush filled with a spectrum of colors when he waved it over the plant life put on this earth. Walking inside and outside the National Botanic Gardens I was awestruck by the range of botanical treasures which come from our land and places across the globe.

Enjoy this journey through visual images that I captured with my camera when I visited The National Botanic Garden’s last weekend. Some of these plants seem like “freaks of nature,” they are such exquisite masterpieces.

Nature has all kinds of gifts to share with people all over the Universe. Take every opportunity you can to be outdoors to enjoy it. It is good for the heart and soul.

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Goodbye for now from me and my gal pal, my twin sister, from the National Botanic Gardens in Washington, DC.

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IMG_20141007_093258_933This blog is brought to you by the award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. For more information on her book

Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected available in audio, paperback and e-book,  please visit this link.http://amzn.to/1xTvPwQ

New Newswire: Outdoor Enthusiasts

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 “Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.” ~ Leo Buscaglia

Vacation adventures from days of my youth have changed a lot with the availability of air travel. People like more active involvement in their experiences.  Both young and old, seek sites in far off places across the globe. Popular forms of enchanting travel for many means visiting mountains, forests, oceans, deserts, fjords and glaciers. Indeed, experiential travel is big these days and so are the numbers of people who enjoy active lifestyles in the great big outdoors!

Crux CollectiveThere is a new website which will soon be officially launching in September called http://thecruxcollective.com/. Anyone who loves nature adventures will enjoy frequenting this site.

The Crux Collective’s mission is to “educate, inspire and encourage traditional and non-traditional exploration of the outdoors.” Watch this site as it develops. It will serve as an interesting news wire with photographs, videos and other interesting content for the outdoors enthusiast.

 

My interpretation of Crux Collective’s mission is “give yourself the gift of living a life of  fulfilling treks and expeditions!” Not everyone has the means to go to exotic places in far off corners of the globe but you can learn more about our world, near and far,  through Crux Collective. Check it out.

See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling. This blog is brought to you by author Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.

Treasuring Art

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 “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”   ~ Chinese proverb 

At a thrift store recently I came across an art print of Thomas Moran – imagine my delight! It seemed like a God thing – the image was just sitting there waiting for someone who’d appreciate it to pick it up . I gave in to my desires and purchased it – a real deal. I am very grateful to have the Moran art print hanging on my wall. He was one of the greatest illustrator and colorists of all times.

Every evening the week before last, I had been watching Ken Burns’ documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.  http://bit.ly/182xh1N. Moran’s name was mentioned as one of the top landscape painters of the 19th century who ventured west. I learned he traveled to YellowstoneNational Park from the Hudson RiverSchool in New York, in the summer of 1871, to document on canvas what others described as a place where “hell bubbled up.”

Many artists traveled westward in the early days of the founding of the U.S. National Parks and they continue to be favorite places for artists who are seeking inspiration. Artists still go to paint, photograph and write about the dramatic landscapes in these protected government lands which are far more unique than many other places across the United States. Ralph Waldo Emerson described the National Parks as places where “God is more easily found in nature than in the works of man.” 

Lots of people find personal fulfillment in poking around in thrift shops. You never know what treasures you might find. I scored!

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This blog is brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Do return to All Things Fulfilling tomorrow!

Journey toward Enlightenment

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Words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Okay…it’s 4:30 in the morning and any minute we’re off to the airport…Burlington VT to Newark, NJ then 14 hrs to Bejing, from there to Mongolia and the Gobi–the first leg of the journey has begun!” ~writes Clemma Dawsen from Sandgate, Vermont.

I doubt my friend Clemma has taken her feline. She’d be more likely to transport her horse. She’s an equestrian, and finds the same kind of fulfillment in owning an equine as the Dali Lama does in having a cat. If you missed the story about His Holiness and his feline, scroll down to yesterday’s blog.

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Clemma is part of a group that is traveling from Vermont to Tibet to learn more about personal fulfillment. This group is made up of artists of all types. She will be journaling as she travels, she is the poet/writer of the group.

I am so proud of Clemma. She is deserving of this assignment. I met her when I worked as education coordinator at the VermontStateCraftCenter “Frog Hollow.” She is one of those kinds of people you feel as if you have known forever – warm, loving and friendly. We “clicked” immediately. Although we only worked together for a relatively short time, she has never left my heart. When we met, we had a lot in common – both of us had sons, who were only children. They attended the same high school and both boys have artistic spirits. We’d share notes on teen rearing a lot.

I encourage you to follow Clemma and her fellow adventurers on the blog Triptych Journey: The Alchemy of Stories, Art and Travel. http://triptychjourney.org/  .

The group is also comprised of a project advisor (a Buddist who has more than two dozen books on spirituality to his credit), a documentary cinematographer, a photographer, and a choreographer. Their mission “is to tell compelling world stories that speak to all of us. Using multimedia arts and expression, Triptych Journey connects audiences to vulnerable people, cultures and ecology, instilling values of conservation and preservation in a rapidly changing world.”

Happy Travels to All! I can’t wait to be enlightened about what is learned from this experience that will take  these artists to far off reaches of the world.

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com. Come on back to All Things Fulfilling tomorrow.

Gushing with Ideas

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Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties. ~ Gail Sheehy

I spent a delightful morning the other day with Sandra Sherrod, a founding member of the Artists Gallery of Steamboat. I was interested in interviewing Sandra because I wanted to learn more about her creative energy, which seems to be limitless. When I asked her about her enthusiasm for art she admitted that her artistic spirit tends to be unbridled. “That,” she said, “is both a blessing and a curse!” Clearly, she is an individual who is not afraid to explore different mediums – she is a painter, makes encaustic collages, jewelry and she is also a writer.

Today I thought I’d share our discussion.

Sue:  Like so many others who have started down the path to majoring in art, you got sidetracked, for whatever reason. When did you begin pursuing your art full time?

Sandra: I started out with intentions of becoming an artist but then I needed a regular income so I went into the oil business and that lasted about twenty years. All the while I struggled to find time to be creative while trying to support myself. Twenty-one years ago, in 1992, I began showing my art and became a full-time artist.

Sue: You are a founding member of The Artist Gallery of Steamboat. http://www.steamboatgallery.com/ . How has art evolved since you helped start this gallery in 2006?

Sandra: Art is always evolving. There are some new works that combine photography and painting that are controversial. It begs the question “What is considered art?” People argue that some new techniques are not art at all, especially if it is not correctly represented. People’s interpretation of what art really is, varies. But the business of art is meeting the demands of the public.

IMAG0865Sue:  Your jewelry has been on display all month here at the Artists Gallery. I love your original designs.  It seems as if the importance of a captivating display is sometimes forgotten about or not considered by many too artists. Tell me how you came up with the creative idea of using stones, barbed wire and driftwood to showcase it.

Sandra: I have a friend who I call upon when I am looking for different ideas. She said, “You’re in the West, do rocks.” She threw out an idea, and I ran with it.

I considered Sandra’s comment as she took me on a tour of the entire gallery. “Isn’t all art about taking ideas and running with it?”

As we walked the gallery spaces it became obvious that Sandra’s knowledge of art is broad. She told me something about the process of creating each different medium of art we encountered.

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Tomorrow I will share more about this artist who grew up on a ranch here in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. http://sandrasherrod.com .  I will reveal what Sandra says is her most fulfilling form of art to create.

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.