Tag Archives: The Arts

Deeply Ingrained: #2 Blog Series

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All families have that one member who’s a nutritional overachiever.” – Unknown

I had to laugh when I read this quote. Our family knows good humor and it’s always a good time when we gather.  There is even has a place for “nutritional under-achievers,” and  we are well-taken care of by the others.

Now, our numbers are so large just among my 4 siblings, their kids and grandkids ( nearing 40)  it is no wonder my mom, (pictured hosting her/ and our last BIG fall gathering), knew when it was time to pass the torch to the next generations. God bless her and my Dad – they are probably sitting at the table of the Good Lord every Sunday, making sure all members are accounted for here on Earth. Fourteen live in other States, others locally. All come running when able or needed.

I have wonderful memories of our Sunday gatherings with my paternal grandparents and their only child, their son (my Dad), Mom and us 4 grandkids. We had plenty of room and sharing in the conversation was much easier. My grandmother more than made up for the lack of bodies by the number of dishes (always China) and even then every conceivable food stuff you could think of, including what was requisite back then – always the bread basket filled with warm rolls, and sliced bread. No doubt, one-hundred twenty-four years later, she’s not turned a blind eye either and knows exactly how fertility happens.

Today, I’ve been indulgent sharing my love for writing about a shiny window into a life.  I promise, I hold some writing about my own family in check most of the time.  Let’s get realistic. We too, have many windows of time when I or my big family is challenged in every conceivable way and in all proportions. There are not always clear windows. Some days are foggy. That’s life, and memoir writing. There are those who find sharing their stories much too painful so they are held close to the chest.

Post #3 in the series will be published on 10/29/2024.I will soon share an interesting post about this very subject. Will you join us again? Look forward to it.

Art Journeys

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Hemingway once said “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” 

For the time being, a place on one of my “art adventures wish lists” has been put on the sidelines. Mother Nature dealt Asheville, NC a hard-blow with Hurricane Helene and I pray for the Floridians who will face ravages of Hurricane Milton. One can only hope “a better safe than sorry,” approach has been taken and the coastal residents have fled for safety.

For now, Asheville, North Carolina, specifically the arts district and the beautiful grounds of the Biltmore have been replaced with an art museum in Bentonville, Arkansas which has been on my radar for quite sometime.

The curvaceous Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

There are current and many upcoming exhibitions which can be viewed on their website. Even if much time passes before I hit this art venue on my “wish list” I have no fear of missing out. Great exhibitions are always scheduled at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

 

Vessels to hold God’s Gifts of Nature

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Vessels to hold God’s gifts of nature ~ Sue Batton Leonard

Is there not a thing on Earth that does not require a vessel?

Vases for heady scented lilacs, for spring tulips with their straight and narrow stems, tall containers for wispy forsythia branches or late summer gladiolus, remembrances of a long summer.

Then there are nature’s offerings of the self- contained. ACORNS, walnuts, chestnuts, drying corn on the cob.  Or the dried seeds left ready to be scattered for next year across fields or left to fall in the soil beneath where they grew. Needed are substantial vessels to hold large seed-filled heads of sun-flowers indoors.

When winter arrives, a birdhouse for wintering feathered friends, tree cavities and nest boxes for nuthatches, titmice, and downy woodpeckers.

Hard at work are the birds who know their craft of building of new nests to contain their fragile shells of spring.

Containers all, we are we human beings who feel for the blessing of nature of each season.

Artists change out their palettes of colors to reflect the colors before them, of autumn.  

Art From the Soldier – Update

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Art from the Soldier by Pamela Wilde has such a beautiful mission behind it that I’d like to give you an update of a previous post . The time is nearing and here are more details about it’s September 2024 Opening Exhibition.

Date: September 20, 2024 5:00pm to 8pm

Place of Show: Ophelia’s Making Agency, At the corner of Career and Creativity

280 W Market Street YORK PA

Don’t miss it!

 

 

 

In Our Thirst

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A friend recently stated, “the world is hungry for beauty.” I do believe she is right!  I take refuge in what I value and most appreciate. It’s been said we are products of what we surround ourselves with.

Many of the negative things that are happening in our midst, we can do little about but we can do something about our own personal environment in which we live. When you thirst, draw from your well or reservoir of what lifts your spirit and the spirit of others.

Working at the Scene

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Words are not just words laid down on a page to a writer and paint is not just paint to an artist. Paint and words are the mediums used to create the story. And it is much more difficult than many realize.

Color and light is important to interpret what the plein air painter sees before them. A writer makes every attempt to create a vision of color and life for their readers by choosing the right words which helps the reader clearly understand the picture and invest in the story.

When I set out on my daily walk sometimes I do mental gymnastics. Maybe I’ll look at an abandoned house or a stonewall or a field of flowers trying to make up a scene about what I am seeing. What was life like inside the house? What is the history behind a stone wall that has been there for many a decade? What is a skittering squirrel doing while running through a field of flowers all full of activity? It may sound very strange, but a writer is always composing stories.

When I get caught up in the story and haven’t noticed I am walking is when I think I might be onto something.

If you were the writer, what words would you use to create a story around this scene?

Songs of the Laborers

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Do you ever have those days where you need an encourager to walk the road with you? The other day I found such a person in a very unexpected place. She was up on a roof and completely unaware of the impact she was making.

Here’s what happened. About a week ago, I walked slowly through the streets of a neighborhood, my pace was slower than usual because it was only 7:30am and it was already hot. That day it reached 93 degrees. Most people with common sense would probably not purposefully venture out in it. But, I was determined to get my daily steps in.

As I neared a house, I heard a woman’s voice and I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Finally, as I grew nearer, I identified what it was. A house was being re-roofed, and the only female of the crew, was singing a spiritual song, it’s rhythm syncopated with the banging of the hammer.

Songs in the workplace have long been part of many culture’s history – from those of the industrial workers making garments, to sea shanties of fisherman, to field workers pulling tobacco for harvest, to those who sang “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.”

As I walked on, I considered the singing worker’s role. Was the woman the spark that helped drive each and every worker? Was she innately called to be an encourager? Were the spirituals she sang deeply ingrained in her from her ancestral history? Her song motivated me to keep moving forward and gave me new perspective on the task I had set out to do in the heat of the morning. Surely it was not as hot for me, as it was up on the roof in the blaring sun. I was able to dip in and out underneath the shade trees lining the street, but it was not to be for her and her working companions.

“Some of the greatest sermons that have ever been preached were preached by the singing of a song.” —Spencer W. Kimball

 

 

Creative Play

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No matter how we play it is freeing to let go even if it is wild and crazy – especially if it is wild and crazy! That means one truly has let go of inhibitions. 

Even though I am now a grandmother of two,  wrinkled, scared and all, I’m still plenty agile enough to climb a tree and haven’t lost a playful spirit. There is plenty of life left in me and I am so grateful for that.

What caused me to climb a tree? I took one of my most loyal reader’s suggestions after she read my recent post about my summer’s writers nest and how it may inspire me to one day write something profound. She said “You may even start climbing that tree to go out on a limb!” And so I did and I felt free as a bird. We are all at liberty to create any kind of fun we want for ourselves.

 ‘It is a happy talent to know how to play.’ – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The Golden Spiral Tree” pictured at the top of this post is by artist Gustav Klimt (1862 -1918)

Good Companions

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Literary and visual artists can be great companions and both involve forms of self-expression.

Both types of artists are essentially all about the story, yet the methodology is different in how it is relayed to the audience. When one looks at visual art, words are used to describe it. When one reads a narrative, visual images come to mind, such as what a character, place, or scene looks like. The co-mingling is there. The process of how the brain assimilates the two is understood by a few. It is so complex and how  words and images are interpreted is different for each of us.

The visible and invisible worlds are inexplicably intertwined…once you’ve opened your mind to this, you can dance between them. – Alberto Vilaldo

 

 

Entering Into the Worlds of Others

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I want to enter into the world of L.M. Montgomery. She’s an author whose home and whole universe existed on Prince Edward Island in Canada, one of the places on my life’s “want to see list.” In her Green Gables books, Lucy Maude Montgomery’s imagined characters and her descriptions of an idyllic, bucolic real place opens up a view of tranquility and serenity not found in many places today. It is brought to her readers  through her apt, uncomplicated writing. I like her penchant for simplicity and wholesomeness found in life and nature. Fans of L.M. Montgomery return to her book series time and time again for escape.

Lucy Maude Montgomery mentions the good company she finds among her dreams and her visions which as a writer I can relate to through penning my cozy Neighbor to Neighbor fictional series which includes Sew the Heart and Heart of Community. Someday I’d like to bring book #3 to my readers but, my visions for my self-created community within those books keeps changing and as a writer I am mindful of the fact that the “words we use,  shapes the culture we create.”

 

It’s not what the world holds for you. It’s what you bring to it. ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery

Happy 150th Birthday, Lucy Maude Montgomery! You left the world a better place for your contributions to the literary world.