Tribal Tales and Explorations

The End of an Era ... Irma Bailey

2012-01-12T12:57:00.000-08:00

Who would have ever guessed back in 1981 when a humongous motor home with plates from New Mexico squeezed down Divinity Ave. in Cambridge, Massachusetts and somehow, miraculously, found a parking space, that lives would be changed?
At the helm, a mountain of a man, a gigantic personality with an intellect to match, chain smoking cigarettes and deftly summing up all the individuals who crossed his path with precision.
Beside him, in the passenger seat was his sweetly smiling, petite wife of many years.
They appeared out of nowhere, no appointment was on the docket and I, as the new buyer for the Peabody Museum Shop at Harvard, was soon invited by soft spoken Irma Bailey, wearing her weight in precious Native American turquoise and silver jewelry, to come outside and “take a look”. Her blue eyes twinkled as I was encouraged to open drawer after drawer of stunning coral, turquoise, and silver necklaces, belts etc. It was like entering a vault of incredibly beautiful treasure.
Thus began three decades of friendship and mentorship. Wayne Bailey had lived and worked closely with over 30 Native American tribes, respecting each and respected by all in return. He was incredibly knowledgeable about tribal traditions and soon was sharing information with anthropologists at the Peabody. Ten years later Wayne had a heart attack while on the road in Massachusetts ironically enroute to see my partner and I.
Who would have imagined in less than a year Irma would secure a driver and get back out on the road she loved, to create special fund raising events and exhibitions at museums all over the country. She had over two dozen shows at Harvard and was loved dearly by staff and all who met her. She blossomed in her seventies, encouraging everyone she met to do what they loved. Despite failing eyesight and physical problems due to her age, her mind was sharp, her spirit indefatigable and her sense of humor irresistible.
While entertaining friends in Albuquerque on January 5, 2012 Irma had a massive stroke and surrounded by loving friends she left us on January 9th. She wished no fanfare, just a graceful exit.
Her spirit is now free of the shackles of old age and she lives forever in the hearts of legions of admirers and close friends. She has also proven to be an inspiration as she set the bar high...
May we all aspire to be as open-minded and open-hearted as this remarkable woman, who changed the world of all who knew her by simply being herself.
Well done, Irma! Yours was a long life, well-lived…
Thank you for graciously sharing it with all of us! May we follow in your footsteps!

Photo by Jose Falconi

Hats Off to the New Year!

2012-01-05T16:28:00.000-08:00

It is a crisp, clear night, here in the hills.
A fresh layer of snow covers the now frozen ground and softly reflects the waxing moon.
The fire cracks and pops in the woodstove from still damp wood, lately gathered in.
The holidays are behind us, a new year has been delivered and it is back to work.
My first project involves documenting a charming assortment of headdresses and hats from tribal peoples around the world.
Before me lay peaked caps with long trains sewn from black cotton and lavishly embroidered in red, gold and green silk floss. Satin stitch and petit-point create the Tree of Life, solar wheels and stylized ram’s horns, all vitality symbols, all charms for the new life that will wear them.
These handsome headdresses are made by mothers in Kohistan, N. Pakistan. The long train protects their newborns from the chill winds and the symbols welcome them to this world with hopes for a strong and vital life-force. Supplementing the embroidered designs are old coins, tiny white seed beads, metal circular charms and shiny buttons to deflect misfortune and attract wealth and prosperity.
I marvel at the creativity and skill of their makers and think of the love that went into each stitch and collected ornament of this traditional tribal culture now living in the 21st Century.
New life, new beginnings, New Year…
May their world and ours be blessed in all the days to come.

Elegant Artistry

2011-10-13T15:14:00.000-07:00

The golden days of Autumn have been transient and few here in the hills.
The water-logged forests are just starting to display the reds and fiery oranges,
hallmarks of this special season.
Many of the stressed trees yellowed early and gave up their leaves in weariness, soon after the torrential rains of Irene withdrew.
Now rain has come again, too soon for all still relishing the bit of Indian Summer that blessed us last week.
Days are getting shorter and this afternoon’s dim light sets the stage for the season of introspection to come.
I am indoors, happily lost in the natural beauty of smooth oval beads of metamorphic limestone.
Minerals and dendrites have imbued them with finely detailed landscapes, abstract patterns and subtle gradations of tone that rival Chinese ink paintings.
I have had the pleasure of looking at each one and arranging them into poetic strands evolving into necklaces.
Soon they will make others wonder at the patterns on their deliciously smooth surfaces…but for this moment, I hold these myriad small worlds in my hands and sigh.
Nature’s artistry sets a standard that mere mortals will rarely match…
But the inspiration is visceral, heady and sweet…

Tribal Treasures on a Summer Afternoon

2011-08-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

Cicadas drone, crickets chirp in the lush green hills.

The humidity is noticeable, but not unpleasant, as I sip a small cup of expresso and admire the cache of heavy silver bracelets on the homespun indigo cloth before me.
The light skims along edges and among patterns of incised and repoussed design.
Ancient spirals, floral discs, twisting scales and peacock feathers, reveal themselves in glints and shadow on the cool metal.

Though in New England now, each piece brings up memories of steamier days in Southeast Asia and the thrill of discovering something authentic in the mishmash of forgeries and tourist pieces that have dominated the Asian art markets for several decades.

As the world becomes smaller and traditional cultures tweet and surf the web,
it is gratifying to know that art historians and anthropologists are still researching and recording the traditional cultures of tribal peoples in these rapidly changing times.

In many Southeast Asian groups, jewelry forms reflect Neolithic and Bronze Age art, animist religion and represent the microscopic view of the universe. The lovely old patina from wear and use adds to the visual power of these handsome dance objects.

The Barbier-Muller Museum in Geneva holds a treasure trove of traditional jewelry from Indonesia,Malaysia and the Philippines. They traveled a breath-taking exhibit called Power and Gold back in 1985 and the catalog by that name is a must have for those interested in such things. In 2000, Anne Richter gave us The Jewelry of Southeast Asia , her wonderfully insightful study of the history and cultural impacts of ancient as well as dominant cultures of the region on jewelry design.

I’ve enjoyed re-reading these books as I researched these bracelets which are now up on my website. Go to www.deborahgarnercollection.com to learn more, then choose Adornments/Asia /1. and click on the thumbnails.

Complete book information is given in the text, if you want to enter this fascinating world via these lovely objects.
It is truly a rich feast.

"Energetic Revelations" New Work by Deborah Garner

2011-05-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

Two years of exploration have culminated in a body of work being currently shown at Augusta Savage Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
This is the introduction to my process given at the opening May2,2011 at the request of viewers.
The work can be seen in a slide show at http://www.artistsofleyden.org
“Energetic Revelations” refers to the spontaneous and intuitive approach that was taken in creating this body of work. It was my goal to disassociate from the end result, to forgo conscious intellectual judgment during the process and keep my artistic ego in the background as much as it is humanly possible. I wanted as direct a means of expression as I could put on paper and later on canvas.
This journey began two years ago when I had the good fortune to collaborate on an interactive art work that was presented at the Zendai Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai. After visiting the Shanghai Museum and deepening my appreciation of Chinese ink paintings, I purchased some horse hair calligraphy brushes and determined to explore traditional Chinese painting on my own.
The results were humbling and discouraging. The dynamic characters I tried to copy were clumsy and wooden from my untrained hand, but the brushes were divine. I loved their flexibility and responsiveness to the tiniest movement. It was like holding the reins on a thoroughbred racehorse. I could feel the potential of these instruments. To my delight, I found that if I held the brush at the handle’s end and let it respond to the most subtle gesture, a wonderfully graceful and expressive line was created. I had to disconnect from trying to control the results and let the ink loaded brush lead the way.
It became a visual dance as I tenuously released fear and gave myself over to the process. I blurred my vision by squinting so I couldn’t judge what was being put down and soon marvelous forms were revealed. It was instantaneous and required me to literally “go with the flow”.
The speed was exhilarating and the slightest hesitancy immediately created a train wreck…
I began to trust the process and work larger, eventually using a dowel with my brush taped on the end to get more physical distance and worked with the paper on the floor, as I stood over it.
I had feelings of lyrical verse flowing from the brush in the smaller works and the early large ones. I felt they were melodious, whispered poetic phrases. But soon I felt I was taking urgent dictation from a different “voice”.
Later I noticed that these strong expressions seemed to coincide with natural disasters and dramatic weather events…it was like Earth herself was urging me to pay attention to what is going on. Heat waves, volcanoes, hurricanes, microbursts, the Gulf oil disaster all were recorded here. As an interesting aside, I do not have television reception in the wooded hills where I live. I had limited exposure to visuals online prior to and during this work. This added to the sense of surprise when obvious correlations were discovered.
As a dealer in the traditional arts of tribal peoples for the past 30 years, I have a background in cultural anthropology. The mark making that became primitive alphabets and sacred calligraphy were ultimately symbols of power, the word made visible.They were transmitted to shaman/priests from the world of spirit or Divine realm in ritualized settings.
All cultures have examples of this. The earliest Chinese characters were etched onto oracle bones in 2,000 BC/CE. Other examples include Nordic runes, Haitian ve-ve, and Arabic calligraphy. In South East Asia it is still practiced today by animist -Buddhist monks of great power.
In 19th C. psychiatry this method of intuitive discourse was termed “automatic writing”. The Surrealists felt that automatism was a higher form of behavior than the constrictive reflexive one that psychiatrists deemed it to be. They believed that automatism directly expressed the creative force of the unconscious in art. It became part of their Manifesto and the cornerstone of Surrealism.
Andre Masson led the charge in the Surrealist circle with automatic drawing and poetry writing. Later the leading lights of the Abstract Expressionists: Pollack, Krasner, de Kooning, Motherwell and Kline all met regularly to experiment with spontaneous drawing, poetry and introduced various glyphs and calligraphic elements into their paintings. Other New York artists of the 1940-50s, Pousette-Dart, Twarkov , Tomlin and Gottlieb developed work around these themes as well. Interestingly, many of these artists were aware of and interested in ethnographic art termed “Primitive Art” at the time and read books on anthropology and Jungian psychology. I have enjoyed discovering affinities with these action/gesture painters.
Many artists outside of these circles created a similar visual language at a slower
Speed, most notably Miro, Klee, Mark Tobey, especially his White Writing series, Brice Marden and Cy Twombly.
There are so many I have yet to discover that found themselves on this path during their experimentation. I love the synchronicity of discovering other kindred spirit painters at just the right moment.
In my personal approach to direct painting in oil, I found the gestural flow translated differently in the viscous nature of the paint. Spontaneity was curtailed by the drying time between layers. What resulted was more of a short hand dictation in some cases and calligraphic arabesques in others. As in the works on paper, intellectual premeditation was avoided and the finished works were still “revelations” to me…
My art making has in turn been visionary and symbolist for the past decade.
This foray into abstraction has opened me to infinite possibilities of expression and I can tell that it has only just begun.

Google Art Project: Check it out!

2011-02-02T07:24:00.000-08:00

As yet another massive storm dumps two feet of snow onto of the already substantial ground cover, cabin fever begins to intrude upon the tranquility of these woods.
The cats have chosen to sleep off the dream of winter, but for us humans, an exciting new cyber adventure has been provided by the new Google Art Project.
This incredible website permits one to wander at will through actual galleries via street cam technology of over a dozen major museums worldwide. You can zoom in to see brushstrokes in paintings, watch commentaries by curators and related videos on You Tube and even create your own collection….I’ve already got my eclectic collection started with William Blake’s “Ghost of a Flea” from the Tate, London and a smattering of tribal offering from the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
What a fabulous way to spend a snow day or any free time and expand your knowledge of art history and world museums… As a museum lover and artist, I could get lost in here for days.
Check out their intro tutorial to see all the possibilities this site offers.
Thank you Google and all the museums that participated in launching this project!
What a wonderful resource!

Dazzling Seminole Patchwork

2010-11-11T09:29:00.000-08:00

The colorful and dynamic ceremonial attire of the native peoples of the Florida Everglades is instantly recognizable. The patterns are evolving into more and more complex work even while referencing antique forms based on the natural environment.

Patchwork designed skirts, “ohoone”, are the traditional attire for Seminole and Miccosukee women, to be worn for the New Year ceremony known as the Green Corn Dance. Before the arrival of Europeans, Woodlands Indians from the Northeast to the Southeast participated in this ritual.

The Green Corn Dance is held to mark the height of the new growing season. Taking place during the new moon phase of the “Everything Growing Moon”, which usually falls around the end of June or first of July. It is a time of purification and cleansing, as well as a celebration of a year of new life. The ceremony itself extends over several days and involves dancing, singing, and a ritual ballgame.

Besides the sacred nature of this ceremony of renewal, it is a social time for the local Native community to see and be seen in dazzling and colorful patchwork clothes. The women have been making skirts and jackets for themselves and their families all year long. Until fairly recently a Seminole or Miccosukee adult woman may require three or more long skirts to be properly attired during the duration of the event. This was very costly in terms of material and time required to produce such elaborate work.

Many young people today favor jeans and tee-shirts with a small amount of patchwork on a hat or jacket, although many are making simple patchwork articles to sell to tourists.

As each year’s dance ritually requires new clothing, ones from previous years serve no ceremonial purpose. More care is taken in design and execution in clothing produced for family than patchwork made for the tourists passing through the reservations.

These skirts were collected after they had been worn for the Green Corn Dances of the 1970s and 1980s. Names of the makers were recorded when that information was available but the Miccosukee are very private and sometimes reluctant to divulge that information.

The beauty and aesthetic appeal of the dazzling patterns prove them to be a collectible, traditional Native American art form. The creation of complex patchwork patterns with mosaic- like fragments of cloth is labor-intensive work that is admired and seen as expression of identity within the Miccosukee and Seminole communities. It is also highly appreciated by other Native American peoples and textile lovers around the world.

To see examples and learn more please visit my web site www.deborahgarnercollection.com.
Go to Textile Arts/ Americas

September in Santa Fe

2010-09-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

Santa Fe is special in any season but September brings forth visual delights and olfactory pleasures that note the arrival of autumn.

I was lucky enough to find myself in the high desert under the full moon at the recent equinox. Rain had at last come to the parched earth and every living thing seemed to rejoice. The sagebrush seemed luminous against the saturated lavender-grey earth and myriad indescribable shades of sea greens glowed as the heavy clouds passed over.

Huge clumps of golden-flowered chamisa were everywhere, here and there joined by purple asters. Aspen leaves had turned to yellow and the cottonwoods were following their lead. Roasting chili peppers and pinon smoke wafted through the air,the traditional incense in this ancient land.

No wonder so many artists and writers have found inspiration here.

The Museum of International Folk Art sits high up Camino Lejo on Museum Hill with three other fine museums. MOIFA houses the world’s largest collection of traditional folk art from around the globe and is a feast of color, texture, and form. They also have one of the finest collections of traditional costume from around the world in their collections.

Curator Bobbie Sumberg has put up a carefully selected exhibition called “Material World” which features stunning examples from the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Near East many from the 19th C. She has written a richly illustrated catalog of the same name to accompany it which is available in the museum bookstore.

For a sampler of the treasures to be found there visit http://www.moifa.org/

Filled with Southwest soul food: beef and chile tamales from Santa Domingo Pueblo,
perfectly seasoned pinto beans, butterfly shaped bread hot from earthen ovens and lemon yellow melons, I gathered up the inventory soon to be online http://deborahgarnercollection.com and headed back to New England against a watermelon pink sunrise.

Arriving home I was startled to see how quickly peak foliage season is arriving in the hills. Soon the local autumn pleasures of fiery maple trees, apple cider and mountains of pumpkins will fill my senses and New Mexico will be a world away.
Until then, I will savor both.
Wishing you all the pleasures of this special season…

Make Time for "Picasso Looks at Degas"

2010-08-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

“Picasso Looks at Degas” is a visual picnic for a summer’s day!

This delightful exhibition at The Clark in Williamstown, MA displays many small works that are gems, such as Picasso’s powerful self-portrait as a young man in charcoal and the exquisite chalk portrait of his father. Degas is represented by dark and dreamy monotypes and charcoal sketches of bathers formed of elegant line and form. Large paintings by both artists of women at work ironing, washing their hair, or plying their trade on stage and in brothels are placed in close proximity.

Through the catalogue and signage we learn that most were Picasso’s interpretation of earlier works by Degas. It is humorous at times and awe-inspiring at others as we witness the risks and innovation both artists pursued to capture their subject. Large scale preliminary drawings by Degas in slashing gestured lines and animated ink washes held me transfixed for some time. They look vital, alive and totally contemporary where Picasso’s now “classic modern-isms” seem dated to the viewer today.

As introduction to the theme of this exhibition the curator states:
“Pablo Picasso is said to have remarked that "good artists copy; great artists steal." Throughout his long and prolific career, Picasso often made works of art in response to his predecessors, "quoting" famous compositions by Rembrandt, Delacroix, Manet, and others in his own paintings. In his youth, contemporaries also noted the influence of Edgar Degas in Picasso's paintings of cabarets and cafés, portraits, women bathing, and ballet dancers—subjects that had come to define the older French artist's work.”

“When he moved to Paris in 1904, Picasso lived in the same neighborhood as Degas, though they apparently never met. Despite striking differences in character, they shared many preoccupations. Both were artistic revolutionaries, yet much of their work was based on the human figure and informed by their knowledge of the past. They were both superb draftsmen who also experimented radically with sculpture, printmaking, and photography. Picasso's interest in Degas even inspired a series of etchings, made late in his career, in which Picasso depicted Degas himself, a final act of homage to the older man.”

If you find yourself in the Berkshires this summer put “Picasso Looks at Degas” on your must-do list. If you are too far away between now and September 12th, visit it online at http:www.clark.edu for a taste.

Eaarth, A Must Read this Summer

2010-06-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

Last week a powerful combination of unseasonably high temperatures and artic air from Canada collided over our area and produced an explosive storm. Heat lightning illuminated the skies as 50-60 mph gusts swirled the trees in a circular motion,horizontal rain lashed everything. Huge trees were uprooted, power was lost for days, for those of us in the hills so was phone service and water, as most wells have electric pumps.

Having grown up in the hurricane zone in the South and losing the family home to Hugo I thought I had escaped the tropics here in the cool northern woods. After the recent microburst and the blustery days all Spring it obviously isn’t so.

As most scientific communities and environmentalists recognize things have dramatically changed and we are in essence living on a new planet. Most of us are still thinking the "global warming thing" is decades away. We flip the channel when the latest volcanic eruption, tornado, typhoon, earthquake, flooding etc. is shown in yet another part of the world. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico further depresses us… and it is depressing.

Bill McKibben, a renowned environmentalist, writer, activist rang the warning bell about global warming in 1989 in his book, The End of Nature. In his newest book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet he clues us in that we “aren’t in Kansas anymore”.In a sober but not hopeless tone he urges us to look at the data from the last three years and face the facts, our climate isgoing to be totally unpredictable for the long haul.

This is the most important book for all of us to read this summer. After you swallow the bitter medicine of the current state of affairs and finally understand how interconnected it all is, you wonder what you can do.Well actually there are lots of things that are being done on local levels worldwide. 10/10/10 is a major day of action to wake up the world to new ways of living that can sustain us locally as we attempt the goal of scaling back CO2 emmissions to 350 parts per million.We are heading up past 375 now quite rapidly.

To empower us in living the new reality Bill has started an international movement called 350. You can read articles, keep abreast of the latest ideas of sustainability and make a difference by going to the website www.350.org. Getting back to basics, becoming more self-reliant is something urbanite and country dweller can do when creatively thought through and implemented. Let’s all take off the blinders and get to work!

Heaven Cloaked with Earth

2010-04-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

Up early, the sun just clearing the tips of the stately hemlocks in the east,
I venture out into the crisp air, now redolent with the delicious smell of damp earth and tender grass.

As I fill the feeder for the stout-hearted little birds that are my winter companions,I see the first male goldfinches, magically transformed from their drab olive and brown into bright canary yellow plumage. They dart about the grey branches quite conspicuous in their new attire.

And then I hear it… the most melodious sound in the world to my ears, the first song of the wood thrush. It is not complete, the cascading trill that transports me to heaven has not been added. It is early yet and practice will perfect it.
How sweet is this season called Spring! For this moment in time, everything is perfect and I am stopped dead in my tracks savoring it.

I am currently reading an insightful little book called The Exquisite Risk, Daring to Live an Authentic Life. Don’t you love when somehow you find yourself in synchronistic harmony and the perfect comment, thought, or reading magically appears to confirm what you are already experiencing?!

The author of this book is poet Mark Nepo and the chapter I opened to this morning after coming in was called “Heaven on Earth”. He starts it with this quote from a letter written to a friend by Fra Giovanni Giocondo in the 16th C.

“Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage, then, to claim it.”

Mark Nepo adds “While happiness might be the momentary alignment of what we want with what happens, joy is the fleeting, though slower, sense of feeling our connection to everything with nothing in the way. While happiness is the bud opening on the branch, joy is feeling the entire tree… feeling the root lengthen as the bud opens. And so joy is feeling Heaven on Earth. And April is not the cruelest month but the most promising.”

Feeling our connection to everything, with “nothing in the way”, is a goal worth pursuing…
Wishing you moments of glimpsing your own heaven “cloaked in earth” today…

Early Spring Gladdens All

2010-03-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

Here in the wooded hills of New England, signs of Spring are arriving daily.
Sunny skies have condensed the snow pack and metal sap buckets festoon the gnarled old maple trees.
New fangled plastic tubing in aqua blue and electric purple race through the gray and white woods like a Christo installation and deliver gallons of freely flowing sap into aluminum tubs. Sugar houses have had vats continuously boiling for sometime now, producing glorious amber colored syrup, the nectar of the Yankee gods…
Our dirt road is as thick and sticky as brownie batter and if you aren’t mindful you can find yourself swerving into a quagmire or losing a boot, as it is literally sucked off your foot on your way to the mailbox. Mud season is indeed upon us.
A huge V formation of jubilantly honking geese passed overhead this morning winging their way North. This is the sign I await at every winter’s end.
Yesterday in the valley it was a picture-perfect first day of Spring. Blue skies, bright sun and 71 degrees had winter weary locals stumbling outside in shorts and sunglasses in droves. The sidewalks of Northampton were packed with jubilant souls sipping coffee, listening to street-corner musicians and collectively
celebrating the return of the sun. What an amazing joie de vivre permeated the atmosphere.
Mother Nature could still throw us a curveball, as many snowstorms have manifested in late March but we all hope she retreats as a lamb. The roaring lion and sleet and wind escorted her in a most dramatic entrance.
Another change of season is at our door and the geese call us out of our dormant state to once again embrace the adventure of living…
A winter weary chorus of all living creatures answers a resounding yes…
Can you hear us?
Happy Spring to you wherever you may be!

Awakening in Narnia

2010-02-27T07:46:00.000-08:00

It is day four of the first major blizzard to impact our area in this new decade.
Living in the hills of New England is a bit like bordering the Land of OZ.
Quite often throughout the year you awaken in your familiar bed only to arise
and realize that you have arrived “somewhere else” overnight.
This is heightened to almost surreal proportions when your home is surrounded by woodlands along a centuries old dirt road.
The dense and sticky snow manages to transform every delicate branch into feathery plumes seemingly strewn overnight by a fairy-tale snow goose.
When I opened the door this morning to greet the gathering goldfinches swarming the empty feeder, I found myself in Narnia…
The subtle but dramatic fluctuations in solar light through the opaque cloud cover are hard to describe. It creates a dramatic stage set of a white on white world.
All is still and then huge dollops of artfully stacked snow surrender to gravity and silently plop to the ground. A fiery red squirrel shoots like a flame through the lacy branches leaving curtains of snowflakes in his wake. A stately pileated woodpecker calls out from the staghorn sumac where he delicately nibbles the snow-capped velvet flowers.
My tired arms ache at the thought of clearing the path to the door again… but for now I allow myself to merge with the silence, the sublime stillness, the living poetry of Nature.
Be warm and well wherever you may be…

Celtic Tradition Alive in New England

2010-01-31T13:37:00.000-08:00

Here in the hills of New England it has been brilliantly cold.

Brilliant in the clarity of starlight in the ink black sky and in the reflection of
the largest full moon of the year reflecting off the snow.

We have shivered at seeing temperatures in the single digits and knowing the howling wind actually has us in the negative degrees. Into this brutal weather new lambs are being born in farms throughout our community. Water is gurgling under the ice covered brooks and the days are indeed getting longer.

During ancient times throughout the Celtic World (Ireland, Brittany, Wales, Scotland, Isle of Man, Cornwall, Moravia) the depth of winter ended not with melting snow, but with melting hearts. The community celebrated the warmth and fire of Brighid – force for life, growth and regeneration - as a way of preparing the way for warmer times, and to step out of the darkest time of the year.

This time is known as "Imbolc" (ihm-olhk, meaning "ewe's milk"), traditionally falls at the full moon near when the lambs are born. It will be celebrated in Vermont on the evening of January 30 – sundown January 31(Feb 1-2 sundown to sundown in other parts of the world).

Michael Billingsley of the Irish Spiritual Heritage Association, is a prominent researcher in ancient traditions of the Celts and leads Béltaine trips to Ireland every spring. He has been offering opportunities to participate in this seasonal ritual in the Brattleboro area for seven years. In his poetic words he elaborates on the symbolism of ewe’s milk and what it offers in this dark and frozen time.

“There is a different, more subtle kind of "ewe's milk" loose in the
world - warm and trickling - sliding between the rocks and grains of soil - enlivening the seeds that have lain dormant, and quickening the sap that has been stuck frozen near the roots of trees like maple and birch. This warm trickle that informs and connects and enlivens and holds... this small ever-present Fire of Life is the vivid flame of Brighid sparkling and brightening and inspiring the coming year of creativity, imagination, growth and evolution." We are invited to keep the warmth of Brighid's flame in our hearts to share with the world.

"She is the Life that enlivens all. She is that life that seeps up through springs bubbling from the earth, and in the gurgles of small eddies under the ice. She is that warmth within our own hearts and cells, who makes the world in us come alive... and frees us from anything stuck and cold and frozen. We are connected through this Brighid-ness and supported by her.”

For more information on the Irish Spiritual Hertitage Association visit www.irishspiritualheritage.org

The old ritual involves a conscious letting go of emotional rigidness that has developed during the dark and cold that is restricting us from a sense of well being. It suggests letting go of old habits, ideas, fears to make way for new growth. Sounds very much like our more familiar New Year’s Resolutions doesn’t it, but at a deeper level.

May we all find freedom from personal fears and leap with joy like the frolicking lambs despite the darkness that still gloams…

Winter Solstice

2009-12-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

A radiant sun, in cloudless blue, shimmers across the crystalline snow
that now lays claim to the land.
It enervates and elevates the mood of all living things, despite the bitter cold.
Here in the deep woods we have been experiencing winter for a few weeks now
despite today’s official start.
The Eastern seaboard of the U.S. had record breaking snows over the weekend. Washington, DC was all but closed down.
But here in the wilds of New England we just bring in more wood and stoke the
fire that is crackling in the woodstove.
All are very mindful of the turning of the season, as darkness now falls by 4 pm.
Both man and beast will easily align in rhythm with this longest night… and drift into peaceful slumbers.
All night revels and bonfires of old will be postponed by the general populace,
in lieu of holidays to come.
But it is indeed a special gift for such a Solstice day as this…
The sun will make a glorious exit before the darkness falls.
And the wheel of the year will turn and again we have come full circle.
Most of us will happily release the economic challenges faced this year and embrace the festivals of light, love and good cheer that lead us into the new one.
May all of us fare better in the New Year, including this remarkable planet that is our home.
Wishing you and yours a luminous journey!
HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE and best wishes for all the pleasures of the season.

Peabody-Essex Museum's Rare Bird of Fashion

2009-10-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

The Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts continues to amaze, inspire and transform.

From it’s atmospheric and modern architecture that houses treasure from the days of tall ships to cutting edge contemporary art from India, and a centuries old Chinese house rebuilt inside the museum, there is much to explore here. For those not lucky enough to make the drive, the PEM's award winning website allows a delicious peak into the wonders housed here.

As a longtime dealer and lover of ethnographic textiles, costume and adornment, I was delighted to see that the inspiring show Rara Avis from the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute has taken wing and arrived in New England as Iris Apfel, Rare Bird of Fashion.

Iris Apfel is a free thinking, boldly creative, individualist that adores ethnic adornment and costume, haute couture and quirky tag sale finds and combines them in a distinctive way that you may not personally embrace but cannot ignore! Nor can you help gleefully smiling…Lady GaGa eat your heart out…

In the early 1950s Apfel and husband Carl began a business called Old World Weavers.They specialized in weaving exact reproductions of antique-period fabric and found a ready audience for upscale interior décor, including extensive work for the White House, Metropolitan Museum and others.

In her late 80’s, she is being embraced for the original fashion icon that she became by simply being herself and for the influence she has had in the professional worlds of fashion and interior décor.

When asked several years ago “Which outfits have you put together that truly reflect your style?” Iris Apfel easily recited a few eclectic ensembles…
”A cowhide apron worn with a black satin jumpsuit. Antique Georgian jewelry mixed with flea market bangles and beads.. A canvas dance skirt from a Southwest pueblo edged in tinkling tin bells worn with different couture jackets. A silver-fox coat belted with a beaded African wall hanging, and red woolen boots with embroidered trim from Etro.”

As the exhibit opened at PEM she was posed with the question, “How does fashion give you courage?”
Iris Apfel, now 88 and vibrant as ever, replied,
“Dress gives you the opportunity to express yourself: who you are, who you think you are or who you want to be. So, take advantage of it. I hope that Rare Bird of Fashion will encourage you to be a bit creative, a bit daring and have more than a bit of fun.”

This sense of joyful exuberance and rakish good humor is infectious and if you can’t make it in to the show right away, go to the museum website www.pem.org and click on the interactive paperdolls that permit the latent fashionista in you to dress the mannequins! What fun.

Also worth the trip is Trash Menagerie.

Whimsical and fantastic animal sculptures formed of thrown away packaging are the focus here.Wonderful interactive videos on the website for this as well! Don’t miss Joshua Harris’inflatable trash bag bears and other animals brought to life by NYC subway trains swishing by underneath them !

All of this can not help but put a creative spin on your day!

A gentle reminder to lighten up and let your inner child come out and play!
Happy Halloween!

Autumn Comes to New England

2009-09-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was official, summer has departed and the calling card of cool nights coupled with the overhead honking of Southbound geese has been duly acknowledged but the wood frogs still chatter in the trees at dusk. The chorus of crickets and cicadas serenade the nights despite early frost warnings.We can keep the windows open a while longer and hear the wildlife settling in all around us.

Here in the hills of New England we have been trying to ignore the fiery color building on the hillsides for weeks, first yellow birch and beech and later bursts of flame-orange maples scattered here and there. But there is no denying the calendar… the Autumnal Equinox has come and gone… ready or not.

Recently warm days contrast with the mounds of colorful pumpkins, and ornamental gourds sitting shoulder to shoulder with pots of purple asters and mums of russet red and bright yellow along every rural highway. The last Monarch butterflies visit somewhat diminished gardens and humans are amazed to see darkness descend before 7:30. A lone female hummingbird sips what nectar can be found in late blooming blossoms. And a pile of split wood waits to be neatly stacked until the first fires are lit.

The transition from exterior to interior, extroversion to introspection has subtly begun as our inner landscape reflects the outer. A bittersweet acquiescence to the passage of time mingles with the anticipation of the glorious pageantry of color to come. No one puts on a more dramatic display of Fall color than New England. Some days are so clear and crisp and the foliage so intense against cerulean blue skies it seems unreal; like an over the top, highly saturated “Technicolor” movie of the mid-fifties. It is my favorite season and one of the attractions that pulled me from the steamy South to these northern hills.

Early morning transitions are particularly magical in this area. On the road to Maine recently as the sun was rising, mists were lifting from the waters of a nearby pond. Two young deer gracefully crossed the road after sampling the cool water; a pair of crows silhouetted on a bare branch and shrouded in fog cawed loudly as I stopped my car to take it all in.

The intimate scene I just described takes place everyday, but most of us are so intent on getting to where we need to be, we do not notice them. Try to take the time to witness the changes taking place where you are today, savor the timeless beauty of the ever-changing season, and remember that you are an integral part of it.

Viva Cirque du Soleil !

2009-09-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

As many devoted fans are aware Cirque du Soleil began in 1984 as a group of 20 street performers in Montreal. Their dedication to incredible showmanship, athleticism, and the theatre of fantasy has created a major Quebec-based organization that consistently provides high-quality artistic entertainment. The company has more than 4,000 employees from over 40 different countries, including 1,000 artists.They have 19 shows touring the world simultaneously in 2009.

Opening night at the Mullins Center in Amherst was Sept. 16th and offered the beautifully scored Alegria. This was first toured in 1994 and the CD won numerous World Beat music awards in 1995 for the passionate background music gorgeously performed live in performance by two superb female vocalists and topnotch musicians.

Alegria is Spanish for a sense of joy,delight and exuberance for life, which is what this hardworking troupe of 50 or so, decidedly delivered.Such enchantment this small cirque can weave through ingenious staging,otherworldly music, fantastic costumes and the supreme artistry and athletic ability of the gravity-defying performers as they tumble, contort, and fly through the air!

The entranced audience collectively gasps, sighs, and giggles as these consummate athletes disguise their rigorous training with liquidity of movement and graceful form that seems as natural as breathing.

For two hours we vicariously soar,somersault, and twirl to the driving rhythms of the hypnotic music and feast on the visual banquet so artfully placed before us.

As the finale ends and the house lights come up, we blink ourselves back into reality and slowly shuffle out into the brisk night air, feeling younger at heart, overlooking normally stiff joints and relishing the fantasy that for a short while we too were airborne on the flying trapeze…

For a delicious glimpse of this show click here and watch the video trailer
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/alegria/default.aspx

and go to www.cirquedusoleil to see when a troupe may be visiting near you!

Coming Soon, Abstraction, The Whitney’s O’Keeffe Exhibition

2009-08-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

The final days of August slowly saunter into September.
Despite lingering humidity and sultry temperatures we know too well
that change is in the air, classrooms will soon fill again, and schedules intensify.
Autumn is my favorite season anyway but this September offers a special treat,
a visual harvest of rarely seen early work by Georgia O’Keeffe at the Whitney Museum in New York!
As much as I enjoyed the Dove/O’Keeffe show at the Clark this summer, I yearned for more of the radical, intellectual work from 1918-1922.

I am delighted to learn that the Whitney Museum of American Art will feature over 130 early paintings, drawings, and watercolors as well as sculptures in Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction opening September 17th and closing January 17th.
Adding to the excitement will be Alfred Stieglitz’s photographic portraits of her and the fully illustrated catalogue contains excerpts from the recently unsealed correspondence between this exceptional couple.

The curatorial team is top-notch: Barbara Haskell of the Whitney, Barbara Buhler Lynes of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Emily Fisher Landau of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center and other noted scholars.
This exhibit insures that Georgia O’Keeffe is finally going to be seen as the creative force she was outside of the representational work the critics and public more easily embraced.

I can’t help but feel Georgia’s enduring spirit will wryly smile and say”At Last!”
For more information go to http://whitney.org/www/exhibition/okeeffe.jsp

Annual Santa Fe Indian Market and Tribal Art Shows Begin

2009-08-13T12:07:00.000-07:00

Santa Fe, New Mexico is a delightful experience in any season, but for nine days in August it becomes a Mecca for lovers of art, artifacts and textiles made by traditional peoples of the Americas and the world.
The 88th annual Santa Fe Indian Market fills the historic plaza with the best contemporary Native artisans on August 22 and 23 this year. The setting, the people, the dazzling array of high quality art and just the euphoria of good feelings that circulate the grounds as artists casually interface with the admiring public is unlike anywhere else.

Always a highlight on Sunday (8/23) is the Native American Clothing Contest.
Tribal members from many nations wear their best regalia and traditional designs and vie for the coveted prizes. For pictures and more info on this unique event go to
http://swaia.org/Indian_Market/Native_American_Clothing_Contest/index.html

Kicking off the celebration in the newly constructed Santa Fe Community Convention Center on the corner of Grant and Marcy St.are two not to miss events. These are the Whitehawk Antique Shows which run from the Preview Gala of the Antique Ethnographic Art Show on Friday, Aug. 14 until Aug. 19 which brings the beloved Antique Indian Art Show to a close. Savvy collectors and lovers of museum quality art have beaten a path to these shows for 30 years, as dealers from around the world gather to show exceptional objects and celebrate Tribal Art.For more times and details on these events go to http://whitehawkshows.com/

For those of you not in the Santa Fe area or readers that aren’t familiar with the terminology, but are curious about what “Tribal Art” implies, I invite you to click here on my site http://deborahgarnercollection.com for a sampling of tribal adornment, textiles and objects that I have enthusiastically packed full of information to encourage you to look carefully but joyfully!Be forewarned that the deeper you go into learning about the cultures and artisans that created this powerful work, the deeper your appreciation and desire to learn more!

It quite easily becomes a lifelong obsession…ergo that inescapable feeling that will have Santa Fe abuzz in coming days!

MASS MoCA's Art Carnival for the Mind

2009-08-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

MASS MoCA is the largest center for contemporary arts in the United States.
Located in North Adams, Massachusetts this sprawling 13 acre campus of multistory 19thC. brick factory buildings is a leading-edge exhibition space of art that is currently being made in size, dimensions and techniques that defy the confinement of traditional museum gallery space.
The ten year old institution is “dedicated to the creation and presentation of provocative visual and performing arts pieces, and works that blur conventional distinctions between artistic disciplines.”
MASS MoCA also actively functions as “a laboratory for the contemporary arts, fostering experimentation by artists, encouraging collaborations among institutions, and allowing visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process.”
This progressive, pro-active mission statement can not prepare the visitor for the transformational experience of being confronted by the gargantuan spaces of football length galleries, Matrix-chic industrial design and art that stops you dead in your tracks but curious to learn more.
One must commit to the intellectual participation of viewing works that are more about a concept and the process of creating an expression of that idea than simply admiring form, line and texture. It is rigorous and demanding work but unavoidably expansive.
The current exhibitions lead the visitor through rabbitholes of self-deprecating humor: “This is Killing Me” which is a group show exploring the many facets of psychodrama involved in being an artist to apocalyptic despair “These Days: Elegies for Modern Times” to Sol Lewitt’s full spectrum “Wall Drawings” that fill many galleries and explore his color theories around meticulous inkwashes and lines of grey,red,yellow,and blue.
In the lighter hearted show Sean Landers “Le’Go My Ego”(2007) is a large text based canvas covered with free- hand painted flow- charts of influences/ ideas peppered with self-sabotage. It is a hilarious exercise in grappling with an artistic temperament that is not sure about anything but “has a lot of hope for something”. I kept hearing David Sedaris’s voice reading the thought fragments as I followed the arrows around the canvas. Joe Zane’s hilarious group of works on ambition and failure offers “I wished I was a Giant” (2006), a glass vitrine lined with meticulously reproduced art magazines, Artforum etc.with him on the cover or opened to articles on his contributions to seminal art historical texts. Lampooning this quest for fame and favorable reviews the vitrine is coated with thick brown dust where mindless graffiti has been scrawled by a public that could care less.
So much to enjoy in this show and to confront in the Elegies.
In Elegies, large format videos create walls of screens and a huge cyclorama features Pawel Wojtasik’s “Below Sea Level”. It surrounds the viewers and immerses them in a dizzying 360 panorama of New Orleans after Katrina with an amazingly liquid soundscape that mourns and celebrates the vibrancy of this special city at the same time.
Sam Taylor-Wood’s “Prelude in Air”(2005) features a powerfully built cellist passionately playing a beautifully poignant Bach prelude. We hear the lovely music and see his muscles creating it… but there is no cello….
There is so much to see and experience at this art carnival for the mind…go to http:www.massmoca.org to learn more and plan to spend the day!

Dove/O’Keeffe: Circles of Influence, A Must See Exhibition

2009-07-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

If you find yourself in the verdant hills of the Berkshires or along the sinuous Mohawk Trail in western Massachusetts this summer, chances are the many cultural delights on offer will lead you to Williamstown.
Williamstown is an idyllic New England village of manicured lawns and crisp white architecture dominated by the lovely campus of Williams College, founded in 1793.
The Clark Institute, a short drive from the center of town, has mounted an important exhibition called Circles of Influence that features the visual conversation of two kindred spirits, Arthur Dove and Georgia O’Keefe. These rarely seen works will be on view from June 7th – September 7th, 2009.
In the early 1910’s Dove and O’Keefe began simultaneously experimenting in capturing emotional, and musical vibration in charcoal and watercolor on paper, as well as the visual vibration created by light and form. In essence they were exploring a new way of seeing and ultimately became the progenitors of Modern Art in America.
O’Keefe first learned of Dove’s work in 1914 when she was a young art student.
She was introduced to him four years later by his lifetime friend and mentor and her future husband, Alfred Stieglitz. The creative empathy exchanged between these two artists was instantaneous and lifelong. To learn more about this visit http://www.clarkart.edu
For me the strongest and most groundbreaking images were the small works on paper from 1915-1919. Dove’s "#4 Creek", (1919) which he drew mid-stream as the water rushed toward the dark forest ahead, is a masterpiece and shares true affinity with O’Keefe’s "No. 15 Special" (1916/17) a charcoal drawing of a dry canyon in Texas, that uses similar forms to describe an arid landscape. Their polarity and affinity clearly in evidence here.
As the art viewing public became more aware of Freud’s ideas around sexuality and sexual expression, Dove and O’Keefe found their imagery cast in roles of gender and blatantly sexualized. Neither artist agreed or felt comfortable with this speculation.Personal perceptions of Nature and natural forms were the impetus for their designs, and rendering them in new and abstract ways was the shared goal.
If you are unaware of the incredible shift these two created in art visualization look for their earliest work. Too bad more of O’Keefe’s “Specials” were not included. These remarkable charcoal drawings are published in Georgia O’Keefe, Some Memories of Drawings, University of New Mexico Press, 1974. They are worth seeking out, as too often only the bones, flowers and mesas are brought to mind when her name is mentioned.
While at the Clark take the time to follow the nature trails on the expansive grounds.Two of them lead up to the elegant new Stone Hill Center with galleries of exceptional contemporary Asian ceramics and traditional Japanese art called, Through the Seasons (through Oct.18th) and stunning vistas of the Taconic Range and the Green Mountains.
Wishing you happy trails wherever the summer takes you….

Summer Artful Explorations

2009-06-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

Summer is on our doorsteps with gardening,mowing and all the attendant diversions of this much loved time of the year. It has taken great discipline to get back into the studio to produce new work but somehow I have managed to have a children's book underway (inspired by the lushness of growing things) and to create new works on paper for a recent exhibition.
Luckily since the Chinese presentation last December, fascination with the visual impact of the eye as symbol, continues to inspire and challenge.
Instead of using it to represent cultural viewpoints, as we attempted in Eye to Eye, I have been exploring eye symbols that exist in Eastern and Western popular iconography to represent philosophical ideas.
In this case, the ideas of Materialism vs. Spiritualism in our current day.
As financial entities continue to topple and the West is slowly weaned from the opiate of compulsive consumerism, other parts of the world are experiencing a surge of materialistic opportunities to“ buy their dreams”.
At the same time, religions compete with all the shiny new products for the attention of the populace.
Individuals that are more in tune with spiritual pursuits try to find a balance between the two in this topsy-turvy world we all share. The spiritual adage to "be in the world but not of it" has never been more difficult.
For this conceptual exercise I selected the “All-Seeing Eye of God” from the Great Seal of the United States that embellishes the American one dollar bill to represent Materialism…that “Almighty Dollar” that expresses, albeit tongue in cheek, the will to do anything to amass large quantities of it.
And other “all-seeing eyes” are from the East… painted ones that embellish the crests of Swayambunath Stupa and Bodnath Stupa in Kathmandu,Nepal to represent the idea of Spiritualism.
I am working here in mixed media with water soluble printing ink on printmaking paper to create these images. As contemporary cultures worldwide are in such a state of flux, East and West is used just to denote the source of the imagery, not to attribute the exclusive label of spiritualism and materialism to Eastern or Western points of view.
I hope you enjoy considering the philosophic overlays as they wrestle for your attention. Two recent works from this series are posted on the sidebar to the right.
If you haven't been to our blog Eye to Eye in awhile please stop by as we are always adding pictures and updates to it. There's a link on sidebar to the right. We are delighted to have visitors from all over the world.
Whereever you may be here's wishing you many pleasant diversions as the Summer Solstice approaches!

Playing for Change: Music of Hope for Our Times

2009-05-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

If you have yet to discover the amazing videos of musicians from around the world, singing songs of hope and inspiration from legends of Rock n Roll, R and B, Reggae and Folk traditions of the world…check this out on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/playingforchange and get ready to be deeply moved and inspired by the power of music and the creative arts to transform the world.
As Mark Johnson explains on their new website www.playingforchange.com
“Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world.”
"We built a mobile recording studio, equipped with all the same equipment used in the best studios, and traveled to wherever the music took us. As technology changed, our power demands were downsized from golf cart batteries to car batteries, and finally to laptops. Similarly, the quality with which we were able to film and document the project was gradually upgraded from a variety of formats-- each the best we could attain at the time—finally to full HD.”On YouTube and the website you can view the amazing videos produced and the singers whose heartfelt renditions inspire us all to do better personally and to be better world citizens. In this time of flux and change and economic downturn this is a much needed breath of fresh air and hope.
The good vibes continue as a Foundation was created to build music and art schools in communities needing inspiration and hope through monies raised at benefit concerts.
So do check it out, spread the message of Playing for Change and support their efforts to “connect the world through music!”.

Renewing the Cycles, Beginning Again

2009-04-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

After many days of raw and cool weather, the sun has graced us once again.

The stray snowflakes that taunted us less than a week ago have been replaced by 90 degrees. It is hard to get a handle on where we are in the natural scheme of things as we scratch our heads and wonder, “Where is Spring?!” The wildlife seemingly just takes it in stride and follow their inner workings...

Only recently the warblers have been joined by Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and the greening woods echo with new birdsong each day. Early this morning I heard the dulcet tones that I eagerly await all winter to hear. A male Wood Thrush is practicing the first notes of the season. In a few days the full repertoire will performed and at early morning and early evening until late August I will be aurally transported to heaven by his recital…

The peepers keep up a steady chorus throughout the evenings now and the owls enter in from time to time with unexpected vocalizations from a nearby branch that can literally startle me awake. I laugh at the absurd and exotic calls loudly proclaimed and listen for the response from deeper in the woods.

How wonderful it is to have windows open again and to hear the stirrings of life all around. This is the reward for living in a rural area and surviving the challenges of winter in New England…. a deeply satisfying one that is worth the price in my book (though whining does occur in those last few weeks…)

The hummingbirds are yet to arrive, though last night, a raccoon helped himself to the nectar I have had waiting and tipped over the birdbath to boot.
I suspect he is the same little guy who curled up on my doormat to escape the slushy snow and sticky mud weeks ago to nap in full sun.

The uniquely eerie squeals of black bear cubs scampering after their mother were heard on the evening of April 12th, the exact date that I have recorded for the last few years.
It is comforting to note some familiar patterns in these topsy-turvy times.
Usually by the end of May I manage to get photos of these shy creatures as they check out the birdfeeders in the noonday sun. Only a few visits and they will silently disappear back into the woods.

This year even skeptical friends admitted that the enormous impressions deep in the boggy backyard could only have been made by a moose. Now that would be a sight I’d love to see…

It is hard to believe that a full turn of the year has come to pass since I started this little blog last April. The blackflies are popping faster than the daffodils at this point and who knows what the weeks ahead will delight us with.
Thanks to each of you for stopping by from time to time to see what’s happening here in the hills and here's wishing you happy sightings of the wondrous things in your own backyard!

Guggenheim Show a Feast for Eye and Mind

2009-04-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

It seems many museums are exploring the influences of East-West dialogue this year, an idea birthed in part by the travels of Marco Polo and still topical today with the enthusiasm for late 20th and early 21st C. Asian contemporary art.

“The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989”is a veritable visual circus that delights the eye and engages the mind. It creatively and most successfully illustrates how the arts, philosophy and literature of Asia, much appreciated by intellectual circles in the West in the 19th and 20th C.,inspired American artists to see and experience their world in a new way.

Upon entering the rotunda and taking in Frank Lloyd Wright’s ascending ramp that spirals up six levels you are greeted by two large cubes of ice around which eight microphones peer down like inquisitive mechanical birds. This is Paul Kos’s installation “Sound of Ice Melting” (1970) created to inspire the visitor to become a deep listener, slowing the mind to become aware of the ambient environment.

Before this can be effectively achieved, dulcet tones of bronze Tibetan cymbals ring out. Tethered by a leather cord attached to a “bell carriage”draped in flowing white silk,the ethereal vehicle gracefully descends around the inner rotunda spiral. All visitors gather along the edge to cheer it on as its random, pristine chime calls us again to clarify our minds and pay attention.

This is a remarkable site-specific piece that artist Ann Hamilton created for the show using book weights of thousands of cut-up books that are reassembled in bundles to create weights that ascend and descend with a pulley system. The title of the work is called “human carriage” (2009) and it represents the power of the transmission of ideas through books.
Books were the vehicles that relayed the Eastern ideas to creative thinkers and spiritual seekers in America for the most part.

There is a short video on the Guggenheim website in which the artist explains her concept in creating this piece, as well as a wonderful introduction and virtual tour to the exhibition by Alexandra Munroe, senior Curator of Asian Art.

From iconic work by 19th C. artists such as James McNeil Whistler, Mary Cassatt, and early 20th C. O’Keefe, Dove, Stieglitz and their circle, to mid 20th C Mark Toby, Morris Graves, Franz Kline... The list just goes on and on, as over 100 artists are represented by exceptional works.

Even the Beats are visually represented, the title actually references William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin’s recombined cut-up manuscript called “The Third Mind”. Jack Kerouac, Ferlinghetti, and others have unexpected drawings and paintings included. This chronological order culminates on the top floor which is devoted to experimental video and minimalist works from the 1980s.

This stimulating show ends on April 19th. If you find yourself in New York City before then, run don’t walk to the Guggenheim Museum. An excellent audio guide is free with the admission of $18.00 and greatly adds to the experience.
If not, at least treat yourself to a taste of the experience by taking the virtual tour on the website www.guggenheim.org !

Signs and Symbols of Seasonal Change

2009-03-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

Here in the wooded hills of New England, signs of Spring are arriving daily.
Sunny skies have condensed the snow pack and metal sap buckets festoon the gnarled old maple trees.
New fangled plastic tubing in aqua blue and electric purple race through the gray and white woods like a Christo installation and deliver gallons of freely flowing sap into aluminum tubs. Sugar houses have had vats continuously boiling for sometime now, producing glorious amber colored syrup, the nectar of the Yankee gods…
Our dirt road is as thick and sticky as brownie batter and if you aren’t mindful you can find yourself swerving into a quagmire or losing a boot, as it is literally sucked off your foot on your way to the mailbox. Mud season is indeed upon us.
A huge V formation of jubilantly honking geese passed overhead this morning winging their way North. This is the sign I await at every winter’s end.
Mother Nature could still throw us a curveball, as many snowstorms have manifested in late March but we all hope she retreats as a lamb. The roaring lion and sleet and wind escorted her in a most dramatic entrance.
Another change of season is at our door and the geese call us out of our dormant state to once again embrace the adventure of living…
A winter weary chorus of all living creatures answers a resounding yes…
Can you hear us?
Happy Spring to you wherever you may be!

Conde Nast Traveler/Flights of Fancy on a Snowbound Day

2009-02-27T13:12:00.000-08:00

I recently unearthed the December 2008 issue of Conde Nast Traveler from underneath a stack of books that I had begun reading and abandoned tomake the trip to China. I had gotten the subscription in lieu of losing domestic air miles but had not actually looked at the magazine in many years previous to that.
This issue is really a gem. And I must say most of the articles are very well-written and well-intentioned. It was the perfect panacea after yet another snowy afternoon/evening. A brief respite from the last weeks of winter.
This issue features an article on ecotravel called “On Native Ground”, in which ethno-botanist/anthropologist Wade Davis contributes a wonderful essay on the importance of multi-culturalism in the world. He has the soul of a poet, the knowledge of a scientist and is passionate about this subject, having studied with traditional shaman around the world as well as graduating from Harvard. He was also National Geographic’s Explorer in Residence.
In his essay he offers …”in the same way that biologists are concerned with a loss of biodiversity, so too in the realm of culture, we are seeing a collapse of diversity that is truly astonishing”… “a great indicator of this is language loss. A language is not just a grammar and vocabulary. It is a flash of the human spirit, the soul of a culture, the old growth forest of the mind”. He coined the very appropriate word “ethnosphere” to allude to the web of life that human cultures contribute as the world of nature is the biosphere.
I have heard him give this speech at a symposium in Toronto and it still gives me goose bumps in print. So too are the cultural artistic expressions of traditional tribal peoples and all people the “flashes of human spirit” for that matter. He is truly preaching to the choir when it comes to me. We both were at the Peabody Museum at Harvard in the 80s when he was researching zombies in Haiti which later became an international best-seller, “The Serpent and the Rainbow”. How lucky we all are that he embraced cultural anthropology as well as ethnobotany, later on.
Back in the 1990’s my partner and I traveled in Burma attempting to document what was left of traditional costume of tribal groups collectively known to outsiders as the Chin people. Most of these groups had been greatly marginalized by the government and the dominant culture. This unfortunately has transpired in most of the world. But with the growth of ecotourism many of these peoples have been given a more positive profile due to economics. Of course opportunity for exploitation is rife in some countries. But if developed responsibly, the outcome could be beneficial, especially when the money goes back to the people hosting the tourists. There are several articles discussing this in a thoughtful manner in this issue.
For a real treat and armchair adventure visit www.ted.com and select the talk: Wade Davis: Cultures at the Far Edge of the World. This 22 minute video features lots of Wade’s amazing field photographs and will having you happily singing in the “choir of cultural diversity” by the end!
Happy traveling!

Winter Doldrums –Winter Songs

2009-02-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

Snow is still piled high in sculpted mounds from shovel and plow,edges softened by Artic blasts and scurrying squirrels.The sugary surface is artfully patterned with the comings and goings of scavenging birds. Dangerously daggling icicles, hang like crystal from the roofline, beautiful and deadly in the full moon’s light. Ice dams dominate all northern exposures, snow tires blowout in icy slush, and the wood bin constantly needs filling…a long-suffering whine is necessary and unavoidable.
I think it is safe to say the Winter Doldrums have paid a visit and even the incredible reflection of moonlight on the sparkling ground below fails to enchant for more than a moment. But what a difference a day can make in New England…

Today’s warm temperatures have created music from the drips, and splashes of water liberated from the cold’s icy grip. The chickadees are frolicking in the birdbath and call others to join them from the trees. Phoebes and Barred Owls echo encouragement throughout the woods. Bluejays squawk and preen as the queenly rhododendron relaxes her usually tightly furled leaves. All living things exhale a sigh of relief. Out back I spotted the first tiny buds on the white lilac…

Life is sweet again with anticipation, as I make it back to the house through knee-deep drifts. The cats bask on the front steps like a summer’s day, fresh oat grass growing green and bright in a sunny spot to be enjoyed by them later. Winter has given us a much needed respite.Euphoria will be short lived however as 32 degrees is predicted for tomorrow.

But no matter, the signs have been seen and the longer days are on our side …
The ancient Pagan festival of Imbolc usually held around February 2, marked a time for cleansing and purification. It was an occasion for clearing away the dross and dormancy of Winter and preparing for the arrival of Spring and the freshness of
new life. These eternal changes are arriving daily and the doldrums will be surely be shown the door soon.

Hang in there all my fellow inhabitants of the Northern climes, the wheel is turning … Spring is on the way… one day at a time.

A Brand New World

2009-01-21T06:15:00.000-08:00

Pale gold illuminates a tangle of bare trees as the morning sun climbs the hill.
Deep in snow, they stand silhouetted in the frigid air. The light shifts ever so slightly to copper, as a pair of crows shatter the stillness with their noisy arrival.

Even this far from the marbled halls of Washington,DC there is something in the air,a palpable feeling of a new beginning, of hope, despite the cold realities of the season and the times. This morning’s sun has risen on a brand new world.

Yesterday’s inauguration of Barack Obama was the catalyst for this transformation.

In ancient Rome when the “augurs", groups of priests and officials,
met to interpret omens about favorable or unfavorable days to come,
things were pretty much black and white, good or bad.

As the newly inducted President of the United States stood on Capitol Hill
and looked out over a sea of humanity, whose ancestors represented all the
peoples of the world,he spoke the truth, the cold, hard facts.
The omens were not good.Things must change and be rebuilt.Sacrifices must be made.

But simmering in the crowd of 1.9 million people and the hearts and minds of millions more watching on televisions, computers and listening on the radio was a potent elixir that the augurs of old were helpless to harness… the hope and will of the collective consciousness.

As this eloquent, honorable man said so straight forwardly,”Sixty years ago my father could not have been served in a restaurant in Washington and yet I stand before you today.” And in this reminded us that the will and hope of the people put him there.

A shift in consciousness has taken place and as Barack Obama is quick to remind us,
this is not about him. This is about us as individuals and the choices we choose to make.

We Americans feel a pride and joy this morning that has been long in coming. We are choosing a new way to “be” in this world. A new way that will enable America to live up to her incredible promise and inspire the world by example not military force.

It is a brand new day and all things are possible… How will you choose to be…
Exciting isn't it!

Shanghai Surprises

2008-12-27T11:28:00.000-08:00

The weather gods were merciful, permitting short windows of opportunity for take-offs and landings despite frigid temperatures and glazed runways. Remarkably, we made all our tight connections from Boston to Shanghai just moments ahead of the worst ice storm in recent history. The full moon hung against an indigo sky above a frothy sea of rose tipped clouds at dawn as we reached 35,000 ft.,a special sight I'll never forget.

I am up in the wee hours of the morning wrestling the otherworldliness of jetlag, sleeplessly sleepwalking, slowly readjusting to the twelve hour reversal of night and day.
Back in the silent snow-covered woods, where few trees escaped the ravages of the fierce winter storm that ripped icy branches and power lines down for many days, I think of the futuristic forest of eye-boggling architecture I found myself in for almost two weeks.

From this rural dirt road to bustling city boulevards lined with buildings which seemed to defy gravity with unexpected bulges and curves, and even invoked mild vertigo in the viewer from certain angles. At night the city takes on a new life, outlined in purple and blue neon, alternating bands of color climbing skyward and descending to begin again.It is New York, L.A. and Las Vegas all rolled into one sophisticated over-the-top hybrid.
As whisper quiet Mag Lev trains flash by at 430 kph at top speed, local Fashionistas take it all in stride in knee-high stiletto heeled boots.

More traditional glimpses of old Shanghai can still be found in Nan Shi, the tangle of tiny lanes lined with dusty bicycles and overhung with drying laundry located behind the old colonial façade known as the Bund.
Here incense wafts from Taoist and Buddhist temples, their courtyards surrounded by candle lit alcoves dedicated to Kwan Yin, Goddess of Mercy, the Buddha and Taoist Generals and sages. It was here I felt I had finally “arrived” in China. Marveling at the triple-tiered upturned roofs, enchanted by the drums and flutes played by a robed procession of chanting priests and laity, I opened my senses to this experience and was richly rewarded. Finding passageways to Ming period classical gardens with ornate rockeries,stunted Luohan pines and jade colored pools teeming with fiery orange carp added to the spell. This was the China of 19th C.Romanticism. Days later, sitting in the chilly fog by a still garden pond in Suzhou, ancient silk city visited by Marco Polo, I enjoyed fresh chewy noodles in scalding salty broth, garnished with emerald green bok choy and savory cilantro. Simple, soulful, perfect. These pleasant memories are the Christmas presents I unwrapped this year.

Our art project at the Zendai Museum was joyfully presented and enthusiastically received by passers-by in the trendy Thumb Plaza in Pudong. Original music that master guitarist, John Sheldon, created for this piece bridged the language barrier with ease and had everyone bopping to the rhythms of East meets West. Pictures and sounds of Eye to Eye are soon to be featured on our blog http://eyetoeye-intrudes.blogspot.com/ if you’d care to share the experience.

For a trip through a classic Ming garden visit http://www.yugarden.com.cn
I hope your holidays were happy ones!

East and West Interface

2008-12-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

As the temperature plummets to zero and weekdays rush headlong into holidays, I find myself totally oblivious to this ritualized preparation for celebration and it is a bit disconcerting.

For I find myself absorbed instead with visas and flight plans and packing for a surprise trip to Shanghai and rushing to finish an art piece that will be presented at the Zendai Museum of Modern Art there.

Over the summer, three other artists and myself collaborated on an interactive project called “Eye to Eye” and submitted the proposal to the Zendai’s Intrude 366: Art and Life call for artists.

This year long art event ambitiously features “one cultural headline a day” from 100 Chinese artists and 266 Western artists who “intrude” upon the everyday lives of the people of Shanghai and introduce new ways of looking at, thinking about, and perceiving art.We were delighted to be invited and our proposal will be presented on December 20, 2008.

For those who may have interest, a blog is being created about this and our time in Shanghai.If you want to see some of the images please go to
http://eyetoeye-intrudes.blogspot.com .

We have been so busy fabricating the 732 images of Western and Eastern “art eyes” needed to produce the strand of interfacing symbols, that only a rough sketch is up at this time. These small paintings on standard shipping tags will be cut and taken away by passersby on the city sidewalks bringing two artists, one Eastern and one Western,together as the strand shortens. Following is the essence of what will be handed out to explain this Western concept to the Shanghainese.

"Seeing “eye to eye” is a North American expression that implies that two individuals (or groups) can come together on a level playing field to express their own perspective while also acknowledging the other’s viewpoint.

It is a courageous act to see “eye to eye”. It causes one to open oneself to the possibility of new thinking. It is a step towards standing on common ground and arriving at mutual understanding.

In this time of expanding globalization, it is more important than ever that this concept of attempting to see “eye to eye” be promoted to open dialogue and insure meaningful cross-cultural exchange between nations.

“Eye to Eye” underscores the commonality between East and West via the human eyes that look out at us from Eastern and Western art.

The “Eye to Eye” project collapses the past with the future. It places us in the present to combine art images that may be obscure with images that have saturated contemporary culture.

Using the simplest of means, “Eye to Eye” offers profound possibility for forging a rich collaborative cultural vision for the future.

You are invited to take away a piece of this artwork as a symbol of a mutual exchange of ideas. Your participation shortens the distance between East and West and permits us to see each other in a positive way."

What a delightful adventure awaits in a few short days, as I leave these silent woods and meld into a sea of 20 million souls!

May each of you find delight in the winter celebrations to come, as we bring 2008 to a close and prepare for a brand new year!All best wishes to you....

A Day of Thanks...

2008-11-27T06:35:00.000-08:00

It is a crisp and bright Thanksgiving morning here in the hills of New England.
The first rime of ice is spread across the land and Jack Frost’s handiwork is everywhere.The dry stalks of golden rod are silvered and bowed, accepting the season gracefully.Chrysanthemums, once russet red, are draped in hoary lace and all is transformed by the magic of ice crystals and early morning light. Soon white will dominate the landscape and my heart will wax less poetic on the topic of ice, but for now, I as am enchanted as a child at this wonder of nature.

The chickadees fill the stately lilac near the kitchen window and noisily voice their enthusiasm for the warm sunflower seeds in the recently filled feeder. Their cheerful company, so close at hand, will delight me all winter long. I will marvel at their resilience despite frigid temperatures and blustery Artic air. They seem so accepting of whatever the day contains and make the best of trying situations. We Americans could learn a lesson from their pluck and tolerant attitudes as we gather together this Thanksgiving, during these tumultuous times.

As we look around the table at new friends and old, relatives and neighbors, and share the bounty of this holiday, may we rekindle the hopefulness of that first Thanksgiving. A moment in time where Massasoit, the great sachem of the Wampanoag people and leaders of the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts brought their families together to celebrate the bounty of the land and built bridges of understanding between two separate worlds.

May you all have fond memories to savor on this Thanksgiving Day…

A New Day for America

2008-11-05T09:02:00.000-08:00

An overcast sky and November’s brown and grey landscape cannot dim the brightness of this momentous morning. This day, America reclaims her promise and we stand witness to the victory of hope over fear, of positive action over negativity and lies. Audacity indeed!

This long tumultuous campaign that captured the hearts and minds of the formerly disenfranchised and the “oblivious by choice” populace has ultimately given birth to a new nation. We have done the unthinkable; we have risen above complexion, and seen intelligence and integrity. We have been inspired by confidence and eloquence and commonsense. We have dared to believe that we could collectively take back the reins of power through commitment and the democratic process, to change the course of America,domestically and abroad.

As the financial house of cards comes tumbling down and raw greed and irresponsibility is exposed for all to see, we have chosen a leader committed to tapping the most astute minds across party lines to get us back to fundamentals. A leader to disengage us from wars we never wanted, who will use dialogue and diplomacy instead of unilateral aggression in the complex world we find ourselves in. He will inspire us to seek innovative solutions to finally address environmental issues long ignored and sacrificed for profit.

What a daunting job lies before President-elect Obama. But what a newly roused army of committed citizenry to do what needs to be done to insure a better country for the generations to come. Ask any of us this morning, “Can you possibly do all this?” and hear the resounding reply from across this land,"Yes, we can!”

Welcome back America! We are proud to call you home!

The Big Chill

2008-10-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Only days ago the cats and I sat mesmerized as golden leaves from the hickory tree spiraled and spun like flickering tongues of fire against a brilliant blue sky. Today elusive flames sputter and start in the wood stove as damp logs hiss in resistance.The golden days of October have departed early it seems, leaving a skim of ice on the water in the bird bath and the need for an extra layer indoors.
A raw wind is cutting leaf from limb and opening up patches of sky in the woods that surround me. The curtain is being pulled back and I find myself in a different place.
The landscape is transforming into winter. Snowflakes could fall today.

I am feeling a bit “between the worlds” from this seemingly overnight change. The faded colors, a tiny late-blooming flower here and there among the brittle stalks, the absence of the cricket chorus… Were they saying their goodbyes and I was too busy to notice? They have withdrawn and so will the rest of us. Back into our inner spaces. Back to hearth and home. Dreaming before the welcome fire… slowing down to align with this new rhythm.

The cats are curled up deep in dreams, foregoing the urgent need to be outside.
They have surrendered to the season and I will do the same. The element of fire will lead me into its waking dreamtime as a new cycle begins on this wheel of life.
The alchemists perceived fire as “the agent of transmutation”, feeling all things derive from and return to fire. It materializes the life-force and replaces the sun in the dark days to come.

For much more eloquent discourse on the cycles of all things check out Mythos I and II (available from Netflix). These are the final lectures that Joseph Campbell gave in 1987 which were a summation of his life’s work.(This in not the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers) These talks are food for the mind and soul showing how mankind’s narrative and social history is intertwined throughout the world via the natural world and human nature. The old cycles are still active in this seemingly modern world, just somewhat smothered or obscured by the prevailing materialism.
Take a look beneath the surface and be reassured.

May your inner fire be fed by the passions that sustain you…

Migrations

2008-10-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

Waves of departing geese pass overhead, loudly honking their farewells until Spring.
My imagination is stirred as they call me to follow their quest to warmer climes and new adventures. I stand face upturned and feet firmly rooted in this place. I wish them safe harbors and plentiful food as they strike out under a waxing moon. I will be here celebrating their triumphant return when Winter has passed.

The goose in many ways epitomizes the mystery of migration and passages. They don’t fly in a straight line though it appears that way from certain perspectives. The traditional V sometimes morphs and regroups at this starting point of the journey and continues to refine itself enroute. These remarkable creatures are constantly shifting formations to allow each goose to have an unobstructed view of the journey ahead and to create wind drafts which make easier flights for those following the lead. This way they all find themselves naturally in the flow.Oh, if we humans could be so generous and find ourselves in that flow... For an amazing bird’s eye view of these ancient seasonal sojourns watch the film “Winged Migrations” and you will forever be in awe of the feathered creatures around us.

Other migrations will be heading in our direction over the long weekend to come. The hills are alive with radiant color and the traditional motorcade of leaf-peepers will make the journey to drink in the cool, fresh air and that color of the crimson, gold and orange leaves that are still intensifying. Almost every town in New England will be stacked high with the season’s bounty, craft fairs and antique shows will proliferate and a good time is insured for all under clear blue skies.Locals will complain about the additional traffic but all will secretly take pleasure in sharing the beauty that we are lucky enough to enjoy everyday. It is our gift and certainly helps ease the passage into the shorter days ahead.

Do get out and admire the golden days of Autumn wherever you may be. And may all your
journeys be inspired ones!

Transition to Autumn

2008-09-22T05:48:00.000-07:00

Today it is official, summer has departed and the calling card of cool nights and the overhead honking of South-bound geese has been received and acknowledged by all.
Here in the hills of New England we have been trying to ignore the fiery color building on the hillsides, first yellow birch and beech and later bursts of flame-orange maples scattered here and there. But there is no denying the calendar… the Autumnal Equinox is here today… ready or not.
Last week’s Harvest Moon and the mounds of colorful pumpkins, and ornamental gourds sitting shoulder to shoulder with pots of purple asters and mums of russet red and bright yellow along every rural highway have eased the transition. The last Monarch butterflies visit diminished gardens and humans are amazed to see darkness descend by 7:30 pm. A lone female hummingbird sips what nectar can be found in late blooming blossoms. And a pile of split wood waits to be neatly stacked until the first fires are lit. The transition from exterior to interior, extroversion to introspection has subtly begun as our inner landscape reflects the outer.
A bittersweet acquiescence to the passage of time mingles with the anticipation of the glorious pageantry of color to come. No one puts on a more dramatic display of Fall color than New England. Some days are so clear and crisp and the folliage so intense against cerulean blue skies it seems unreal; like an over the top, highly saturated “Technicolor” movie of the mid-fifties. It is my favorite season and one of the attractions that pulled me from the steamy South to these northern hills.
Early morning transitions are particularly magical in this area. On the road to Maine recently as the sun was rising, mists were lifting from the waters of a nearby pond. Two young deer gracefully crossed the road after sampling the cool water; a pair of crows silhouetted on a bare branch and shrouded in fog cawed loudly as I stopped my car to take it all in. I’ve included a photo I took there that sets the stage for the journey into Autumn.
The intimate scene I just described takes place everyday, but most of us are so intent on getting to where we need to be, we do not notice them. Try to take the time to witness the changes taking place where you are today, savor the timeless beauty of the ever-changing season, and remember that you are an integral part of it.

Vicarious travels through worldly beads...

2008-08-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

The stormy days of late summer have given way to cloudless azure blue. Warm sun falls deliciously on bare skin, in the cool dry air of the season on our doorstep. Where did the time go?
No souvenir shells and beach glass from vacation seaside strolls are found in pockets. No ticket stubs from checked baggage with foreign airlines either but I have been traveling…vicariously, in my heart and mind.
Spread before me is the season’s bounty… not the heirloom tomatoes that stoic New Englanders are still patiently waiting to ripen,but beads… strands and strands of beautiful beads.
Ever since my grandmother provided me with a wax-tipped thread and her treasured box of buttons as a small child, I have relished stringing various colors and materials together to create something totally new from something old and well-traveled.
This summer slipped away, dissolved, in rain soaked afternoons, as I explored the surfaces of antique carnelian, worn smooth by time and touch. It was probably mined in the Ramtanpur area of Gujarat, India and shaped and polished by lapidaries in Cambay. Here they were masters at deepening the color of paler agate to the fiery orange of embers, the most desired shade. Cambay still is a leading supplier of this handsome stone, thousands of years later.
These beads, like all others, traveled in ships and across ancient trade routes via caravans around the world.
Instead of summer beach glass, I’ve designed with beautifully pitted cobalt blue beads from the Netherlands, several hundred years old and collected in Africa in the late 1970’s, when “tradebeads” were reintroduced to these shores. The subdued luminous sheen of these delicious beads resembles the most sublime beach finds, softened by sand and water. Adding to the deep cobalt is every shade of blue and green translucent glass handwound in Peking in the 19th C.and beloved by tribal groups everywhere.
I also marveled at faience beads of delicate hues from the ancient city of Persepolis, made a thousand years before Alexander the Great sacked this major metropolis of the Persian Empire. Holding and wearing these venerable world travelers is quite humbling, when you consider the stories they can tell and makes those smitten by their delicate beauty into modern day “time travelers”.
For those of you who are inclined to do so, I highly recommend spending quality time with Lois Dubin’s major contribution, The History of Beads from 30,000 BC to the Present (ISBN 0-8109-0736-4). Her maps of trade-routes and history of bead production will inspire you to do your own vicarious traveling and to learn much more.
I hope your own summer travels were pleasant ones and prepared you for the busy season ahead. Enjoy the waning days of summer and may your harvests be abundant ones.

Please visit: www.deborahgarnercollection.com to see a small sampling of the summer harvest featuring wonderful beads.From the Homepage go to Adornments then Asia/Page 3

Connections...

2008-08-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

The dramatic elemental evidence of Earth Changes, producing fires, floods, tornados, and earthquakes across the US and around the world has been unavoidable this summer.
Here in New England, we have experienced almost daily severe electric storms, monsoon-like rains and several destructive micro-bursts in the month of July. The vegetation is thriving in this new northern rain forest and exotic looking mushrooms and colorful fungi are popping up everywhere. Frogs and salamanders are the happiest campers in these parts…

Power outages and power surges have been playing havoc with internet connections, telephones and electronic equipment of all kinds. I am only recently back online since the first round of technical difficulty. During this period of “disconnect” from the outside world, with no television and spotty audible phone service, space was made for reflection… of course this came about between extreme bouts of total frustration and hiding out with hyper-ventilating cats on the basement stairs, while adrenalin producing lightning strikes are close misses.

It is glaringly obvious how accustomed I’ve grown to being “out in the world” via cyberspace, when I choose to live in a remote area and can easily go a week without seeing a “live” person many months of the year. I thought I was alone out here…

The technical disconnect actually made it necessary to connect “in person” (what a concept!) with neighbors and friends dealing with much of the same thing. This was quite an epiphany for someone that has figured out accurately when the Turk’s Cap lilies will unfurl their speckled orange petals, gracefully arch their backs and transform into the elegant arabesques of form that take my breath away. Or knowing when the last goldfinch will leave the feeder after dusk, so I can prevent the bear from absconding with it later in the evening (again). I am paying attention… I am aware or am I? Hmm?

Actually going out into the world “in person” brought an amazing experience. A dear friend that I had lost touch with three decades and a thousand miles ago reconnected with me. She had been within a hundred mile radius for three years and I had seen her face passing through art events several times. I always thought “she looks so familiar somehow”, but then she was gone. What a shock and thrill when we looked into each others eyes this weekend and finally saw the youthful girlfriend whose gypsy ways left few clues to whereabouts for so long. A day later, as life stories were shared with tears and laughter and as rich and challenging journeys were revealed, an old connection came full circle. Its potent electricity delivered an unexpected gift for both of us, a feeling of wholeness, of a part unnoticed missing…a sense of being home in where we stood today, not nostalgically looking back, but instead looking out from within. Priceless!

Thank you dear reader, for being part of this circle of thought… I missed our connection during this time. Thank you for checking out these pages from time to time in your busy life.

Don’t forget to venture out there and allow reconnection with parts of yourself that are waiting for you to stumble upon them. Wishing you pleasant surprises and heartfelt connections when you do!

The Longest Day…

2008-06-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

“As the sun spirals its longest dance,
Cleanse us…
As Nature shows bounty and fertility,
Bless us…
Let all things live with loving intent
And fulfill their truest destiny” - Wiccan blessing for Summer

The Summer Solstice arrives today here in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun has reached it apex and the earth is at her height of growth.
The year also reaches midpoint…where have the days gone?
Here in the hills, the celebrated sun is playing hide and seek behind opaque clouds that drift in and lower the temperature to a Fall-like 68 degrees. The brightness comes from whistling goldfinches and sweetly scented lemon lilies, until the sun’s rays finally break through and we all let out a collective sigh of appreciation.
Peoples around the world have observed this potent day for millennia. Native Americans created many astrological sites across the Americas to chart the path of the sun and mark this ceremonial day. Many of us think of the stone circles of Stonehenge and Avebury and the Solstice ceremonies still observed there today.
One of the most enduring ties with these ancient rites was the Druid’s celebration of the day as the “wedding of Heaven and Earth”. This is possibly responsible for our modern notion of “lucky” June weddings. Another interesting notion that was carried over, involves the fermented honey “mead” that was imbibed to celebrate wedding ceremonies during the solstice. Because of the height of the bees’ honey production in June (that produced this euphoric drink) the Full moon of June was known as the Honey Moon… Starting to sound familiar?
Bonfires and dancing and leaping through the flames with one’s beloved were common across Europe on this night, the night also made famous by Shakespeare in his enchanting Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the East the ancient Chinese marked the day by honoring Li, the Goddess of Light. So many stories and rituals take place on this day, many are shared in the classic work by Sir James Fraser called The Golden Bough. It was a pioneering study of magic and religion, folklore and folkways by this distinguished Scottish anthropologist of the late 19th C. I highly recommend skimming it for a fun summer read. For interesting information and great illustrations of early cosmological sites around the world check out Early Man and the Cosmos by Evan Hadingham.

However you decide to celebrate this extended day and enchanted evening, may it surpass your expectations!

Green Living

2008-06-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

Even here in the Green Mountains of Southern Vermont the heat index is breaking records as the entire East Coast sizzles.
Over the weekend, just ahead of the wilting weather,locals and out-of-staters gathered to celebrate the arts and sustainable energy,agriculture and the dairy industry in Brattleboro.
Sound a bit dull? Not in the Republic of Vermont, where petitions were signed to impeach Bush and Cheney and every other person it seems is an artist, writer, musician or political activist, as well as organic farmer.
Pamplona, Spain may have her “Running of the Bulls” but Brattleboro and the surrounding area has her more demure “Strolling of the Heifers”!
Streets were lined with the diverse populations that make up this unique community.
Young and old held on to black and white spotted balloons suggesting a bobbing herd of helium filled Holsteins ,as a soulful New Orleans style brass band set the stage.
Theatrical skits spoofing the highly contested nuclear plant entertained, as did unicyclists against GMOS in food production and kids carrying long paper worms promoting composting…
At last, the first band of young doe-eyed calves draped in flower garlands and gently led by their also very young owners rounded the corner closely followed by the heifers, resplendent in flowers as well, who sauntered Main Street to soft applause as not to panic the gentle beasts. Natural accidents did happen, as some stage fright occurred, to the delight of giggling little boys. Attendants dressed as black and white cows or Super Heroes quickly scooped and sprinkled sawdust to keep things moving. Behind them the high school band played “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” with a ra-ra beat and cowbell percussion.
Cute…but not too… as right behind, whirling and spinning like a dervish, was a giant evil faced puppet made entirely of plastic grocery/shopping bags. It reminded me a bit of Nigerian Egungun masquerades where a spiritual whirlwind cleanses the village of evil influence. Would but all those plastic bags disappear worldwide…
Here on this red bricked, old-fashioned Main Street, progressive and traditional ideas coincided comfortably, as quality of life and responsible choices were expressed by newcomers and old-timers alike. Hope for the future was doled out with the locally made ice cream served at the Dairy-Fest, as we felt inspired and remotivated to do our parts to insure a sustainable future for our region and the planet.
Do what you can today, wherever you are, to make a difference for us all… And stay cool…

Rites of Spring : May Bears

2008-05-27T15:18:00.000-07:00

This has been a quirky Spring to say the least. I have noted the arrival of hummingbirds, and scarlet tanagers. I’ve wondered over the fate of four pairs of rose-breasted grosbeaks that have yet to join the two pairs in residence. My flock of canary yellow goldfinches is down to five from the thirty-five usually summering with me.Stormy weather all over the US could have played a role in this...
I have waited and watched, but the visitors that I missed most of all were the black bears that usually appear by mid-May.
I have had up to four at a time in my backyard, but it always varies. Last year I had one handsome male that I named Silus, for his silent comings and goings. He spent every afternoon for a couple of weeks here, rolling in the grass and of course munching on the sunflower seeds put out for the birds. I got to the point where I could converse with him softly from the deck and he’d just sit there and listen, then slowly stand and shyly head off into the woods. But just when I had started to give up on bear visits this year, I noticed both cats were acting oddly. They seemed to be picking up a scent that I couldn’t.
I pulled them back inside and was on the phone when I glanced out the window and to my delight there was a beautiful Mama bear and two tiny cubs about the size of cocker spaniels. Last year's Silus was a one-year-old male and maybe 75 pounds but this female was much bigger. She helped herself to the wire birdfeeder but just emptied out the contents and deftly used those big paws and claws to rifle through the grass and pick up seeds. The little ones tumbled around her playing in the afternoon sun as she snacked. This bear has a distinctive cinnamon circle on her right flank; the rest of her is shiny black, except her nose, which is also a cinnamon brown. I think I’ll call her Domino.
It is quite windy today. The lilacs are in full flower and perfuming the air, fragrant narcissi are still blooming and adding their distinctive aroma to the mix. The large rhododendron is just opening her magenta blossoms and is literally abuzz with bees and hummingbirds. All of a sudden Domino stood up and sniffed the wind in this direction, where most of the flowers are. As she did this, the precious little cubs scooted into the woods and quickly climbed up a tree. I was taking pictures through the window glass and trying not to be seen, as surely they would all bolt.
Domino came right up on the deck and pressed her nose against the glass of the sliding door and looked in, three feet away from me. Of course I missed that shot, as I stepped back behind the curtain for undetected observation. She sniffed at the furniture and birdbath and slowly, carefully moved around not disturbing a thing. The cubs began calling her and come running toward the deck. She gracefully moved down the three steps and led them around it and they all slip back into the woods as quietly as they came.
I have had other mother bears with cubs on my deck in the 15 years I’ve lived here and never have they disturbed anything on it. The birdfeeders were taken hostage quite a few times however, sometimes in the same day. And I really had a battle of wits with a male years ago as he would sneak in all times of the day,grab the feeder and abscond with it.I managed to play keep away and was quite pleased with myself. The next morning I opened the front door and stepped into a pile of scat left on the doormat, nothing else touched, everything neat and orderly... but I got the message! I had to laugh at him pointedly choosing that spot and getting me good!
I am so pleased to have had this traditional visit and hope I’ll have a few more before they head deeper into the woods. Now this crazy season seems a little more on track…
I have a deep and special affection for these shy creatures and wish them a long and healthy life. For your amusement I’m posting a great shot of Silus from last year and today’s Domino and her cubs, shot through the kitchen window and the flowering lilac outside it.

May you have pleasant encounters with whatever “bears” cross your path today!

Buddha’s Birthday

2008-05-19T16:11:00.000-07:00

The full moon of May that occurs tonight in the Himalayas and tomorrow night here in the West is known as Buddha Purnima, the Buddha’s Birthday, and is celebrated by many Theravada Buddhists and Hindus at this time. The Tibetans will observe this auspicious occasion at the full moon next month.
I had the pleasure of attending the prayers and festivities for Buddha Purnima years ago at Swayambunath, the iconic stupa with the all seeing eyes of Buddha finely painted on pure gold, that represents Kathmandu and Nepal in the minds of many.
High atop a dusty hill, west of this ancient city, and reached by a very steep flagstone stairway, pilgrims stoically ascend through mists and smoke in a tiny woods populated by a tribe of very charismatic monkeys, ever alert and very well fed by passers-by. More than a dozen small stupas painted white, Tibetan prayer stones etched with powerful incantations, and orange robed seated Buddhas are scattered about the grounds. They provide an excellent excuse to stop and linger and catch your breath as yet two more wizened grandmothers pass easily ahead and up the steep incline.
On reaching the main platform crowds of people, sweet smoky incense, garlands of orange marigolds and millions of tiny oil lamps mingle as Tibetan prayer flags snap in the breeze. Everyone falls into a loosely formed line to circumambulate the main stupa going in a clock-wise direction and spinning large prayer wheels that line the base at shoulder height. Music plays, women draped in shawls and gossamer skirts barely missing the tiny tongues of fire everywhere, chant their prayers and stop to light more candles for requested blessings. Every human sense is stimulated, old friends excitedly greet each other, hands folded, Namaste softly spoken… It is a lovely Birthday party,and surely enjoyed by all.
I sit many years and a world away from the dusty knoll of Swayambu in my lush green hills of New England. A strong wind is roiling through the sea of electric green leaves. Trees moan and creak as they sway from the next forceful wave. The rhythm of the rustling leaves makes me momentarily forget that I am landlocked, until a brilliant scarlet tanager startles my eyes and quickly disappears into the tender,leafy,surf.

May you and yours find many blessings and personal illumination on this auspicious night!

A Mother's Gifts

2008-05-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

Here in the US, we recently celebrated our annual Mother’s Day. It is a time of mixed emotions for many people. Some gamely put aside on-going personality conflicts to select an appropriate card or gift in hopes of evoking the ideal in this most complex and deeply felt connection. Others will make a phone call that never seems to come often enough for the receiver. Most mothers would just love a little time with their very busy children. Time is what few of us have anymore…
My own dear mother passed away nine years ago. And any experienced personality challenges have sweetly softened to memories of the gifts that only she could have given me.
For Mother showed me how to see with an artist’s eye. To carefully look at nature and catch the subtle nuance in the slant of an old tree that expresses its personality, to read stories in delicate patterns of shadows on the wall, to see faces of cupids or imps on the knees of otherwise ordinary folk, and as I matured in awareness to notice how these faces reflected some character traits of their owners! (Try this the next time you are at the beach!)
She made fairy goblets out of gum wrapper foil and created charming “secrets” for me to find. These fanciful creations were shallow holes filled with arrangements of tiny flowers, stones, berries or seeds under a piece of appropriately sized glass that made a little window. The dampness of the earth kept these natural tableaus fresh for a week and I truly delighted in them.
Mothers in traditional cultures around the world made wonderful textiles and carrying cloths embroidered or appliquéd with auspicious or protective signs to protect their precious newborns and young toddlers from disease and misfortune. The Miao in China and SE Asia as well as most of the “minority groups” of these regions make exquisite baby carriers that are rarely sold. When they do, they usually remove the carrying straps or other parts
In Kohistan, in N. Pakistan, mothers sew coins for prosperity, mother of pearl buttons to deflect evil and sun symbols and trees for strength and long lives. Little girls are given exquisite hats and little boys receive sleeveless jackets gaily embellished with metal safety pins and Western style zippers. Each one is as unique as the woman who makes it and the child who receives it.

What was the gift your mother gave you that could have come from no one else?!

Spring Songs ...

2008-05-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

After days of raw, and cool weather, the sun has graced us once again.
Now warblers are joined by Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and the bright green woods echo with birdsong. Early this morning I heard the first dulcet tones that I eagerly await all winter to hear. A male Wood Thrush is practicing the first notes of the season. In a few days the full repertoire will performed and I will be aurally transported to heaven… at early morning and early evening until late August.
The little hummingbirds haven’t arrived, though last night, a raccoon helped himself to the nectar I have had waiting. The daffodils are just starting to bud at this point, so not much in the floral department, to offer the hummers after their long trip North,especially in the stormy weeks just past.
Other Spring songs are in the air besides the birds however. A large group of friends ventured out into the rain and fog from diverse locales to celebrate a significant birthday in a remote area of the Berkshires. A delightful rustic barn with fire roaring dramatically in a large stone fireplace provided the perfect antidote to the bone-chilling damp. And fellow travelers were treated to hearty food and soulful songs from our birthday minstrel.
By midnight, in the flickering light, kids tucked into bed, we adults joined in with the band to raise our voices… singing songs of our youth and laughingly botching the lyrics, once so profound, that somehow our middle-aged brains had forgotten!
Ah, Spring! Ah,youth…!
May you find something to make your heart sing today… in tune and with the all the right lyrics!

April Showers

2008-04-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

After a long spate of unseasonable, gloriously sunny and hot weather, the hills are green again. Unfortunately so was everything else, as yellow-green pollen dusted our world and wafted though our open windows. There had been no rain to speak of this entire month,that is rapidly coming to a close.

The short lived vernal pools that provide an essential but “fleeting” nursery for wood frogs and salamanders were dangerously dry, after being deep in snow earlier in the season. The Spring peepers and their sneezing human neighbors collectively sent up prayers for just a bit of rain to ease the dryness and the allergies.

Our petitions were heard, as April showers have been falling for two days. I slept like a baby as rain pelted the roof all night long, a rhythm I easily fall into. Now the last of the winter’s wood is burning in the woodstove to lessen the wet chill in the air.
And yet, another passage occurs, as canary-yellow goldfinches and the first rose-breasted grosbeaks appear at the feeder and my winter flock of chickadees head back into the woods until the “tourists” leave.They have been such jolly company all winter long!

The woods are alive with frog song and trilling birds as the rain gently falls. I pray the local amphibians will have what they need for this breeding season. Their relations worldwide are in dire straits due to loss of habitat, pesticides, and the rapidly spreading fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis,known as Bd for short.

Frogs are celebrated by cultures around the world as the "bringers of rain". Traditional shamanic societies in North and South America attributed the calling of the rains and control of the weather to frogs. As the rains fertilized the parched earth and cleansed muddy, stagnant waters, the attributes of abundance, fertility and healing were also given to Frog. Ritual objects made of frogs or in their shapes were used in traditional healing as well, especially illnesses brought about by emotional imbalances.

The wonderful metamorphosis that transforms the little tadpole into a handsome frog delights the child in all of us. And clearly displays the power of transformation that this totem animal is also graced with.

In Mexico, especially in the Guerrero region, metal masks in the shape of frogs were worn during ceremonial rain dances. The one depicted here from my collection, features a ruddy-cheeked spirit whose blue eyes also reflect an affinity to water. This wonderful mask of beaten copper was probably created in the early 20th C. It is charmingly painted with multi-colored spots that resemble those of the dapper leopard frogs that will be leaping through these boggy woods soon.

Long may they leap … all over the world…!

For more information on the art of Mexican mask-making, please see: Mexican Masks by Donald Cordry,University of Texas Press

For more information on vernal pools,please go to www.vernalpool.org

For more on the plight of amphibians see: Defenders (of Wildlife) Magazine, Spring 2008, “Slipping Away” by Sara Shipley Hiles.

Seeing with Closed Eyes

2008-04-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

Due to my ongoing explorations of dreams, a friend recently shared this poem with me and it made me smile.
I hope it will do the same for you. It is such a lovely thought to warm ourselves with our favorite dreams and fully savor them when they are most needed!

Frozen Dream by Shel Silverstein

I'll take this dream I had last night
And put it in my freezer,
So someday long and far away
When I'm an old grey geezer,
I'll take it out and thaw it out,
This lovely dream I've frozen,
And boil it up and sit me down
And dip my cold toes in.

More food for thought...

“It was the wise Zeno that said he could collect a man by his dreams. For then the soul, stated in a deep repose, betrayed her true affections: which in the busy day, she would rather not show or not note.”- Owen Felltham

“Seeing through the mundane and witnessing the sublime is less than an eye-blink away…”-Bodhidharma

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream…

Creating Compassion

2008-04-25T10:16:00.001-07:00

The little village I live in boasts under a thousand residents. Many of us are independent creative sorts that choose to live a simpler life, closely connected to Nature and migrated here from other parts. A group of us interested in art and creativity began meeting seven years ago. Last night at our meeting we had as our focus an interesting exercise in creating compassion through writing and art making. We were invited to bring an object from our homes that we live with but don’t really care for. We could loathe it, find it unappealing, or just be indifferent to it. But for some reason, we haven’t been able to get rid of it (sound familiar?).
We all unpacked our objects and looked at them, some of us making sarcastic remarks as we did. Our hostess then guided us to begin journaling from the object’s point of view, using “I am” sentences.
For instance, my object was a white china teacup and saucer, sprinkled with pink roses, that was from my Mother’s Depression-era wedding. She never really liked the pattern, as she preferred modern things with clean lines. But they were newly married, no one had money and this was a generous gift from a well-meaning relative. We used it for holidays and birthdays in our small family celebrations all my life.
My “I am” sentences about the cup and saucer were something like this…
“ I am delicate and feminine with a nick or two here and there acquired over the years.”
“I am dressed in shy pink roses, scattered about in neither a dramatic or creative manner.”
“I have never been truly appreciated by those who have owned me.”
“I feel out of place in a cabinet filled with earthy stoneware. I am old fashioned but not quite old enough to be admired for my antiquity.”
Next we were to write from our own perspectives and it was interesting to see how after hearing the story of the spurned object, our sarcasm softened and we wrote of more positive attributes… I even admitted to once in a while drinking tea from it to honor the potential usefulness and graceful utility that it embodies. When I do so I am having tea with my mother long since departed. I hear her say as she did several times,” These roses were never really “me” either, but as you get older you’ll find you are more accepting of them…” “Never!” I thought in my youth, but this is starting to happen little by little.
Later ,the cup gently whispered back, as I was doing the drawing exercise, “I am content in knowing that even when empty, I am filled with memories of happy occasions shared with those who have passed on.” I had to smile.
When we all read our comments and observations aloud, the results were almost prose poems and many amazingly reflected the personality and attributes of the writer.
It has been wisely said that many times the things we don’t like in others are traits we often possess ourselves!
Consider the peace that could be found in ourselves, our families, our communities, our world, if we each took the time to soften our judgment of the “other”, hear their story and perspective, and come to a place of empathy and compassion.
It is possible…it just takes effort, an open mind, and an open heart.
Try it and reap the personal benefits … and collectively we all will benefit…
Wishing you and the “others” in your life peace of heart and mind…

Perceptions, Impressions

2008-04-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

The air and light is as soft as a baby’s cheek this morning. A delicate haze in the sunlight brightened with flickers of pistachio, softens the shadows and brings out mauve, lavender and palest lemon yellow. I am seeing with the eyes of the Impressionists.
I have disregarded this visionary group of French painters for a very long time.
Their work reproduced in sofa-sized copies and printed on everything from calendars to museum shop umbrellas had become a cliché that I barely gave notice to or had interest in. I had an ephiphany standing in front of the incredibly long Monet Waterlilies at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Standing close you can only see several feet in each direction, and the scene your mind tells you that you are seeing, transforms into delicious squiggles of luminous paint. It is pure abstraction and vibrantly fresh and alive in mostly unblended color…
Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir “discovered” this way of seeing when they broke the shackles of studying academic art and ventured out into the fresh air along the Seine. The stale formality of Nature as a classical backdrop for historical or classical allegory was transformed into a living, breathing environment. In squinting their eyes just a bit and looking at a sun-drenched scene, all the shades of prismatic color revealed themselves in light and shadow. They kept the colors separated in expressive daubs of paint but juxtaposed them perfectly so the viewer’s eye did the mixing but could translate the artist’s way of seeing at the same time. What a brilliant discovery! This added to the subject of “real life being lived”, and attempting to capture the literal “throb of life” in Paris and surrounding environs in paint on canvas was totally revolutionary….
I have been reading Susan Vreeland’s historical novel about Renoir painting his most ambitious painting, which titles the book as well “Luncheon of the Boating Party”. Though she has done her homework, I was a bit rusty on the ins and outs of friendships and rivalries of this substantial group of French painters and missed many nuances that she alluded to. This has been happily compensated by watching a wonderful series produced by the BBC called “The Impressionists” (available through Netflix). In it Claude Monet is being interviewed in 1920 as an old man, and regales us with the personalities and traits of his friends and contemporaries during these formative years of Impressionism. It is very well acted and filmed on location and has added much to the Vreeland book, which relies mostly on conversation between the characters to tell the story. I highly recommend both for a weekend escape into an amazing time of looking at life and art with new eyes. Time travel anyone?
May you discover a new way of seeing your world and appreciating the beauty that is there before you, if you have but eyes to see!

Earth Day!

2008-04-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

The radiance of the sun and unusual balmy temperatures have all of us singing in these parts, but not as eloquently as the single warbler that has been trilling for days now from the budding tree-tops. So far he is still solo, as no one is answering his call or disputing his territory. It is his gift to us all….
As quirky as it is to be comfortably walking barefoot outside but having to carefully avoid random patches of the last snow, it is comforting to see that Nature is more vibrant and expansive each passing day. We seem to be going in the right direction. Yellow-green day lily and iris fans and the purple tips of hosta are appearing over night but I am longing for colorful, exuberant displays of flowers!
I treated myself to glorious fiery orange roses yesterday, a belated birthday gift from a friend. What a delicious treat they are and we should all treat ourselves to flowers regularly, if just a small bouquet of wildflowers artfully arranged. They give so much to the beholder and add so much to a home environment.
For your pleasure, I am sharing a glimpse of the staggering beauty of these particular roses in the little photo next to this entry!
The powerful color and expressive shape of roses have been cultivated in silk and cotton floss around the world ,as talented hands embroidered rosettes, solar discs and trees of life onto clothing and utilitarian cloth.
A wonderful book on this subject was lovingly compiled and researched in hard to get to places by Shelia Paine. It is called Embroidered Textiles: Traditional Patterns from Five Continents: with a World wide Guide to Identification. These natural symbols were not just decorative but were believed to provide protection against misfortune and increased life force in nomadic and other tribal cultures. They were also treasured as wealth and provided beauty in sometimes very bleak or harsh environments.
As beautiful as the day is outside I’m equally happy photographing examples of splendid textile gardens and cataloging them for future inclusion on my website www.deborahgarnercollection.com
Woven, beaded, richly embellished cloth is a personal passion of mine. I’m including a detail here of a lovely 19th C. embroidery from Uzbekistan with whimsical floral designs to add to the visual celebration for our bountiful Mother Gaia/Earth on her special day!
Whether you are inside or outside today do take a moment to send appreciation to the Earth that sustains us, or think of something that you could do that would contribute to reducing even in a very small way humanity’s impact on her …and don’t forget to stop and smell the roses!

Transitions

2008-04-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a dear neighbor and I ventured off our rocky ridge and descended down to the Connecticut River valley. For a few moments we were as stunned as if the Land of Oz stretched out before us. The weeping willows along the riverbank were festooned in long chartreuse ribbons of tiny new leaves, the forsythia was blinding in its chrome yellow splendor and the exotically beautiful magnolias were just beginning to bloom….
We are about three weeks behind at our 1100 ft. altitude, not exactly Alpine I admit, but just enough over the line to make a big difference. From our understated grey and brown hills, now and then highlighted with the subtle mauve of maple buds and dusty puffs of white birch flowers, to the floral extravagance of the valley seemed tropical and decadent simultaneously.
Even in the hills it reached 80 degrees yesterday and today promises the same.This is not the normal transition.80 is more of a June temperature than April...
I put up the screens last night, opened the windows and happily slept with fresh air, the first songs of the little Spring frogs called “Peepers” and the otherworldly commentary from courting barred owls wafting into my bedroom. Heaven…
Mudseason, our regional “bonus” season for surviving a strenuous winter, is officially over and I must say despite the deep drifts and thanks to a remarkable road crew that constantly groomed our dirt roads, it was not too bad. Sometimes just getting to the grocery store 12 miles away is an Indiana Jones experience when parts of the road become the consistency of cookie dough and you literally have to go with the flow, helplessly pulled from side to side! It can be quite the adrenalin rush!

The first butterfly has been spotted…it may have been a queen Monarch or a Fritillary.It was a lovely shade of orange but not quite as vibrant as the male Monarch.
I think Icaught a glimpse of the first hummingbird that usually buzzes by my studio window around April 28th. It may have been a shy little pine siskin visiting the birdbath. I only saw a quick tiny bird silhouette at dusk. I must get some nectar mix for them today, as the only meager natural offerings are five lavender-striped crocus flowers.
Now I can wash the layers of the mud off my formerly black car, that has been a demure shade of bisque for weeks and also take off the noisy studded snow tires for another year…
Yes, let me slip on my flip-flops and head out the door back down to civilization.
It is so odd to know its 80 degrees, I’m going out in flip-flops, and my daffodils are still beneath 8 inches of snow!
Wishing you all the pleasures of the season wherever you may be!

Rhythmic Alignment

2008-04-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

It is a glorious morning…cloudless blue sky, blinding sun penetrating the dense woods at that perfect angle that pops everything out in such dramatic fashion.
The “chiaroscuro” that Velazquez, Caravaggio and other painters used so well and to great effect. I simply love this light and now while the branches are still bare it is possible to see deeply into the intricate patterns the branches make as they interact, and visually interweave. Soon the new leaves will emerge and slowly the green curtain will close around me once again. Several times in the past months the same effect and delineation took place with sparkling snow. It was at just the right consistency to wrap itself around each branch and trunk and left just a tracery of black and grey along one edge. Then it was a magical lace curtain that was drawn around me, exquisitely detailed and totally ephemeral. I tried to capture it with camera, pastel,and oil paint but it was too sublime …
But now great patches of mottled brown earth and dry thatch are appearing in the remaining snow daily. The ground is as spotted as a Pinto pony and new birds are arriving daily and staking claim to the new turf. The faithful Robins back for another breeding season wrest stunned earthworms from the chilly mud and Mourning Doves coo and woo in patches nearby. The woodpeckers still drum but further away , but the rhythm of today is the song of the doves…Ah yes, out of the treetops and back down to earth. Sweet and slightly mournful tones to stir the emotions and those internal waters. It is time to awaken and align with the new season at hand…and all of us must find our own natural rhythm to get us there.
The resident cats just look at me with profound mystification at my need to take this intellectual meander when… duh, the door is wide open onto the deck!
Maya tosses me a glance that says “Later…”, and flicks her impressive black plume of a tail as she returns to Vole patrol duty outside and Luna just gives me her most soulful look that says “These cushions in the sun are in perfect alignment with me”…
When the seasons are as dramatically distinct as they are in these parts and can turn on a time, it’s not quite as simple as breaking out the flip-flops for some of us humans. Slowly but surely I’ll get there…Here’s hoping you are there already, perfectly aligned and moving toward your dreams at your perfect pace and rhythm….as Maya says”Later…”

Signs and Symbols...

2008-04-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

It is a very cold morning here in the woods. The sun is steadily climbing up the hill through the tangle of still bare branches and shyly spilling into my studio.
The most distinctive sign of this new season at this moment is the noise…
The distinctive “drumming” of numerous Pileated Woodpeckers is rattattattinggggg from all sides. It is like being in the middle of a mellifluent construction site! I love this resonance of beak against pith and bark, and the vibration of it reverberating through the woods. Rat-ta-tat-ta-tat! It is a wake-up call for all of us to notice that a new season is at hand.
I enjoy reading about and paying attention to natural signs and omens. They are the language of Nature and are pretty universally agreed upon, for the most part, save Snake and Owl which get bad press in some cultures.
There is a wonderful book by naturalist Ted Andrews which I refer to almost every day. It is called Animal Speak: The Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small. In it the Woodpecker is about the heartbeat of the earth, the power of rhythm, and the use of discrimination. The Pileated Woodpecker is sometimes known as the “Cock of the Woods”,this makes me smile, as the other dominant bird holding forth this morning is the Rooster, crowing loud and true, at my neighbors down the road. The Rooster is about watchfulness, resurrection(as the herald of the rising sun) and fertility…
I love the thought of the universality of that sound resonating at daybreak in Bali, across Africa, in rural areas around the world and here in the US. It is such a blessing to wake-up to these sounds instead of alarm clocks and radio yabbering…(We’ll have more about these cross-cultural symbols later as they embellish cultural costume and artifacts because of their potent symbolism…)but back to natural sounds and signs...
One of my favorite watercolorists was Charles Burchfield, American (1893-1967).
He was a masterful recorder of Nature, weather and the special atmosphere of seasons. He achieved this in a quite unique and symbolic way. There is a lovely little book of his work called Charles Burchfield’s Seasons by Guy Davenport that you may enjoy.
I am going to attempt to post images two favorites on today’s blog page.
The first is ”The Coming of Spring”. It shows hills with trees just starting to bud, riverlets of water running down and bringing the mud to life and pussy willows to explode into fury catkins. This looks just like where I live or at least will, in a week or two.
Burchfield wrote about this picture and the rushing water(which is also musically coursing through my woods as snow melt) “So completely did the personality of the stream enter into my consciousness, that at night when I lay down to sleep, my pillow seemed to be full of sound….” He often creates marks that denote sounds and the vibrations of growth that I just love!
The other image is “Autumnal Fantasy” that has nuthatches instead of woodpeckers but the vibrational notations capture what it is like in these hills this morning.
I hope wherever you are today, that you can take the time to notice Nature and the signs she is giving you!

Addendum:

2008-04-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

"astral journeys, inner worlds" is in the new Studio Gallery at Hampden and will end on April 28th,2008...

2008-04-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

ARTIST STATEMENT astral journeys, inner worlds

I am a dreamer by nature and disposition.

Ever since childhood I have recalled dream imagery immediately upon waking. “What did you dream last night?” was my Mother’s first inquiry of the morning. We would review all that had occurred in my nocturnal wanderings and when a synchronistic event happened later that day, she would happily announce,” There’s the end of your dream!”

Beginnings, endings, connections…

”What color was it?” Mother would ask, “How did it taste or smell ?”.
She was a dreamer extraordinaire and it never occurred to her (or me) that most people supposedly dreamed in black and white (how bizarre!) or thought they didn’t dream at all, much less perceive the dream environment with waking senses.

Dreams and symbolism became deeply ingrained in me, as did a longing to travel to the exotic realms of my imagination. As an adult I have been fortunate to explore the world firsthand and through the cultural artifacts that I collect, study and deal in. Many times these experiences are part of my dream life and I delight in recalling sights, smells and sounds of the material world transported to another time and place.

The images offered here are like snapshots of personal dream experiences, I like to think of many of them as “postcards from the Edge of Consciousness”. I invite you to have fun and enjoy the visual journey here…
In the sleep-deprived culture we live in, the dream state is not as restorative for most as it could be. I hope these pictures will bring a smile and encourage exploration in your own rich inner landscapes.

May you have sweet dreams and may all your good dreams come true!

2008-04-15T06:19:00.000-07:00

As I was saying,there are many ways of traveling. The long Winter nights were used by traditional tribal peoples to share tales of courage, challenges successfully met by cultural heroes, romance and trickster stories to delight young and old in campfire circles around the world.
Dreaming was taken seriously and wisdom carefully gleaned from dreams shared. I have long kept dream journals and recorded as many episodes as I can recall each morning. I enjoy going back over them and noticing the recurring symbols and themes and speculating on what I am working out in my dreamlife. All of this recently culminated in a body of work called "astral journeys, inner worlds" that is being presented in Hampden Gallery at the University of Massachusetts this month. For more information here's the link http://www.umass.edu/fac/calendar/hampden/events/DEBORAHGARNER.html
The image in the right corner of this blog is called Dream Journey and is very evocative for me.
I used it as the postcard for the exhibition. The ripe, fecund natural world is being lead into a more barren world it seems, until the old blind man who confidently leads the way is noticed to be following the fiery light of his passion, his soul.... and so it is with each of us when we allow ourselves to follow our bliss.
This work began as simple monoprint landscapes, overtime I collected images from very early (1919) National Geographic magazines that were being tossed at the recycling bin .These were collaged in to populate the scenes as they related to dreams I had been having. Colored pencil and water color washes helped me achieve the effect I was reaching for. I will share more images in a small slide show and include my Artist Statement about this work to hopefully add to your enjoyment.
At the opening I was delighted with the enthusiastic response from other "dreamers" in attendance! I hope this will encourage some of you to tap this rich native source of inspiration that was our collective creative birthright!

Welcome to my blog

2008-04-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

After many months of deep snow,howling winds and precarious road conditions...the great mounds of ice are finally receding and adding to the slurry of mud on the sides of our dirt road.The metal sap buckets are still hanging from Sugar Maple trees and still filling impressively at this late date. The barred owls are mating, the lovely maroon colored trillium are stirring under the cold mud and soon a very hungry black bear will be heading for my birdfeeder as the sun begins to set.
This is the stuff of dreams for a transplant from the steamy South. Though I grew up in semi-tropical splendor,waisthigh ferns,the humid air thick with the headiness of gardenia, jasmine,wisteria;the stiffling heat was debilitating to me and I survived these pre- airconditioning summers with a stack of library books and a frosty bottle of Coca -Cola under a shady tree. I made sure that I had my library card as soon as I was six and checked out everything I could find on cultures of other lands. As an only child ,this introspection and armchair travelling served me well on long hot days and still provides respite during the short dark days of a New England winter. I have weathered 28 Northern winters now. My Southern friends think I am absolutely mad and a case could be made to that effect. But this land, these woods ,these rocks and hills are part of me now and I don't mind the slowing down and inward traveling that takes place in front of the woodstove. And I cherish the company of my two compatible felines Luna and Maya... Inward travels are especially sublime....
When I was three I fashioned tiny clay figures of a turbaned man dressed in a long robe and a veiled young girl and a young boy dressed like the man. My parents were astounded...we didn't have a television at that time , no copies of the Arabian Nights...."Who are you and where did you come from?!", my Father remembered saying out loud to me as he noticed the detail in the figures attire.
That is the question I'm still trying to answer...and I'm happy to say I'm getting closer.
This blog is about the threads that run literally and figuratively through my life, the inter-connectedness of passions that started as a very young child, and grew with me over five decades now. My hope is that I may share something with you that you haven't noticed before or that sparks interest or gets you thinking about the threads in your own life. There are many ways to travel and and if undertaken in the right spirit they all lead back to HOME...