Saturday, July 12, 2014

Ode to a Stained Glass Window


Ode to a Stained Glass Window


Bathed am I

drowned and cushioned

in your continual song.

Sing me a hymn that has lived as long as you

as oft and steady as your windows breath.

How much you must love the sun,

that you chant his rays.

Devoted acolyte of the moon,

you  bleed with her light.




Sunday, March 30, 2014

On Rivers

There is something about a river that says, you may put up road blocks, you may damn me and endeavor to control me. You will try to lead me along your paths in your ways but every action has an equal and opposite reaction. I flow with unintended consequences, and you can make poetry or tragedy of these.

The river sings, I burst and bulge and flood. I have a memory, I go my own ways. You mimic me with your interstate corridors and back street alleys. Like the streets that connect your neighborhoods and the blood that journeys through your veins, the constellation of arteries. I am path and pulse. I am power. I am a passage of nourishment and I will get to the places I am going. I will arrive at the destinations I intend to be.

For all its demanding the river is my friend. The Umpqua, the Santiam, and even the Columbia. They remind me that coursing forces can enact destruction. Or hope.

My friend who courses and remembers. She kisses my fingertips that I have left laying gently by the rock. She holds me under in her deep embrace and I hear what she hears. The multitudinous conversations of the world around us. Birds crying to each other, the wind whistling, and distant instances of the city wafting back to us, all synthesized into a muted chorus. The Irish monks who made their homes on small juttings of rock know the sound. They have learned the art and rhythm of chanting, focusing their will as she does into reverence, worship into one stream of quiet connection.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Thank you meza!

Last night Meza and I found ourselves sketching, it's been quite a while and I am totally out of practice but i had a great time. Meza, I have come to realize, is an awesome artist and we had a great conversation about some contemporary art, here is one of his suggestions. I checked out Os Gemenos who are identical twin graffiti artists from Brazil here are a few pics....
I think I like it!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Art Camp Day 1

The first thing we did was decorate our sketch books, there were so many stickers....
...and so little time.
First project: Lines
Each student had to come up with different types of lines
We moved on from there and incorporated the element of line into our "string painting" which is an art form done by an indigenous people in Mexico called the Huichol people.
Here's a link to a few examples of the Huichol art all made with yarn and beeswax.

We continued to work with yarn for the rest of the day,


Here we are starting our weaving project.

Monday, September 14, 2009

screen printing

First peruse your favorite instructional manual, mine is always the one with lots of pictures!
Next, draw the image on to your silk screen using "drawing fluid"

Once the drawing fluid has dried cover the whole screen in "screen filler"
Like so...after that you spray it with a hose and you're ready to print
onto a t-shirt

choose your ink color


Squeegee the ink in an even layer across the screen print

TADA!


Voila!