bee creative

# 22 language

 

I don't have the words quite yet but there is something about working with the pigments that is a conversation.

Between me and the pigment, between me and whoever might look. About how it might be altered digitally as well.  I am not sure I would call it art, but I would call it story telling. Maybe because it is a word that is more comfortable.

It's about local, or location since not all the materials I am working with are local. (I would like it to be as local as possible.)

And about transformation and change, which is inevitable...mine and the materials.  How amazing is it that plant can become paint or ink?  That soil and rocks can be as well? How am I being changed as I learn what can be created?  How it might flow or not flow?

About what might be possible and curiosity.  Like many I am not sure about the word "sustainable" anymore, but how can we be more respectful?

And...thinking about languages we grow up with, the languages we learn to speak, the ones that we struggle with, the ones we might learn in the future? 

just beginning

Sunrise one day this week:

Layers of light.

Sorting I stacked a paper star on top of a painting I had done.

Hmm...

So here it is another version (three layers, one filter).

Another way to be.

I've shared this before but for those who wonder, the text is:

Crepuscular midnight stands at the road,

Where the stars have spilled from its purse.

You cannot go over the road past the fence

Without trampling the universe. 

"Steppe," by Boris Pasternak

Last night, when I couldn't sleep, I listened to a conversation with Katy Payne (On Being).  The discussion was about listening to whales and elephants.  

As I lay in the dark listening, I imagined there were whales singing deep in the ocean, right then at that very moment.  Elephants rumbling at a pitch just below what humans can hear.  

Something to think about in the middle of the night when it is dark and quiet.

Speaking of whales singing, Payne says:

"And so what that has done for me is to make me feel that what lies ahead to be discovered is absolutely limitless. We are not at the pinnacle of human knowledge. We are just beginning."

 

 

edges

Yesterday, off work a little early, I took a walk along the bay...

I love how the pier on the left catches water.

The light is changing, the wildfire smoke is gone in the air and it is cooler.

It was so good to walk.

Early in the morning, which is now dark for so much longer, I am stitching by hand. 

I love the quietness. 

I am going very slow and really paying attention. 

Linen fabric is easy to stitch through, the thimble not really necessary but I've been practicing at times. 

I really enjoyed hearing everyone's thoughts and experiences with thimbles.  Thank you all for sharing.

 

where we might go

Yesterday, early in the morning, I went to the beach.

I gathered rocks and played with them.

Daydreamed.

Wrote in my journal.

Watched two trains that passed by,

a couple playing with their dogs, one dog leaping into the water to catch a tennis ball,

a couple of adults with toddlers exploring,

a few other people, walking,

and the boats.

 

There were a couple people in kayaks, a tug, a guide boat, a few small boats, one large yacht, sailboats, and just as I was leaving, a fishing boat. 

My favorite was a barge being pushed by a tug. 

It was foggy and the crane on the barge was obscured. 

It left me wondering where the crane might go...

and about work and play.

 

row row

 

I've been thinking about Jude's definition of art... Do I make anything I would define as art or is it all craft?

I do draw a line between the two.  For me craft is making something useful.  Knitting a useful pair of socks to wear is a craft.  Weaving net for fishing is a craft. Making a basket...

And all this can be art too.  A work of art can be useful, can have purpose.  Purpose is what separates the two for me.  Is there a purpose to what is being made. 

And then there is decoration, perhaps better called beauty. Some things might just be beautiful (although that can be very subjective).

We need craft, beauty and art. Art as communication, as consideration, as perspective.  Craft, and people who are makers, to make useful things...things for shelter, for food.  Beauty feeds us, makes us fall in love, become caregivers... 

Where we get in trouble with all this is when value is assigned. 

And...can how we live our life, our lifestyle, be a form of art? Don't we all present a perspective to the world by how we go about living? Is there craft? Where do we add beauty?

How we define words, how we are defining self...

endlessly fascinating.

time spent

Yesterday I went to the beach for a couple hours, early while it was quiet.

Mostly people launching kayaks and paddle boards.  One very beautiful rowboat went by...

  The water was incredibly still and the sky immense. 

quiet

yesterday's journal entry

I left for the farmer’s market over an hour before I needed to be there.
Couldn’t figure out why it was so quiet downtown…
So I got a coffee at Adagio and went for a walk down at B’vard.
And then the bookstore.
And then back to the farmer’s market;
where I missed getting gooseberries because the person in front of me bought the last basket.
The vendor promised to set aside a basket for me next week.
Next home, thinking to garden.
I took a nap instead.
And then sewed.
And read.
And wondered
Will tonight be the night I stay up long enough to see the stars come out?

trust

I trust…

That the weather will change.
That the moon and stars are there even when not visible.
That there will always be something to wonder about.

(Stellar Jay feather)

other things

From last weekend's walk.

I love this one just as much as the loon floating on the water.

Going under...what will be found?

Leftover soup found it's way into quiche as the liquid component.

(Avocado is one of the few non-local foods I eat, from California so not too far.)

My hummingbird feeders: fuchsias and petunias.  As well as lobelia and creeping charlie.

And "mending to wear."

That's when you mend something and then put it on so you can wear it that day...