Their bodies are flakes of bronze on the carpets lying
Enemies of the delicate everywhere
Have breathed a pestilent mist into the air.
CATHERINE NOLAN HEALING & ART |
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A plague has stricken the moths, the moths are dying Their bodies are flakes of bronze on the carpets lying Enemies of the delicate everywhere Have breathed a pestilent mist into the air. Emilie Conrad ∞ Life on Land
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I used to worry a bit that to be drawing a dragonfly, or magnified fish scale as I sat by a remote river was perhaps an irrelevant, even escapist activity. What is the significance or relevance of a gentle curiosity about creatures which live in air, mud and sand in a world of increasing famine, new wars and continuing ecological suicide? I realise more now that the apparently subtle manifestations of nature - “the murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves”, or the choreography of walking birds on a estuarine mud flat are all a most significant measure of the state of the world. You could say that the stains on the trunk of the Mangrove tree, while drawn in an understated way with subtle nuances, are hinting at much larger forces. I hope that kind of understatement could be strongly effective when it is linked to the huge movements of tides - and the dramatic changes which will happen to billions of people whose land would be swamped as a result of global warming. I like to think that “my bits of paper with marks on them: - my works - are directly connected to the physical world where they were made. Just as the creatures of the natural world are “the canaries in the mine” so also I would like my bits of paper to be seen as Litmus papers. Litmus, which absorbs the nuances of air, or water, or honey, or the tracks of hermit crabs.’ John Wolselely, 1991 Plant biology text-book, pencil, tea bags, gouache, watercolour, & collage
All traces disappear with time. The wind removes them, the rain washes them away, and the snow covers all. The cleaning crew of the forest takes apart the carcasses of living things, and time silently erases everything, including the traces of seasons … Traces are physical things that sometimes have spiritual properties that reverberate in our souls. And so the traces I find always remain in my heart. Sooyong Park, The Great Soul of Siberia "Until the late twentieth century, every generation throughout history lived with the tacit certainty that there would be generations to follow. Each assumed, without questioning, that its children and children's children would walk the same Earth, under the same sky…" Joanna Macy
… And now…? Watercolour & gouache on balsa I was jogging along the beach and felt a sharp pain. This baby leather jacket got stuck in my foot, & later became this mini-sculpture.
This image was also taken by the wonderful Candace Butler, whose website is: http://candacebutler.com.
The mural is by Diana Garcia. My first koi. I hope it will be one of many. I love combining painting
and drawing in the same piece. They each require me to be in a different headspace, working at a different rhythm. Lake shrine temple, Los Angeles. Watching the koi congregate in the hope
of getting fed, I got to observe them closely . |
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