Birthday

Today, I'm 62 and will be getting Social Security soon. Finally a birthday that pays off!

John Mortimer who died this year (he wrote Rumpole of the Bailey) said:

"Dying is a matter of slapstick and pratfalls.
No one should grow old who isn't prepared to look ridiculous."

I'm prepared and I've had practice!

be joyful

"Be joyful, though you've considered all the facts."

Wendell Berry

One of my favorite authors of all time. He wrote the novels Hannah Coulter and Jayber Crow and many others. I've loved them all. He also wrote this poem:

The Wish to Be Generous

All that I serve will die, all my delights,
the flesh kindled from my flesh, garden and field,
the silent lilies standing in the woods,
the woods, the hill, the whole earth, all
will burn in man’s evil, or dwindle
in its own age. Let the world bring on me
the sleep of darkness without stars, so I may know
my little light taken from me into the seed
of the beginning and the end, so I may bow
to mystery, and take my stand on the earth
like a tree in a field, passing without haste
or regret toward what will be, my life
a patient willing descent into the grass.

~ Wendell Berry ~

(The Collected Poems, 1957-1982)

MAGNIFICAT 1

This image is part of the Advent show at Calvin CRC. It was used on the Image and Spirit blog which must be where other people are finding it. I just got a notice that a minister wanted to use this image on Sunday and that someone else referred to it on their blog. How amazing that an image can have such a wide audience!

WOODS

A new twist to my mixed media work. The trees are stenciled onto black paper using atomized paint and stencils I cut. Then I enhanced them with colored pencil. My goal is to mat this series and sell them unframed at the gallery. They are in standard sizes, so the customer could choose the art and then choose their own frame. There will be more seasons to come, but winter is a natural!

Cogitating

I thought this piece was done and I framed it, but it's still sitting in the basement. I don't know what's wrong with it, nor do I know why this post is underlining itself....but if you click on it, it takes you to a closeup of a wonderful collage that sold this fall.

Maybe (and now there's no underlining) it needs more weight on the bottom...