tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34887358964671729082024-03-18T08:48:29.950-07:00Janice Mason SteevesJanice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.comBlogger209125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-72217724930764034522022-05-11T05:25:00.003-07:002022-05-11T05:25:30.491-07:00Lessons that Stone Walls Teach<p><br /></p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmB0qIghDK18hCAXQuXyjm8nIerywT8mltybCsBz_YliylK5AMJcECHFpt_eDoAQx9d1p1UDxtx0VpRr7iFirDgigLmKnwkiJefxte7Z7ARkkCqS43Pgr9Xv7VuS5MZI2TVDSYpkqlXbgZmJ07IVQUjhPSQAt21N5XsRmvTfIJS0G4Ah0T8KsJVuh4/s1000/IMG_0755.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmB0qIghDK18hCAXQuXyjm8nIerywT8mltybCsBz_YliylK5AMJcECHFpt_eDoAQx9d1p1UDxtx0VpRr7iFirDgigLmKnwkiJefxte7Z7ARkkCqS43Pgr9Xv7VuS5MZI2TVDSYpkqlXbgZmJ07IVQUjhPSQAt21N5XsRmvTfIJS0G4Ah0T8KsJVuh4/w400-h300/IMG_0755.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dry stone wall in the Burren, Co. Clare, Ireland</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p> <span style="font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've just returned from teaching a Workshop in Wild Places class in the Burren in County Clare, Ireland. Writing this post, I'm reminded of another post I wrote after visiting Inishmaan, the middle of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland several years ago. Stone walls crisscrossed the island in tight webs like a fisherman's net. I wrote then that the web of stone walls made me think of the idea of putting limitations on our painting as a way of exploring more deeply and how walls give limits against the limitless. You can read that article</span><span style="font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="color: violet; font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif;"><a data-cke-saved-href="https://janicemasonsteevesartwork.blogspot.com/2011/10/power-of-limits-and-walls-of-aran.html" href="https://janicemasonsteevesartwork.blogspot.com/2011/10/power-of-limits-and-walls-of-aran.html" style="font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">here.</a></span></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwHx50Ah6oRzFooPpXdOENN9-g373Of5SZEY9D1gbTtfFHFmgeLdlJG_qllPc1vxB_3OCJmLtSidAqXzmoWVWySn8uaJ6hElGNUdR1VbjNSGj7sXPG0Iq1Yplr0VVqPtb9X2eqqdvblSchuqsBC1FL2HFEyhCCdYmE4OiuoWEB-wy2jOHH3bOskOtl/s4032/IMG_0867.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwHx50Ah6oRzFooPpXdOENN9-g373Of5SZEY9D1gbTtfFHFmgeLdlJG_qllPc1vxB_3OCJmLtSidAqXzmoWVWySn8uaJ6hElGNUdR1VbjNSGj7sXPG0Iq1Yplr0VVqPtb9X2eqqdvblSchuqsBC1FL2HFEyhCCdYmE4OiuoWEB-wy2jOHH3bOskOtl/w400-h300/IMG_0867.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica neue, helvetica, sans-serif;">As our group hiked in the Burren with our guide, Marie McGauran we learned that the walls are stronger because of the holes in them. The wind can pass through. The oldest stone walls, estimated to be 3500 years old are at Skara Brae, a Neolithic site in Orkney. Most walls were built in the 18th and 19th century, marking areas of private ownership and resulting in poverty for the poor and working classes as there could be no more communal grazing.</span><br /><br /><div style="font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><img data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/a9ab1596540478d19124106d8/_compresseds/0a02c560-81b1-9a56-deda-021a2fce0b5c.jpeg" data-file-id="6386361" height="666" src="https://mcusercontent.com/a9ab1596540478d19124106d8/_compresseds/0a02c560-81b1-9a56-deda-021a2fce0b5c.jpeg" style="border: 0px; height: 666px; margin: 0px; width: 500px;" width="500" /></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">But back to the holes in the walls to let the wind pass through. These imperfections actually make the walls stronger because of this flexibility, this breathing space. A rigid wall tries to hold back the wind. The walls remind me of an artist who allows for mistakes in their work, who accepts their imperfections. We want to see an artist's hand in the work, their humanness. We want to see the rawness of their work, their deep emotional connection to the land.</span></span><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica neue, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLx9WHz7vR05rf1ZsfxSD8nZcozGnRXXY1WlEFfwHXgwtAMpHQ0tSB3vsmiF_WE3W1s70bvo0WjLmuZSaDpdHJOOgCa4nvk6clbC1dZmEQJ0BUMvwjaivPx8_PaV9cqOzdJEUYQJSfhqr_V__P6tXqb1KHFwcE76pZCY-a87lywDsx7qbMR46vaTFm/s4032/IMG_1113.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLx9WHz7vR05rf1ZsfxSD8nZcozGnRXXY1WlEFfwHXgwtAMpHQ0tSB3vsmiF_WE3W1s70bvo0WjLmuZSaDpdHJOOgCa4nvk6clbC1dZmEQJ0BUMvwjaivPx8_PaV9cqOzdJEUYQJSfhqr_V__P6tXqb1KHFwcE76pZCY-a87lywDsx7qbMR46vaTFm/w400-h300/IMG_1113.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit5fOznTdJeK9Ml4OhmSqD-xUaQAUhktgxdT8cFOmNpGdD1aOdSioTR1rxxhxB4GOP-pdsqWlde_BFJ2fRyLwbmewhwQUfh2o9fWKBH4xogSjkO4fxCxq8gf-9MCuGv0JDYSyOL8WnswJWDceyPt7yI9scWfq8iVdLfuoUcNpPBUC6Ii00IVB7DsCq/s4032/IMG_1068.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit5fOznTdJeK9Ml4OhmSqD-xUaQAUhktgxdT8cFOmNpGdD1aOdSioTR1rxxhxB4GOP-pdsqWlde_BFJ2fRyLwbmewhwQUfh2o9fWKBH4xogSjkO4fxCxq8gf-9MCuGv0JDYSyOL8WnswJWDceyPt7yI9scWfq8iVdLfuoUcNpPBUC6Ii00IVB7DsCq/w400-h300/IMG_1068.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: large; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0.41999998688697815px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: large; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0.41999998688697815px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Earth's crammed with heaven...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0.41999998688697815px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But only she who sees, takes off her shoes.</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0.41999998688697815px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;" /><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0.41999998688697815px; white-space: pre-wrap;">― </span><strong style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0.41999998688697815px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Elizabeth Barrett Browning</strong></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica neue, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><br /></div>Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-22241173790254743122022-02-22T15:28:00.000-08:002022-02-22T15:28:40.539-08:00I Can't Wait to Travel Again<div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: arial; text-indent: 36pt;">I miss travelling! I’ve always loved to travel especially to wild and remote places </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #292929; font-family: arial; text-indent: 36pt;">but living on an artist’s unsteady salary, I’ve learned to find inexpensive ways to travel. Several years ago, I discovered artist residencies, which provide accommodation and small studio spaces. These are available to artists all over the world, some of which are free depending on acceptance of your application, others cost a small amount. I prefer ones that are remote but provide accommodation to a small group of artists rather than just one person. The interaction with artists from other countries is a stimulating, enlightening and enriching experience. </span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span> <span> <span> </span></span></span><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-uvV5BTS1zHZ68TM7FiSt0BPq5QsWoT5f2HL42_BQqeGU534kGgVEYHpr1c-ch3qXs9rVgYlnrATn1bsZDF7Zq5Fbfoj5zfjJ0P_jv0-AxxE_l5C5NyUgF2TLkHMUszIUHrOdAZJRJY653GJZ6zcXZcPQ-Pu5PSkRmgy_Ye1MUCvxUZzveezTeLEC=w640-h480" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. John's Newfoundland 2019</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #292929;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #292929;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">After I’d been teaching painting classes for several years in various parts of Canada, the US, as well as in Sweden and Iceland, I had the idea to combine my love of teaching with my intense desire to help reconnect artists to nature, along with deepening my own relationship with nature. We’re all disconnected from nature. That’s why the earth is in such crisis. What role can artists play in this crisis? Because every artist has a wide range of connections and exposure for their work and ideas, I thought that if I could help artists to deepen their connection and recognize their oneness with the earth perhaps that joy, that love would be passed on to their students and their audience. Along with my love of travel, this idea is what drove me to create Workshops in Wild Places, a travel workshop project where I organize and lead small groups of artists to various remote locations in the world three or four times per year. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #292929;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #292929;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In these workshops, my intention is to teach various ways of becoming consciously aware of our connection to nature: spending time outdoors, sitting and walking mindfully, meditating, and through related writing and painting exercises, aiming to take attention off our human-centered-selves, and focus on our nature-selves, becoming one with nature and the world. The artist Gaye Oxford writes that travel to these remote places, “invites wild and soul to dance together” and then we carry that dance into painting.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #292929;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #292929;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgtDL8UvY6q-8vBtng9H6dt8ocTKcL1TGAvo4uzE6udVWR5dFOxquxoHS655_WbvRQwcQARXc0mNUyACY796sfUMhrT8_SEgSebP_YM69TAbOzXtiz25nQfLw7bk1dFLSk7xKxAaAmij_9jLclBnVJLnbxiMgxGwX-yUG_C3-GaVwtnyqnyOXq5So0U=s4032" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgtDL8UvY6q-8vBtng9H6dt8ocTKcL1TGAvo4uzE6udVWR5dFOxquxoHS655_WbvRQwcQARXc0mNUyACY796sfUMhrT8_SEgSebP_YM69TAbOzXtiz25nQfLw7bk1dFLSk7xKxAaAmij_9jLclBnVJLnbxiMgxGwX-yUG_C3-GaVwtnyqnyOXq5So0U=w300-h400" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tofino, BC Canada November 2019</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #292929;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhaFTS8kcczB700NCXgxhXVDznAnUt2sIY9pBvdT_chNmICo8cpiazzq7DHKepOgnLYFQ_8JBUKMxKgi5RrmseTpzw45Cjq_2hK00RTMdaZSiMd4f7JYM1SCwf6bchMC5d3F4XX-6RuwM08O7tVc4KoQSlgp7hXzQkgS4e282kf9_ixFc1LeCrMAEo=s4032" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhaFTS8kcczB700NCXgxhXVDznAnUt2sIY9pBvdT_chNmICo8cpiazzq7DHKepOgnLYFQ_8JBUKMxKgi5RrmseTpzw45Cjq_2hK00RTMdaZSiMd4f7JYM1SCwf6bchMC5d3F4XX-6RuwM08O7tVc4KoQSlgp7hXzQkgS4e282kf9_ixFc1LeCrMAEo=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tofino BC, Canada 2019<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Newfoundland, Canada June 2019<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></span><p></p></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFNCgJglFdZq1uN-PwHyTLvJm9wMkH7pHxQ8-74OmnoKBFsuytwaA5-apzvMBPuRByWBInAczqWz20KPV99faEN4JwqFqaZUQY_s_PB1ZGlfi4a--VK7DhbX5q_ixqbFYTTpo04lJD_kSW22u1LgZWDu3o0LWiYXCFjMjV2U1qYtSQCDJ7BdIzOUdn=s3264" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFNCgJglFdZq1uN-PwHyTLvJm9wMkH7pHxQ8-74OmnoKBFsuytwaA5-apzvMBPuRByWBInAczqWz20KPV99faEN4JwqFqaZUQY_s_PB1ZGlfi4a--VK7DhbX5q_ixqbFYTTpo04lJD_kSW22u1LgZWDu3o0LWiYXCFjMjV2U1qYtSQCDJ7BdIzOUdn=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dunskey, Scotland 2019</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhB15Vq7L1up3Zo2nwR_fh1eVPCjUWgJIT06a8BbMqhjko-IqKA91T85acj6Ql0YmFpmqKlvua26MmMmjaicfUsPpQm9S2XhcFMqjdtnyFjQOhRvXy_guvLKTVmpB8sTpDLFw3v-25O0K1ErXK7SrviTPQ6rveRyy4biu2mWaPtib52dGjmahCJATKV=s4896" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhB15Vq7L1up3Zo2nwR_fh1eVPCjUWgJIT06a8BbMqhjko-IqKA91T85acj6Ql0YmFpmqKlvua26MmMmjaicfUsPpQm9S2XhcFMqjdtnyFjQOhRvXy_guvLKTVmpB8sTpDLFw3v-25O0K1ErXK7SrviTPQ6rveRyy4biu2mWaPtib52dGjmahCJATKV=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dunskey Garden, Scotland 2019</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"We travel because we need to, because distance and difference are the secret tonic to creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But everything in our mind has changed and that changes everything."</span></span></i><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Jonah Lehrer </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p></div>Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-79494159610420363182021-11-28T14:35:00.000-08:002021-11-28T14:35:03.185-08:00Am I Too Old to Change? Embracing Life<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXtpKqTU0eZwsLXfBj4K8nsyNirS891MA1K-5M4Tz0a-ApWz5EbsKZFjIdMA3tQ-C0Sg-g_DDhALfanAOXQ0_94M7rmdsMpTsZKm7hZtov3sQdySP0cLdsMtutVad967kvnUUZfzCV3_k/s1280/pexels-miguel-A%25CC%2583%25C2%25A1-padriA%25CC%2583%25C2%25B1A%25CC%2583%25C2%25A1n-1111372-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="851" data-original-width="1280" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXtpKqTU0eZwsLXfBj4K8nsyNirS891MA1K-5M4Tz0a-ApWz5EbsKZFjIdMA3tQ-C0Sg-g_DDhALfanAOXQ0_94M7rmdsMpTsZKm7hZtov3sQdySP0cLdsMtutVad967kvnUUZfzCV3_k/w640-h426/pexels-miguel-A%25CC%2583%25C2%25A1-padriA%25CC%2583%25C2%25B1A%25CC%2583%25C2%25A1n-1111372-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: #e8e8e8; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "segoe ui", roboto, oxygen, cantarell, "helvetica neue", ubuntu, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Photo by </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "segoe ui", roboto, oxygen, cantarell, "helvetica neue", ubuntu, sans-serif; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: start;"><a href="https://www.pexels.com/@padrinan?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Miguel Á. Padriñán</a></span><span style="background-color: #e8e8e8; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "segoe ui", roboto, oxygen, cantarell, "helvetica neue", ubuntu, sans-serif; text-align: start;"> from </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "segoe ui", roboto, oxygen, cantarell, "helvetica neue", ubuntu, sans-serif; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: start;"><a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-bubble-illustration-1111372/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Pexels</a></span></span></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I'm in the process, at last, of working on the book that came to me in a dream seven years ago. It has circled my head all these years, demanding I get at it. It's called:<i> We're Not Done Yet: Coming to Art Later in Life</i>.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK8IZtfX7f55oMAk_yxrWN4XryXPt_u_EV4wwFr8Oefx_5X0kF6bUFjPrVGilFRmMc24ScRRADK2s_Glt1dGPSITSf8d7Z2rTWxonj6Cx1E2nZMB4L3iFinX-Z_XgTyURmqqUGEGXhuwk/s2048/IMG_0461.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK8IZtfX7f55oMAk_yxrWN4XryXPt_u_EV4wwFr8Oefx_5X0kF6bUFjPrVGilFRmMc24ScRRADK2s_Glt1dGPSITSf8d7Z2rTWxonj6Cx1E2nZMB4L3iFinX-Z_XgTyURmqqUGEGXhuwk/w400-h300/IMG_0461.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> It has actually hung in the air a couple of feet behind my head, attached by a string like a helium balloon, like a cartoon cloud, waiting for me to get to it. Some of you will know of it because I posted a request on Facebook in 2019 asking for artists who have come to art later in life to reply to me if they'd like to answer a questionnaire. I received 168 responses plus earlier interviews I did before the put out the questionnaire. There was some overlap, and some didn't respond after they'd offered to. All in all, I received 128 responses. </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">By a huge majority it was women who responded to my questionnaire. </span></p></span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig3eMn6kAaZdV_nPfmi4Eg1CMaNnJ9yIPmWhq5Q92I2p0TfaVJhF_EfMcRTIsre0W4OFCnpRQPUfDDffCdqnYSe3oXnYJ_V7TcX4G2uId5kmG-iTSdBem8LoxYQ-Y6UcbrQcAEL386t5k/s940/Share+Your+Story.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="940" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig3eMn6kAaZdV_nPfmi4Eg1CMaNnJ9yIPmWhq5Q92I2p0TfaVJhF_EfMcRTIsre0W4OFCnpRQPUfDDffCdqnYSe3oXnYJ_V7TcX4G2uId5kmG-iTSdBem8LoxYQ-Y6UcbrQcAEL386t5k/w400-h335/Share+Your+Story.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #292929;">By the time we get into our 60's we bring a rich life experience to our work: most have been married once or maybe 4 times, raised children who are now grown and are grandparents. Many cared </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">for ailing parents when they were dying. </span><span style="color: #292929; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Most had long and successful careers as Urban Planner, or Social Worker, or medical Doctor, or a Christmas Tree farmer. One artist owned her own boat and worked as a gill net salmon fisher. They bring the wealth of years of learning and life to their art. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929;">One thing about getting older is that there is a clear awareness that time is limited. I could tell myself when I was 50 that I was only half way through my life. Not now! Barbara, one of the women in a workshop I taught, worried that at this age, she was too old to change her subject matter in her painting. My own feeling is, why not spend the time left doing <b>exactly </b>what you want to do? Why not change? Why not let the work lead you to new worlds, new ways of seeing? We don't stop growing when we turn 50 or 65 or 92.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929;">I had a woman in the same class named Dorothy<b> </b>Wilde<b> </b>who was 92 at the time. She came into the art class on a walker. Dorothy had been a very creative, playful and successful ceramicist for 40 years or more. As her strength faded, she gave up ceramics and took up printmaking. Here she was, in my painting class, delightedly learning another new skill. Dorothy was not at all afraid to play and experiment. She wasn't worried about making a product, about having an end result. She was there for the sheer enjoyment of making art. Her joy and playful abandon spread throughout the class.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929;">Barbara decided to let go of trying to control the work, trying to keep it within the boundaries it had previously been confined within. Easy to try to control it. Difficult to surrender those boundaries. Inspired by Dorothy, in this class, Barbara went on to do some amazingly free work.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929;">Creative successes late in life:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929;">Although Canadian artist,<b> </b>Doris McCarthy began painting when she was young, it wasn't until she retired from teaching at 65 that her career began to take off. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a BA when she was 75, published her first memoir at 80, and the second 2 years later. She kept painting and having solo exhibitions until she was 95.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929;">Louise Nevelson was in her 50's when she sold her work to three New York City museums and now her art can be seen internationally in over eighty public collections. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929;">Laura Ingalls Wilder</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929;"> wrote about her family's life in the 1870's and 80's in the acclaimed, "The Little House on the Prairie" series of books for children, publishing her first book at the age of 65. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929;">I loved reading the book called, " The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany (begins her life's work) at 72", by Molly Peacock. At the age of 72, Mary Delany created a new art form; mixed-media collage and in the span of 10 years, she went on to create 985 botanically correct, cut-paper flowers, now at the British Museum.</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929;" /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929;">My friend Marg Howe was a psychologist who published her first book at 100, a memoir of life as a recruiting psychologist in WW II. Her second book was published at 102, the story of life as a travelling psychologist in Ontario in the 50s and 60s.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” ~Henry David Thoreau</i></span></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px 1.5rem 4rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"> </span></ul>Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-66329870690465294172021-07-06T13:35:00.001-07:002021-07-06T13:35:46.523-07:00Living with Creative Cycles<p><br /></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1cGSZpPgU5iD5OnJXAuBfRJh9ZuYUNqNVhi0P-A8hMLnMgLuwBsrhLrqmVuDdCtE9pxs7i4y-K3pzKGGV1OAS_VPm-s6-_0WikfCnS2WKSkcFxAuphzL5B_XPTEy1BEYgiv3CCmjV-Zs/s2048/IMG_9723+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2045" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1cGSZpPgU5iD5OnJXAuBfRJh9ZuYUNqNVhi0P-A8hMLnMgLuwBsrhLrqmVuDdCtE9pxs7i4y-K3pzKGGV1OAS_VPm-s6-_0WikfCnS2WKSkcFxAuphzL5B_XPTEy1BEYgiv3CCmjV-Zs/w400-h400/IMG_9723+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">The blank panel</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I barely painted all of 2020. I could feel the anxiety and fear of Covid in the air all around us as well as the violence and the political unrest. The uncertainty. The confusion. Some artists were able to block it all out and paint prolifically. I could barely get into my studio. I felt so stuck. I tried making myself....."just go into the studio for an hour ..........just clean it up..........paint small..........play". All the advice I give my students. Nothing worked. I found creativity though through teaching workshops.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTIckMgpryoBBn0Q7FwXfbVqk6r2OATvat4Ub1AUu3lvULky2WsAM_NVV_FCRPX86HYu1v4oYzSi-3qrREZY-GvCz_YLdeYxWgShZzP_0qQt13o9gtbzM7zSpRtZcY0YKc74icX1w9nt8/s2048/IMG_9665+2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1434" data-original-width="2048" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTIckMgpryoBBn0Q7FwXfbVqk6r2OATvat4Ub1AUu3lvULky2WsAM_NVV_FCRPX86HYu1v4oYzSi-3qrREZY-GvCz_YLdeYxWgShZzP_0qQt13o9gtbzM7zSpRtZcY0YKc74icX1w9nt8/w400-h280/IMG_9665+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2020, I translated my Workshops in Wild Places travel workshops into Stays Home workshops and taught them on Zoom. In those workshops, I suggested nature connection exercises to artists from all over North America and as far away as Australia. It occurred to me that one small contribution I could make to honour the earth is to teach nature-based painting workshops, where artists connect with nature where they live; the backyard or a nearby park or hiking trail. The experiences are then translated into abstract paintings for which we have group feedback sessions. These classes have been particularly exciting and inspiring to me. With being housebound and living in the country, I've spent much more time in the woods behind my house than I have ever done. I appreciate them more. I need them for my well-being.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7OasB7-tmqU3E3GqpjD6Rq7hEtEzown7F-GZl5jci63Yy4pebpBClFUoWRfeBwRD_U90VS-oe3J7hdcxgokSZtKBP2Zs-LrEwQ8qDcyI2aarD78aqPGMZ-ge0aIMCQiufXGUH08QhQBc/s2048/IMG_9619.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7OasB7-tmqU3E3GqpjD6Rq7hEtEzown7F-GZl5jci63Yy4pebpBClFUoWRfeBwRD_U90VS-oe3J7hdcxgokSZtKBP2Zs-LrEwQ8qDcyI2aarD78aqPGMZ-ge0aIMCQiufXGUH08QhQBc/w400-h300/IMG_9619.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> "We Are Made for These Times" says Clarissa Pinkola Estes in an article in</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><a href="http://moonmagazine.org/clarissa-pinkola-estes-do-not-lose-heart-we-were-made-for-these-times-2016-12-31/" style="font-family: arial;">Moon Magazine </a><span style="font-family: arial;"> Originally published in 2001, and again in 2016, the words are just as, if not more powerful than they were earlier."Ours" she says, "is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: arial;">but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach".</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">T</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: arial;">he year turned eventually into 2021, and vaccines began rolling out, and I had an upcoming exhibition prompting me to get into the studio. I was beginning to relax slightly and by February, ideas for paintings </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: arial;">began</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: arial;"> to come to me. I love how that happens. The process is part effort, and the bigger part is mystery. Where do ideas come from? How can we open to ideas for our painting?</span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMu9KAipIyjRFO7FlAgMNrX8HNEP2H7uttI7VXuYLZLaYIQUOMUKsAd7c4eNkdQvM1X1eRRygsWz4MR0uf40w-uVWZQVTTCJY0NixXqgeOeIwexORe0ORM-7GOY9c3MojMwEwd_uqwbd8/s2048/IMG_9656.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMu9KAipIyjRFO7FlAgMNrX8HNEP2H7uttI7VXuYLZLaYIQUOMUKsAd7c4eNkdQvM1X1eRRygsWz4MR0uf40w-uVWZQVTTCJY0NixXqgeOeIwexORe0ORM-7GOY9c3MojMwEwd_uqwbd8/w400-h300/IMG_9656.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><h1 class="quoteText" style="line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“There are things you can’t reach. But</span></i></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">You can reach out to them, and all day long.</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-size: medium; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-size: medium; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;">The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of god.</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-size: medium; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;">And it can keep you busy as anything else, and happier.</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-size: medium; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;">I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-size: medium; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;">Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As though with your arms open.” </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> M</span><span style="font-family: arial;">ary Oliver</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYNvMRGwcrCgkbmbW7SgizaEHsACJniFy4oESJz0KQuAfaAF6kDVmsPGiiO1BZx-9mG7BHusbIry0INDwunntay4hxfL2aAIpWqoGDTVQFQVYEgn3w6Z9r7Ac0Na00srGY0RL5-LLd5Fg/s2048/joshua-earle-9idqIGrLuTE-unsplash.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1321" data-original-width="2048" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYNvMRGwcrCgkbmbW7SgizaEHsACJniFy4oESJz0KQuAfaAF6kDVmsPGiiO1BZx-9mG7BHusbIry0INDwunntay4hxfL2aAIpWqoGDTVQFQVYEgn3w6Z9r7Ac0Na00srGY0RL5-LLd5Fg/w400-h258/joshua-earle-9idqIGrLuTE-unsplash.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div></span></span></h1><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"Standing around as though with your arms open". Open to ideas, to inspiration, to the wonder of nature, of life. Although there are well known artists from all fields (mostly men) who write about their process, and talk about never being blocked, I wonder how much of that is a masculine thing, a society thing.....always needing to be productive, never stopping for a break or a rest, working long hours. I believe if we're sensitive to it, that work comes and goes in cycles. I can feel when a body of work is about to end. The energy goes from it and if I try to hold onto the series, like trying to grasp a kite that has flown free, there is something missing from the resulting work. I find the best answer is to let it go, to surrender to the cycle. I seem to handle that best by doing a lot of meditative walking in nature, or reading, teaching art workshops on zoom, or searching for remote locations for Workshops in Wild Places when travel restrictions are finally lifted.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Stephen King says: <i> <span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;">“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”</span></i></span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h1 class="quoteText" style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: ghostwhite; caret-color: rgb(60, 61, 67); font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px;">Jack London says:</span><span style="background-color: ghostwhite; caret-color: rgb(60, 61, 67); font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px;"> "Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.” </span></span></h1><h1 class="quoteText" style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span><span style="background-color: ghostwhite; caret-color: rgb(60, 61, 67); font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px;">Sort of a caveman-like approach to gathering ideas.</span></span></h1><div><span><span style="background-color: ghostwhite; caret-color: rgb(60, 61, 67); font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal;">Agnes Martin talked about waiting for 'inspiration'. Sometimes she had to wait for months.</span></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: ghostwhite; caret-color: rgb(60, 61, 67); color: #3c3d43; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: ghostwhite; caret-color: rgb(60, 61, 67); color: #3c3d43; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); letter-spacing: 0.4000000059604645px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaqFGtBDvicJNa8Z-9xekWmKg5KsStMLWbTNp0ybrhEV9QDsuxnPD8uOyWf6pyvkovRIwq7X6_pi9T0wzXv7Vyx0tPBWnzwDDBO0BFz8kK0l9vYvTOcHAaH00VqQl4i-3nRlXIlzr3Pco/s2048/IMG_9600+3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2025" data-original-width="2048" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaqFGtBDvicJNa8Z-9xekWmKg5KsStMLWbTNp0ybrhEV9QDsuxnPD8uOyWf6pyvkovRIwq7X6_pi9T0wzXv7Vyx0tPBWnzwDDBO0BFz8kK0l9vYvTOcHAaH00VqQl4i-3nRlXIlzr3Pco/w400-h395/IMG_9600+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); letter-spacing: 0.4000000059604645px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); letter-spacing: 0.4000000059604645px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Earth Poem: Dreaming Oil on panel 36x36" © 2021 Janice Mason Steeves</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); letter-spacing: 0.4000000059604645px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); letter-spacing: 0.4000000059604645px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like the cycles of the seasons and any natural cycle of growth, which creativity surely is, it goes through many phases, from inception and gestation, to birth, growth, decline, release, death and rebirth. There's a timing for all the phases; the expansion (inhalation), contraction (exhalation) and the beautiful pause between. When people are lamenting their creative blocks they are usually referring to these times when the process needs to rest, to replenish, to gestate- so much creative work is done when externally it seems like nothing is happening. During Covid this past year though, I found that it was the anxiety, the fear in the air that blocked me. </span><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); letter-spacing: 0.4000000059604645px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">As the year has progressed and through that gestation time, my work took on a new form, flowing with the rhythms of the earth, the cycles, capturing a meditative quality, floating free from restrictions.</p><p style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); letter-spacing: 0.4000000059604645px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjElqNke5fGU30mq15kBObR5SpYKkp86TXET3J4zdGy8-r5BP_GPsZg9X473RVyqVEph3OwefC0WFUHw8ZWYXUhwAiIJ8KGioEwmjBAxbyVeOHla4DMrFsAiEAcw0WV3w_E4QdUtvDZLq0/s2048/Earth+Poem-Breath.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2035" data-original-width="2048" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjElqNke5fGU30mq15kBObR5SpYKkp86TXET3J4zdGy8-r5BP_GPsZg9X473RVyqVEph3OwefC0WFUHw8ZWYXUhwAiIJ8KGioEwmjBAxbyVeOHla4DMrFsAiEAcw0WV3w_E4QdUtvDZLq0/w400-h398/Earth+Poem-Breath.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Earth Poem: Breath 36x36" Oil on panel © 2021 Janice Mason Steeves</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Can you relax into waiting,</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Giving yourself permission to sit quietly,</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">To walk in the woods,</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">To trust this liminal time<span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: 0.4000000059604645px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ,</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: 0.4000000059604645px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: 0.4000000059604645px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">This time of death and rebirth?</span></div></div></span></div><p></p><p><br /></p><br /><br /><br />Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-36867226924247629672021-03-30T13:46:00.000-07:002021-03-30T13:46:46.363-07:00 Liminal Time<span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBw4g4aZ4I1AHZYTHtbBFl_u-Mpq6SGQJBzeOU6zP4ulwHsQl34RCOVsBcbw5Wr8UU2TrIzEQ1CXosp3IZbFv7uAJ-3d7wOp6355Hfgzn0R-uCB19ys8C4IDtYphEfauQhxaK3ziaW3Ww/s2048/P1090187.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBw4g4aZ4I1AHZYTHtbBFl_u-Mpq6SGQJBzeOU6zP4ulwHsQl34RCOVsBcbw5Wr8UU2TrIzEQ1CXosp3IZbFv7uAJ-3d7wOp6355Hfgzn0R-uCB19ys8C4IDtYphEfauQhxaK3ziaW3Ww/w640-h480/P1090187.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> The word liminal comes from the Latin, limen meaning threshold. an in-between place, a place of transition, a time of waiting and not knowing. Dawn and dusk are considered liminal places. Crepuscular animals, like foxes and coyotes are most active at this time of day, a time that is considered a magical time in Celtic spirituality and to Indigenous people which is perhaps the origin of their designation as tricksters. </span></span><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span> As I write this, the northern hemisphere has just passed the vernal equinox, where day and night are of equal length.We are in a liminal space between winter and spring right now, unsure if we will have one more storm or snowfall before spring finally settles in. We're also in a liminal place as we live </span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial;">through this pandemic with the</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> anxiety and discomfort of not knowing. A</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> time of great transition for the entire world, wondering what we've learned from this and what lessons we'll carry forward.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBL8wIM-C3FUY4QpfiSkdRFWz-4R-H3VK6vklNft2tjWibihmBDKnZ0kzs9LhCMlAo9jaRMaQfyQcruQev4Y6lrZzPeajs2YvGWG6oQZmMCs4zCLUIWeMApO09QykWnfVYmvhkWDyGwgo/s2048/IMG_9217.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBL8wIM-C3FUY4QpfiSkdRFWz-4R-H3VK6vklNft2tjWibihmBDKnZ0kzs9LhCMlAo9jaRMaQfyQcruQev4Y6lrZzPeajs2YvGWG6oQZmMCs4zCLUIWeMApO09QykWnfVYmvhkWDyGwgo/w400-h300/IMG_9217.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Author and Franciscan friar Richard Rohr describes liminal space as; "where we are betwixt and between the familiar and completely unknown. There alone is our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence. That's a good space where genuine newness can begin." He advises us to, "Get there often and stay as long as you can by whatever means possible...This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, and a bigger world is revealed". In another article he describes liminality, "as</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(58, 58, 58); color: #3a3a3a; font-family: arial;"> a form of holding the tension between one space and another. It is in these transitional moments of our lives that authentic transformation can happen.”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">When artists decide to stretch themselves by taking a workshop or exploring new ways of working, they move into a liminal space, a space of not knowing. It can be a very difficult and frustrating place, wondering where to go and looking for direction. It happens to me fairly frequently when one series of work ends and another is growing inside me. It's an uncomfortable and challenging place to be, sitting in the unknown. I try to make that time shorter by playing in my studio: working small, experimenting with various materials, exploring new ways of working. I'm not sure though whether playing and trying to force something to come is the way. Maybe there is a time to rest, maybe there is a rhythm, a cycle to the work that cannot be rushed. In the documentary, With My Back to the World, Agnes Martin, an American artist who bridged the gap between Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism spoke about receiving 'visions' for each painting. She felt it was rather like a directive from a higher power, showing her what she was to paint next. Martin surrendered to the visions painting each one precisely following the details of the vision. And when each was finished, she would patiently wait for another vision to guide her, trusting that she would receive more.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Wvel3kjvR12JRfxiIeTAFygiifNDq4bBz8KkkZS-4rsAzQ4W8Fxlh3IoOYagF8fCTtI39XhTJphSyNyqRK58UR-yNwbZl2gpb7hcjphoshgUbGjvN5sRIdpdGLMklNIB-ggjx7bv55E/s2048/IMG_9173.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1549" data-original-width="2048" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Wvel3kjvR12JRfxiIeTAFygiifNDq4bBz8KkkZS-4rsAzQ4W8Fxlh3IoOYagF8fCTtI39XhTJphSyNyqRK58UR-yNwbZl2gpb7hcjphoshgUbGjvN5sRIdpdGLMklNIB-ggjx7bv55E/w400-h303/IMG_9173.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Earth Poem: Soft 36x48" Oil on panel ©2021 Janice Mason Steeves</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">My ideas when they finally come, form as pictures in my mind that are vague and unformed. While they give me a starting place though, something to work toward, they seem to change as I move along. The best response to liminality, I think, lies in trust.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(58, 58, 58); color: #3a3a3a; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">I imagine that there is also a liminal space between human and plant.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(58, 58, 58); color: #3a3a3a; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; line-height: 28.899999618530273px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; text-align: center;">How I go to the Woods by Mary Oliver</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; line-height: 28.899999618530273px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;"></p><div style="text-align: center;">Ordinarily, I go to the woods alone, with not a single</div><div style="text-align: center;">friend, for they are all smilers and talkers and therefore</div><div style="text-align: center;">unsuitable.</div><p></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; line-height: 28.899999618530273px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;"></p><div style="text-align: center;">I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds</div><div style="text-align: center;">or hugging the old black oak tree. I have my way of</div><div style="text-align: center;">praying, as you no doubt have yours.</div><p></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; line-height: 28.899999618530273px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;"></p><div style="text-align: center;">Besides, when I am alone I can become invisible. I can sit</div><div style="text-align: center;">on the top of a dune as motionless as an uprise of weeds,</div><div style="text-align: center;">until the foxes run by unconcerned. I can hear the almost</div><div style="text-align: center;">unhearable sound of the roses singing.</div><p></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; line-height: 28.899999618530273px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;"></p><div style="text-align: center;">If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love</div><div style="text-align: center;">you very much.</div><p></p></span></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"> </span></p></div></div></div>Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-26195048661599691432021-02-08T03:24:00.000-08:002021-02-08T03:24:53.923-08:00An Awe Walk<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAbJ2Ngh0X_NCrmAKVuZWe4lIuN8NyI0J9NZgsyQBeiQOlxoF-PYALnO33kIn8bAk8aap_txr-4T1xys8xcnyJsjzd5Gw2QHT5WEnYBIzKXuFgpOdxlYbxXbpL4dAFQczFeLT1WzxJokc/s2048/IMG_9021.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAbJ2Ngh0X_NCrmAKVuZWe4lIuN8NyI0J9NZgsyQBeiQOlxoF-PYALnO33kIn8bAk8aap_txr-4T1xys8xcnyJsjzd5Gw2QHT5WEnYBIzKXuFgpOdxlYbxXbpL4dAFQczFeLT1WzxJokc/w480-h640/IMG_9021.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Last January I published a blog post I called <a href="https://janicemasonsteevesartwork.blogspot.com/2020/01/exploring-awe-in-life-and-art.html">Exploring Awe in Art and Life</a>. I wrote about travelling to Tofino, BC where I taught a Workshops in Wild Places class. While exploring the area, we met an incredible 1000-year-old red cedar tree. This year with Covid-19 and not being able to travel, experiences of awe are different. Instead of standing next to giant red cedar trees in the British Columbia rainforest or looking out over the moody Scottish landscape with its broad, inspiring vistas or watching powerful icebergs float down Iceberg Alley in Newfoundland, I look for awe much closer to home, in more ordinary places, like the forest behind my home.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPawFWZsPZCDdFasN-PDrQ_Yqe_I2aSTLLjxYaOx90WecRA-hkeTn944bWhNiFNZAvXJCVj_7eM8PJezFW0kVtfGB_KMssuXP9iDIjGnEy4Qz9J_ILaa3i8RqOdJQ_iy1rBhBK9dyOBbI/s2048/IMG_8835.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPawFWZsPZCDdFasN-PDrQ_Yqe_I2aSTLLjxYaOx90WecRA-hkeTn944bWhNiFNZAvXJCVj_7eM8PJezFW0kVtfGB_KMssuXP9iDIjGnEy4Qz9J_ILaa3i8RqOdJQ_iy1rBhBK9dyOBbI/w640-h480/IMG_8835.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In my current zoom workshop, Workshops in Wild Places Stays Home, I talked to the artists about having the intention to find awe in the land each time they go outside. If we look for the experience of awe, of course we find it. It's what I try to do. Sometimes of course, I am deep in thought as I enter the forest, or I'm pondering a problem or a worry and see nothing but the small track I have created over the years with my footsteps. But if I hold the intention of seeing awe, the same walk becomes a magical experience. I come away from the forest filled with gratitude. My heart feels larger.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYYcLiTMo0anoz2jDS-xmBusUCEv3gftijAxpxat8T-kJR2gvZYI6CtwouT_tUENuWi31srQt4ODDPBCE2xj_Au5w21Mly6yqPFlpErJDCgIZ0O9idg-bLin4RlwuRROHsuwMsTNrgJY/s2048/IMG_9025.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYYcLiTMo0anoz2jDS-xmBusUCEv3gftijAxpxat8T-kJR2gvZYI6CtwouT_tUENuWi31srQt4ODDPBCE2xj_Au5w21Mly6yqPFlpErJDCgIZ0O9idg-bLin4RlwuRROHsuwMsTNrgJY/w300-h400/IMG_9025.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">As mythologist Joseph Campbell once remarked</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> "awe is what moves us forward." He cited awe as a primary driver in the creation of mythology: the overwhelming sensation that you're part of something grand.</span></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg3M78-II0BfEDg1SFDnenE5_WmVeGes2TH6iZPVbCkd8zmZtF7Ld7FG2Z-yOCHUatTPaoGkwJyyvxFdIIRcODT1HFM6z3z1qblu5e-IfrnCf3WJOFel2UqXM3vkphWJB5CGVaK8bJTno/s2048/IMG_9026.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg3M78-II0BfEDg1SFDnenE5_WmVeGes2TH6iZPVbCkd8zmZtF7Ld7FG2Z-yOCHUatTPaoGkwJyyvxFdIIRcODT1HFM6z3z1qblu5e-IfrnCf3WJOFel2UqXM3vkphWJB5CGVaK8bJTno/w640-h480/IMG_9026.JPG" width="640" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; caret-color: rgb(6, 3, 36); color: #060324; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-size: medium;">A new study published on September 21, 2020 in the journal <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Femo0000876">Emotion</a>, found that "a regular dose of awe reduces your stress and boosts your mental health. In the study, 60 older adults took weekly 15 minute awe walks for eight weeks. Half of the participants was randomly assigned to a simple walk group. The other half was placed in an awe walk group, in which researchers described the emotion of awe and suggested the walkers try to experience that emotion as they strolled. Answers to open-ended survey questions reflected awe walk participants' growing sense of wonder and appreciation for the details of the world around them. In contrast, participants from the control group tended to be more inwardly focused. The researchers also asked participants to take selfies at the beginning, middle and end of each walk". What I found really interesting was that "analysis of these photos revealed a parallel, visible shift in how participants portrayed themselves. The awe group increasingly made themselves smaller in their photos over the course of the study, preferring to feature the landscapes around them".</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; caret-color: rgb(6, 3, 36); color: #060324; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">"One of the key features of awe is that it promotes what we call 'small self', a healthy dose of proportion between your own self and the bigger picture of the world around you," explained Dr. Virginia Sturm, lead investigator from the University of California. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="HelveticaNeueLTW04-45Light, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #052049; letter-spacing: 0.2px;">“Negative emotions, particularly loneliness, have well-documented negative effects on the health of older adults, particularly those over age 75."</span><span face="HelveticaNeueLTW04-45Light, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #052049; letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> She goes on to say, “What we show here is that a very simple intervention – essentially a reminder to occasionally shift our energy and attention outward instead of inward – can lead to significant improvements in emotional well-being.”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This morning after I read this article, I sat down near my wood stove to join my online meditation group. I looked out the windows onto the snowy forest. Amazingly I saw 2 red foxes walk past, not 20 ft. from my windows. What a gift! I often see fox tracks but rarely a fox. And I've never seen 2 together. When we turn outward, open ourselves up and become receptive vessels, the world gives us gifts.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-size: large; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizky2ZxBMqdvbTV4IUqPXs9vrrSI_PYBcTEiI-97w7X9YRpzsmgvtoMbEklPIMdciQhk5t8C5VqXA1YUMBkqI-DbDMH3tbPfhxV_oDbdNZLit_2lOEHw7IMoN7SsND27ik2tEsdxAdRRw/s2048/IMG_9038.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1624" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizky2ZxBMqdvbTV4IUqPXs9vrrSI_PYBcTEiI-97w7X9YRpzsmgvtoMbEklPIMdciQhk5t8C5VqXA1YUMBkqI-DbDMH3tbPfhxV_oDbdNZLit_2lOEHw7IMoN7SsND27ik2tEsdxAdRRw/w318-h400/IMG_9038.jpg" width="318" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The second red fox walking through the woods behind my house.<br />I wasn't ready when the first fox passed by!</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">It's a beautiful thing to think that while Covid-19 still has it's long arms wrapped tightly around the world that there is a way we can still find awe and joy and gratitude. Go for some awe walks. Be aweful!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"I<i>'ve been referred to as odd before. Nowadays, I prefer to refer to myself as 'awed'. I want awe to be the greatest ongoing relationship in my life. I want to move through my days floored by the magnificence and generosity of my Creator. The breaking of a day, the silence between words, the light emanating from a real conversation, and kindness, truth, love and the apparently random hand of grace: I want to remain gobsmacked by all of it. Rendered speechless by wonder, I await the next unfolding. Peace, friends. Be awed today."</i> Richard Wagamese from the book Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-26956283056624060942020-11-23T12:19:00.001-08:002020-11-27T12:20:19.597-08:00Art and Listening<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> My daughter, <a href="http://jenmasonconsulting.ca">Jen Mason</a>, has recently completed her PhD and in an article she's writing, she discusses how self-expression is an important topic in school and in life. We're taught how to write persuasively, how to speak convincingly and how to argue effectively. Mainly, it's loudest one that gets the attention. How much time do we spend learning how to listen? She goes on to say, "Listening is an internal process and like expression, it is a skill that needs to be developed." Who listens?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In my Workshops in Wild Places workshops and in my Stays Home zoom workshops, I try to address not only self-expression through painting, but also how to listen. We're taught self-expression in painting: how to find your personal voice.Because my current workshops are about creating an intimate relationship with Nature and using this relationship as a point of reference for creativity, it's important to learn to listen to nature, not only her sounds, but also to open yourself up to listen with your heart.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJ3CaaEfKIVVUWbfZGXym_c1N45YRLVHFcyp5dHr14jPSZBYdAXAQpJZIn2Bzf2NxpgneusY7kpvEhbo-dly0NvoEehm35dHVMwWpegWVpJ1loYQgnoNOGowW9bOt_aFpE3tUS5G-iYo/s2048/pexels-simon-migaj-747964.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1293" data-original-width="2048" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJ3CaaEfKIVVUWbfZGXym_c1N45YRLVHFcyp5dHr14jPSZBYdAXAQpJZIn2Bzf2NxpgneusY7kpvEhbo-dly0NvoEehm35dHVMwWpegWVpJ1loYQgnoNOGowW9bOt_aFpE3tUS5G-iYo/w400-h253/pexels-simon-migaj-747964.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo courtesy Simon Migaj<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I wrote a blog post about the <a href="https://janicemasonsteevesartwork.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-importance-of-silence-in-art.html">Importance of Silence in Art </a>several years ago. I compared the idea of silence in writing, in poetry and painting. What I suggest is that as an artist, you not only consider silence in your art, but that you listen to your paintings in the same open way you would to nature, with your senses, and with your body, not with your ears or your head. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkOUNrGY0IkL1DZobY2BtIfMZlfH97nqZncZ_2oZaBsbFqoCmBXXL4tCnxCl3X2AjgIRzXP_BMlGwtsJx88MNjx2MtW8LD-KpGUiSnZzM2OMCLYDXW7W8PykcCrKfdHwjmIwU8yFeg2_g/s2048/Earth+Poem-Twilight.+48x48%2522+Oil+on+Canvasjpeg.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2026" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkOUNrGY0IkL1DZobY2BtIfMZlfH97nqZncZ_2oZaBsbFqoCmBXXL4tCnxCl3X2AjgIRzXP_BMlGwtsJx88MNjx2MtW8LD-KpGUiSnZzM2OMCLYDXW7W8PykcCrKfdHwjmIwU8yFeg2_g/w396-h400/Earth+Poem-Twilight.+48x48%2522+Oil+on+Canvasjpeg.jpeg" width="396" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Earth Poem: Twilight 48x48" Oil on panel ©2020 Janice Mason Steeve</span>s</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I find that many artists, after they've been working on a painting for a few hours, adding paint on and taking it off, making marks and adding in line, start getting tired. And when they do, instead of stopping where they are and taking a break, they figure their work needs something more. They're not looking at their composition which has been scraped off a hundred times, until mostly what's left is all over grey. No shape. No value contrast. They figure that the painting needs more: more texture, more line. More. But what it needs is someone who will listen to it. It would have liked the artist to stop waaaay before now.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtJW4-7CRJPCtyvEeQZvVjCrfLWllJO0tIsd5ca2LE8vBXH8D6ownWStWh2YBW2vZ4DP_UD-G9wx4uNTOFjKQgfWEJ_0IPP-voHEKmyh50V38Dwri7h5t3IeKXD6h6deouH3wp_W1UWzs/s2896/IMG_6737.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1086" data-original-width="2896" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtJW4-7CRJPCtyvEeQZvVjCrfLWllJO0tIsd5ca2LE8vBXH8D6ownWStWh2YBW2vZ4DP_UD-G9wx4uNTOFjKQgfWEJ_0IPP-voHEKmyh50V38Dwri7h5t3IeKXD6h6deouH3wp_W1UWzs/w400-h150/IMG_6737.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Earth Poems</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Instead of trying to control the painting, it's important to work WITH the painting. It's a dialogue.I wrote about this in a blog post, called<a href="https://janicemasonsteevesartwork.blogspot.com/2014/11/shhh-listen-to-painting.html"> Shhh-Listen to the Painting.</a> In that article, I said that the painting taught me to listen, to get myself out of the way, to let go of expectations and make room for something greater than myself to enter. That's when magic happens.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimUsRl1Uafiw1l_R8ycxhGNsSeJRLoh5FiGiLFXl7BqXShD7K4Z-nM3xiOD4_sbKJOeH7jvXypv4E5wPuHZbiM9vXHcN0m4saFCiourfCoBczmZIYGgAz1POAYfH7lRQxpbf7Ifqs0da0/s2048/IMG_8408+2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimUsRl1Uafiw1l_R8ycxhGNsSeJRLoh5FiGiLFXl7BqXShD7K4Z-nM3xiOD4_sbKJOeH7jvXypv4E5wPuHZbiM9vXHcN0m4saFCiourfCoBczmZIYGgAz1POAYfH7lRQxpbf7Ifqs0da0/w300-h400/IMG_8408+2.JPG" width="300" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>"I want to listen deeply enough that I hear everything and nothing at the same time and am made more by the enduring quality of my silence. I want to question deeply enough that I am made more not by the answers so much as my desire to continue asking questions. I want to speak deeply enough that I am made more by the articulation of my truth shifting into the day's shape. In this way, listening, pondering and sharing become my connection to the oneness of life, and there is no longer any part of me in exile."</i> Richard Wagamese Embers</span></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><br /></p>Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-12996648455711905312020-07-28T12:41:00.000-07:002020-07-30T12:47:37.078-07:00Creativity and Conversations with Nature.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-style: normal;">An article in <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2062221/new-science-creative-brain-nature"><span style="color: magenta;">Outside</span></a>, cites neuroscientist David Strayer’s<a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2062221/new-science-creative-brain-nature"> </a>research which has shown that our "prefrontal cortex is less active when we’re out in a natural environment. </span></em><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the prefrontal cortex quiets down, the brain’s default mode network kicks in. Think of it as the imagination network: it’s activated when we’re not focusing on anything specific, and instead are allowing the mind to idly wander or to dip into our deep storehouse of memories, ideas, and emotions. W</span><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-style: normal;">hen the ‘imagination network’ kicks in, sudden flashes of creative insight come to you.</span></em><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are loads of benefits humans receive from nature. But what about a 2-way communication with the natural world?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><span style="font-style: normal;">In an article entitled<a href="https://gratefulness.org/resource/learning-the-language-of-nature/"> <span style="color: #ff33ff;">Learning the Language of Nature</span><span style="color: purple;">,</span></a> the author, Timothy Seekings describes an essay called <a href="https://gratefulness.org/resource/dsr-common-sense/"><span style="color: magenta;">Spirituality as Common Sense</span></a>, written by Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk. "In Steindl-Rast's view, common sense does not refer to rational thinking and problem solving in practical matters. Rather, it is comparable to the basic human senses such as sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, which allow us to connect to the world around us.</span></em></span></div>
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<em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Senses are not exclusive to humans either. All life connects to the surrounding world, and Steindl-Rast suggests that it does so through the common sense. </span></em><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">As humans, we experience this common sense when we connect with animals, trees, or other living beings and experience moments of affinity and deep connectedness.</span></em></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What if life has a common language? We know that all life shares a common code: DNA and RNA. But what if life has a common language of the senses, not a language based on a system of semiotics, but one based on a common sense, a language that we can understand in principle, perhaps through feeling?"<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d2c2a;">“The task is clear" says Seekings. "We have to become multilingual, and that means learning the lingua franca of the living planet. In the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene" style="color: purple;" target="_blank"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none; color: #2d2c2a; padding: 0cm;">Anthropocene</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #2d2c2a;">, our most pressing concern is to be able to hear and understand what she has to say, because we have been ignoring her messages for too long.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d2c2a;">Can we learn this lingua franca, gather together those feelings and sensations that we experience in nature and create abstract paintings from those experiences? We'll explore that in my upcoming workshop, <b>Workshops in Wild Places Stays Home: </b></span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Create abstract paintings from a deep connection with wild nature where you live. </b>Please join me. For details and pricing, go to:<a href="https://janicemasonsteeves.com/workshop.html"> <span style="color: magenta;">janicemasonsteeves.com</span></a></span></span></div>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-48979512753292440272020-06-27T14:27:00.000-07:002020-06-29T07:34:52.819-07:00An Unplugged Home Retreat<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Kindness 9 12x12" Oil on paper © 2020 Janice Mason Steeves</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I scheduled a wonderful retreat week for myself the week before last. It was a quiet week with long unscheduled days, days that stretch out before you like the vastness of the prairies where I grew up. I'd wake up early, take my dog for a quick walk, have a smoothie and a cup of coffee and settle myself at my studio desk to write in my journal. My desk overlooks a walnut tree and beyond that, a grassy area and a stand of white pines. At times I just stared off into the trees as the wind gently played in the branches. No thoughts. Other times I'd read some passages from my spiritually oriented books, closing my eyes to consider what these readings might mean for me today.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #292929;"><span style="color: #2c2d30;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Solitude is something you choose. Loneliness is imposed on you by others." </i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hara Estroff Marano, Psychology Today</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtWICpx31S0txs-janvNjYSDNR5SZT0SFOKYKRRhU-F7oipD3an5LwM9QX46PV09jAqo2oqgOlrGIOhOzmBTK40CFdjMlUK7KEhTKAnMLce8VW5hde7vnlCxOCq1jq64tiIHZNxWdBRs4/s1600/JPEG+image-EC87C0CC00DE-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1568" data-original-width="1600" height="391" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtWICpx31S0txs-janvNjYSDNR5SZT0SFOKYKRRhU-F7oipD3an5LwM9QX46PV09jAqo2oqgOlrGIOhOzmBTK40CFdjMlUK7KEhTKAnMLce8VW5hde7vnlCxOCq1jq64tiIHZNxWdBRs4/s400/JPEG+image-EC87C0CC00DE-1.jpeg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Kindness 8 12x12" Oil on paper © 2020 Janice Mason Steeves</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've done digital detox weeks at home before but then I simply called them Home Retreats. I think my first retreat was in 2010. When I did a second one in 2011 and wrote a <a href="https://janicemasonsteevesartwork.blogspot.com/2011/07/artists-home-retreat.html">blog post </a>about it, <a href="https://artbizsuccess.com/dear-artist/">Alyson Stanfield</a> interviewed me on one of her early podcasts, asking me for details.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929;">To do a home retreat takes a bit of planning (at least in normal life it does ), so you need to schedule a week where you have no appointments or activities. There's less planning when you're in semi-isolation anyway. I made sure to notify my family. Otherwise I just put an 'out of office' notice on my gmail. I had enough groceries, shut down my computer, didn't answer the phone (who phones anymore anyway?) and I hunkered down for a quiet week.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Kindness 3 12x12" Oil on paper ©2020 Janice Mason Steeves</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I loved this retreat. Since I hadn't done an unplugged retreat for a few years, and being much more addicted now to social media and emails, I thought that I would have an agonizing time giving it up. Not so. It was no problem at all. In fact, I was reluctant to have this unplugged retreat end.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As Ester Bucholz wrote in her book, The Call of Solitude, "the need for genuine and constructive aloneness has gotten utterly lost, and, in the process, so have we." Although written in the late 90s, Bucholz's book is even more relevant now as it was then.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Now, more than ever", she writes, "we need our solitude. Being alone gives us the power to regulate and adjust our lives. It can teach us fortitude and the ability to satisfy our own needs. A restorer of energy, the stillness of alone experiences provides us with much-needed rest. It brings forth our longing to explore, our curiosity about the unknown, our will to be an individual, our hopes for freedom. Alone time is fuel for life."</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Kindness 5 12x12" Oil on paper ©2020 Janice Mason Steeves</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #292929; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">In May, I did an online zoom class with Deb Matlock who runs a program called <a href="http://wild-rhythms.com/">Wild Rhythms.</a> Deb held a one-day class called Deep Connections: Exploring Wild Nature in Your Neighbourhood where the participants were encouraged, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929;">after our initial online conversation,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929;"> to go out in nature, and connect with the land. One of the suggestions she made was to make a deep connection with a single being: a rock, tree, flower, creek, ant, etc. It was a powerful exercise which I continued during my retreat week.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Kindness 2 12x12" Oil on paper © 2020 Janice Mason Steeves</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I allowed myself long open-ended days of painting, working quickly and intuitively. The work </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">felt soft and gentle, much the way I felt during this nurturing time. I was searching for some combination of strength and vulnerability. A strong but quiet voice. Simplicity. There were many pieces that didn't turn out and had to be thrown away because I worked so quickly. I accepted that would happen and carried on, without judgment. It was part of the process. Accepting and letting go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I am my silence. I am not the busyness of my thoughts or the daily rhythm of my actions. I am not the stuff that constitutes my world. I am not my talk. I am not my actions. I am my silence. I am the consciousness that perceives all these things. When I go to my consciousness, to that great pool of silence that observes the intricacies of my life, I am aware that I am me. I take a little time each day to sit in silence so that I can move outward in balance into the great clamour of living."</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Richard Wagamese from the book, </span><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1771621338/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=15121&creative=330641&creativeASIN=1771621338&linkCode=as2&tag=workshops20-20&linkId=e44a38ce9c12169b9388e433ff583f0f" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Embers</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span></div>
Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-58403792859976215902020-05-19T09:37:00.000-07:002020-05-23T10:23:26.471-07:00Finding A Still Place<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm fortunate to live in the country with woods behind my house. I've walked through them so often that I've formed a path with my footsteps.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I find I'm walking in the forest much more than usual these days. In fact, I need it. I need the grounding that it offers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Do you find you are walking more slowly, noticing more? I used to walk through these woods, thinking about my problems or my work or things I needed to do, often with my head down, focused mainly on the path. There were times I barely looked up. Now, in this time of isolation and anxiety in the world, I'm moving much more slowly, letting the beauty of the forest unfold each day. Staying present. I'm harvesting a few wild leeks, watching the way the sunlight weaves through the trees and lands softly on the moss-covered rocks, noticing the Trilliums as they keep themselves tightly wrapped in their green blanket, waiting until they are certain of warm weather to open up. It's calming here. Healing. In fact I've been known to hug some of these trees.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And now, the Trilliums are blooming.</span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ME: Why am I alive?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">OLD WOMAN: Because everything else is.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ME: No. I mean the purpose.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">OLD WOMAN: That is the purpose. To learn about your relatives.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ME: My family?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">OLD WOMAN: Yes. The moon, stars, rocks, trees, plants, water, insects, birds, mammals. Your whole family. Learn about that relationship. How you're moving through time and space together. That's why you're alive.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From the book:<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/%3Ciframe%20style=%22width:120px;height:240px;%22%20marginwidth=%220%22%20marginheight=%220%22%20scrolling=%22no%22%20frameborder=%220%22%20src=%22//rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?ref=qf_sp_asin_til&t=workshops20-20&m=amazon&o=15&p=8&l=as1&IS1=1&asins=1771621338&linkId=4bf6ced25e29c0fad6f8f28321aa2534&bc1=FFFFFF&lt1=_top&fc1=333333&lc1=0066C0&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr%22%3E%20%20%20%20%20%3C/iframe%3E"> </a><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1771621338/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=workshops20-20&camp=15121&creative=330641&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1771621338&linkId=35bdff3c32af3143fb6c774697c57bc0">Embers </a>by Richard Wagamese</span></div>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-26309059711682164222020-04-14T07:42:00.000-07:002020-04-14T07:42:50.515-07:00Trees: Helping with Grounding and Loneliness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dunskey Estate, Scotland Photo © 2019 Mike Brouse</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Path to the water at the Doctor's House, Newfoundland</td></tr>
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I'm realizing how difficult it is to stay grounded in this time when we're constantly bombarded by news that causes panic and fear in all of us. And it's difficult to recognize when we're not grounded. I'm currently leading live online zoom discussion sessions with several groups made up of 4 artists each. In these groups, I do a grounding meditation at the beginning of each session. I can feel the group energy change as we connect with the earth. Participants have mentioned how important and calming this process is.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky." Kahlil Gibran</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It can also be a time of loneliness. Even artists who are so independent and truly love alone time can get lonely. That happened for me on Easter Sunday. I normally have the whole family over for the afternoon and for Easter dinner. We play bocci or frizbee or some made up game outside on the field, while we yell at the dogs for running away with the balls. Then we come inside for a delicious dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes and apple pie, served with conversation and much laughter. Yesterday we were all in our various homes, eating our dinners alone. My sad feeling lasted for the day, on a day we always spend together. I so missed being together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, my daughter shared this post with me that she saw on Facebook, from the <a href="https://www.icelandreview.com/nature-travel/forest-service-recommends-hugging-trees-while-you-cant-hug-others/">Iceland Review.</a> Amazingly, in Iceland, where there are few trees, the Forest Service recommends that in a time of self-isolation and lack of physical contact, to hug trees to combat loneliness. Hugging trees is also a great way to ground ourselves, to feel the energy of the tree and to imagine following its roots down into the earth. It doesn't matter the size of the tree.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you're not inclined to hug a tree, then just walking slowly and mindfully through a forest is also beneficial. <span style="background-color: white;">The research database <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17055544">PubMed</a> lists 85 studies on the health impact of forest bathing, including studies indicating that it significantly lowers blood pressure, heart rate, cortisol levels and sympathetic nerve activity compared with city walks, while also alleviating stress and depression. The most provocative of these studies conclude that exposure to phytoncides, the airborne, aromatic chemicals/oils emitted by many trees, have a long-lasting impact on people’s immune system markers, boosting natural killer cells and anticancer proteins by 40 percent.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">If there are no trees or forests available for you to walk through right now, then just looking at photos of trees and forests will also do the trick. </span><span style="background-color: white;">Here's a beautiful</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkEvBtyL7M&feature=youtu.be&inf_contact_key=f7422e59a0331055454c43b321235ac4842e902fbefb79ab9abae13bfcb46658"> video</a><span style="background-color: white;"> about Gratitude for the earth and for one another from the </span><a href="http://gratefulness.org/">Gratefulness.org </a><span style="background-color: white;">website.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old growth forest on Meares Island off the coast of Tofino, BC</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I am Among the Trees</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I am among the trees, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">especially the willows and the honey locust,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">they give off such hints of gladness.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I would almost say that they save me, and daily.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am so distant from the hope of myself,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in which I have goodness and discernment,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and never hurry through the world</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but walk slowly, and bow often.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Around me the trees stir in their leaves</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and call out, "Stay awhile."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The light flows from their branches.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And they call again, "It's simple," they say,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"and you too have come</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with light, and to shine."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mary Oliver</span></div>
Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-34315295763626382072020-01-02T08:55:00.000-08:002020-01-02T08:55:23.585-08:00Exploring Awe in Life and Art<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">1000 year-old tree on Meares Island</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have had many experiences of awe in my life: the birth of my third grandchild last summer was a highlight. I actually experience awe each time I see him. But other than that miraculous experience, I felt awe when I taught a Workshops in Wild Places workshop recently in Tofino, BC. Our group went one day into Tofino where we caught a boat to Meares Island, just off the coast. We wound our way past tree-covered islands until we came to the Meares Island dock. The island supports an old growth forest and is designated as a Tribal Park, an indigenous-led protected area. Led by our guide, we walked in single-file, slowly and reverentially on the roughly hewn boardwalk that winds through the forest. At the end of the walk, stands a magnificent, gigantic 1000 year-old yellow cedar. We let out a collective gasp when we saw it. We felt humbled in the presence of such a being.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I felt awe as well, in my Newfoundland workshop that took place last June at The Doctor's House. We were on the search for icebergs and drove way up the peninsula, past Heart's Delight, Heart's Desire and Heart's Content to Brownsdale, where we hit the jackpot! 12 icebergs floating in the bay! Completely awe-inspiring.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Iceberg floating in Trinity Bay taken with my telephoto lens. It was a big iceberg and quite a ways off.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2d30;">What exactly is awe? Albert Einstein referred to awe as “The source of all true art and science”. Einstein went on to say,</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2d30;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”</span></span><div>
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<span style="color: #2c2d30; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An excellent article in <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-blame-game/201710/zen-and-the-art-awe">Psychology Today,</a> discusses 10 benefits of awe. </span><span style="color: #2c2d30; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Turns out that awe is good for us in so many ways! </span><span style="color: #2c2d30; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Neil Farber in the Psycholgy Today article, sums up by saying, "Awe invokes creative, curious, mindful, altruistic, flexible, open-minded, physical, psychological and spiritual health and happiness." Sounds like we could use a spoonful of awe every day!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #060324;">Awe experiences are what psychologists call self-transcendent: they shift our attention away from ourselves, make us feel like we are part of something greater than ourselves, change our perception of time, and even make us more generous toward others.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Morning sun on Cox Bay beach, BC</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">On the road back to Nanaimo from Tofino, BC</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another website, <a href="https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/awe_narrative?_ga=2.16517558.1221574261.1577977704-1690835115.1577822610#data-tab-how"> Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley</a>, suggests another 8 benefits of awe. They also suggest 4 awe-inspiring practices, including an awe narrative, where you're asked to recall and describe a time when you experienced awe and to write about the experience in great detail. Such an exercise can help to relive that moment and so to re-experience awe.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Basalt columns on the water side of the cape at Baer Art Center in Iceland</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Basalt columns running the whole height of the cape at the Baer Art Center, Iceland</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other practices come close to the benefits of awe: forest bathing is one, where a person walks through a forest for several hours in a slow, mindful, meditative way sometimes with forest bathing guide or even alone. The effects of awe are also similar to mindfulness, prayer, and meditation. But not quite. There is something about the experience of awe and vastness that makes a soul sing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.workshopsinwildplaces.com/">Workshops in Wild Places</a> travels to awe-inspiring places. Not only will you connect with the land and create abstract paintings from that experience, but you'll also have all of the benefits of experiencing awe. We will seek awe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Stars by Sara Teasdale</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Alone in the night</span></div>
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On a dark hill</div>
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With pines around me</div>
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Spicy and still,</div>
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And a heaven full of stars</div>
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Over my head</div>
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White and topaz</div>
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And misty red;</div>
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Myriads with beating</div>
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Hearts of fire</div>
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The aeons</div>
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Cannot vex or tire;</div>
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Up the dome of heaven</div>
</span><span style="color: #333333;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Like a great hill</div>
</span><span style="color: #333333;"><div style="text-align: center;">
I watch them marching</div>
</span><span style="color: #333333;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Stately and still.</div>
</span><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #333333;"><div style="text-align: center;">
And I know that I</div>
</span><span style="color: #333333;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Am honored to be</div>
</span><span style="color: #333333;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Witness</div>
</span><span style="color: #333333;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Of so much majesty.</div>
</span></span></div>
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<div class="poet" itemprop="author" style="background-color: white; margin: 22px 0px 25px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-43595968813703647872019-11-24T10:50:00.000-08:002019-11-24T10:52:05.595-08:00 Ask yourself: Why am I alive?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9j6BJ8WxY4aKk4nWiNXBQXID9bI0CjRH24WP-q288y_ZAY9QnJYcZS6b3UXrgxemCS3_LppKJ4S60OrlhA0u1KARJb7mi7lXtQPIapMU9m9cCkPnsTpr7yqvwG7s7bn44E37qWKB1kjo/s1600/IMG_5628.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1083" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9j6BJ8WxY4aKk4nWiNXBQXID9bI0CjRH24WP-q288y_ZAY9QnJYcZS6b3UXrgxemCS3_LppKJ4S60OrlhA0u1KARJb7mi7lXtQPIapMU9m9cCkPnsTpr7yqvwG7s7bn44E37qWKB1kjo/s400/IMG_5628.JPG" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Meares Island 1000 year old tree with our group</span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB">We all know that everything in this world
is interconnected. At least we know it in our heads. But each time I teach one
of my <a href="http://workshopsinwildplaces.com/">Workshops in Wild Places </a>week-long painting classes, I more clearly
understand the interconnection between the land, our paintings, our lives, our
bodies, our emotions, and our spirit. In teaching about connecting with
the land to create abstract paintings, I realize how the land opens us up, how art opens us up, but only if we
are willing. Leaning against a 1000-year old tree on Meares Island near Tofino,
BC two weeks ago, I was suddenly overcome with emotion. I had such gratitude for
this ancient tree–that I was able to experience it, consider what its seen in
1000 years, stand inside the hollow part of its trunk, and sit on its huge
roots as I leaned on it, feeling its big calm energy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxUC4_mFrxvcyId2X59KvS-vVGuVvcZQDMMVxigCNIo6KTbSwKU3TfgStE74l1XsPUDGSQ9JGhPWllWcA_s9yniQZseWKgaExyAix1Nlo30U0A1zfxo9p8a3X4SCc3Rr2kI0tbSrpsDg/s1600/IMG_2747.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxUC4_mFrxvcyId2X59KvS-vVGuVvcZQDMMVxigCNIo6KTbSwKU3TfgStE74l1XsPUDGSQ9JGhPWllWcA_s9yniQZseWKgaExyAix1Nlo30U0A1zfxo9p8a3X4SCc3Rr2kI0tbSrpsDg/s400/IMG_2747.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Under Mother Tree-photo by Julie Brogan</span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB">In my Workshops in Wild Places, we do
various exercises to connect with the land––walking meditations, sitting
meditations, gratitude meditations, writing, and other reflective activities.
While connecting with the earth, we also connect with ourselves and to deepen
that relationship, I invite artists to ask themselves and the land profound
questions.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGIXHphLw7oL20uc5a5GiEp8VtJnOV8dok9KD5xcdwNl7dkhLTJrMWqPqld6dwPFD6OouS4mjDIAVoBYXrkoYIB7zw84SR2YOUxEdTxQQqR7yWXuiRDLN0nk1I07-dLuwfTzKnqG0NMFc/s1600/seaweed+on+cox+bay.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGIXHphLw7oL20uc5a5GiEp8VtJnOV8dok9KD5xcdwNl7dkhLTJrMWqPqld6dwPFD6OouS4mjDIAVoBYXrkoYIB7zw84SR2YOUxEdTxQQqR7yWXuiRDLN0nk1I07-dLuwfTzKnqG0NMFc/s400/seaweed+on+cox+bay.HEIC" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Seaweed on Cox Bay</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGbHDS_Es1Pox33ZeNYHogKHix2M6BnOtbAt4VSu8nT2f1JDs5NsGvXaKC938HUy0uGW2noIZSm1K9_Pmp-HV2yB-v4NR8HWTfb47mnMCQO4dsiugrmhCrvp1TAxdeIXUSyR-bFxheGig/s1600/IMG_5727+2.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGbHDS_Es1Pox33ZeNYHogKHix2M6BnOtbAt4VSu8nT2f1JDs5NsGvXaKC938HUy0uGW2noIZSm1K9_Pmp-HV2yB-v4NR8HWTfb47mnMCQO4dsiugrmhCrvp1TAxdeIXUSyR-bFxheGig/s400/IMG_5727+2.HEIC" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Cox Bay Beach, Tofino, BC</span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB">While I originally envisioned the workshops
as creating paintings that are reflective of a deep relationship with the land,
I had not given enough importance to the artists’ relationship with themselves
as well as with the rest of their lives. In this last workshop, as one person
struggled with inner conflict, I was reminded that of course, everything is
interconnected. The earth is not separate from our lives, our bodies, our
spirit, and us. We know that in our dealings with climate change. In the same
way, painting is not separate from us or from the world we inhabit.
Everything’s connected.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgka-ZZPWYQMEwi8va60QaxTU_9ttdidmcAM3g80Yg8cgZrt7EiPIuTlQZh29G-L0D3upD8lZqRHSUzYMCO76bXKyIEvYS5-l9J9AnDphv6nMSH-nRUw2Typ_NW9Q4Z1qM0mLQwSX0-0wI/s1600/lone+tree+cox+bay.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1167" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgka-ZZPWYQMEwi8va60QaxTU_9ttdidmcAM3g80Yg8cgZrt7EiPIuTlQZh29G-L0D3upD8lZqRHSUzYMCO76bXKyIEvYS5-l9J9AnDphv6nMSH-nRUw2Typ_NW9Q4Z1qM0mLQwSX0-0wI/s400/lone+tree+cox+bay.JPG" width="291" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Lone tree-Cox Bay</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">ME: Why am I alive?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">OLD WOMAN: Because everything else is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">ME: No. I mean the purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">OLD WOMAN: That is the purpose. To learn
about your relatives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">ME: My family?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">OLD WOMAN: Yes. The moon, stars, rocks,
trees, plants, water, insects, birds, mammals. Your whole family. Learn about
that relationship. How you’re moving through time and space together. That’s
why you’re alive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">From <i>Embers: One Ojibway’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meditations</i> by Richard Wagamese<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-67457294008721917072019-10-09T03:53:00.000-07:002019-10-09T03:53:05.121-07:00Painting in Scotland with Words<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK2rqVOze2VrMzWm2nSlZA4f5hz0rZ9YExW7i5TqSWRkGtlj-KNSQZfUq6dWk79WceqT-gWgwt6xi7XVcVt8asDtZq3cKs7DpLke2MY4KSctUtv5yk-vV7DErkK_Vk3_D5FjvVnh2PBhQ/s1600/DJI_0191.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="929" data-original-width="1600" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK2rqVOze2VrMzWm2nSlZA4f5hz0rZ9YExW7i5TqSWRkGtlj-KNSQZfUq6dWk79WceqT-gWgwt6xi7XVcVt8asDtZq3cKs7DpLke2MY4KSctUtv5yk-vV7DErkK_Vk3_D5FjvVnh2PBhQ/s400/DJI_0191.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Dunskey Estate in Scotland was rugged and head-over-heels luxurious at the same time. I've just returned from teaching there-the second workshop for Workshops in Wild Places. The aim of these workshops is to encourage a deep connection with the land through meditative walking, hiking, reading poems outdoors, having happy hour on the beach at sunset, and other such important exercises, then coming into the studio to create an abstract response to the land.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiEAZIpJ3AV1cr1nTncxy1QEt7h-GBmB8WNcdxjcOtt5Pb0I7mu6jRUncwq-cZlrQMZ5H9tqfv06NhrbaU0eGPpQBz9Mcj6imtS6eeY-SHKJEkMFbXZTz-ijgiAOthIhXzj0OXIdaI7Kc/s1600/IMG_4801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiEAZIpJ3AV1cr1nTncxy1QEt7h-GBmB8WNcdxjcOtt5Pb0I7mu6jRUncwq-cZlrQMZ5H9tqfv06NhrbaU0eGPpQBz9Mcj6imtS6eeY-SHKJEkMFbXZTz-ijgiAOthIhXzj0OXIdaI7Kc/s400/IMG_4801.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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While an imposing structure on the outside, the castle was cozy and sumptuous inside, with comfortable furniture, large and thick antique rugs, and fires blazing in each room we occupied. Our group took over the entire castle, eating gourmet dinners in the great hall, breakfast and lunch in the dining room and having meetings and discussions in the Drawing Room. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfNfhlK8P-1yn7PHC2mciUkxapBrSCiLirk6mVwIr8bkmdLBHRBUS2zVUeRYGYYR1LIvl75P1LPX2h9cd6kiv2r_3zLoc8YYriNlKy5tbUvqQ6kK7CACfrnLL201em5ceZKLSJUKHLAls/s1600/IMG_4834.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfNfhlK8P-1yn7PHC2mciUkxapBrSCiLirk6mVwIr8bkmdLBHRBUS2zVUeRYGYYR1LIvl75P1LPX2h9cd6kiv2r_3zLoc8YYriNlKy5tbUvqQ6kK7CACfrnLL201em5ceZKLSJUKHLAls/s400/IMG_4834.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT7zkyEKIAjxW4IEYJhSSeemnbrkaEMV0zdJ3dyaOPVNRKCVauDlfAOCC4TdzHpU80pgM-ImcBUDZhZmRh9l7iV8a58dszKWHoV1cjgTH51tcdA-agrqbfAlqIbjsQzhzRanRyjM19dbM/s1600/IMG_4829.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT7zkyEKIAjxW4IEYJhSSeemnbrkaEMV0zdJ3dyaOPVNRKCVauDlfAOCC4TdzHpU80pgM-ImcBUDZhZmRh9l7iV8a58dszKWHoV1cjgTH51tcdA-agrqbfAlqIbjsQzhzRanRyjM19dbM/s400/IMG_4829.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPEuCz9y3CRSTD-DO7rO0FyDARTnGmSC8uxRXPkUUQN-YGm7zdgK4R6PXBc08geOBBegRW6Vxz1w_kDzux5iDLq1iV07jQ_Ul_YS60xxRS8AM_yWM5FghUsrOp6U0_Ti9HIFRFD6hyphenhyphenBog/s1600/IMG_4852.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPEuCz9y3CRSTD-DO7rO0FyDARTnGmSC8uxRXPkUUQN-YGm7zdgK4R6PXBc08geOBBegRW6Vxz1w_kDzux5iDLq1iV07jQ_Ul_YS60xxRS8AM_yWM5FghUsrOp6U0_Ti9HIFRFD6hyphenhyphenBog/s400/IMG_4852.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Set upon 2000 acres on the sea, this opulent estate has a wildly rugged side, with beech and pine forests and a long rough path edged with ferns that winds over a river and past waterfalls to the rocky beach.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuabOFxmIeNsNx9khb2AsSyomC-8FRWdpT9X6hU8gTkqM-ELBg3Yi7EC1fUkrAhROA0v4HFIGWhh9VAVf9dOQLJt-ubYsLCkpj8HFNAVopb90wBLquwWzzvp7FDOkeyKqhBLZPWyAGtvc/s1600/IMG_4861.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuabOFxmIeNsNx9khb2AsSyomC-8FRWdpT9X6hU8gTkqM-ELBg3Yi7EC1fUkrAhROA0v4HFIGWhh9VAVf9dOQLJt-ubYsLCkpj8HFNAVopb90wBLquwWzzvp7FDOkeyKqhBLZPWyAGtvc/s400/IMG_4861.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Our spacious well-lit studio was on the top floor with plenty of room for all 10 of us.</div>
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Spending time outdoors every day, we did walking meditations, sitting meditations, and as well, we made colour charts and various other exercises. </div>
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One lovely exercise I had the group do, was Word Painting. I borrowed this idea from a beautiful book by Linda Lappin, called The Soul of Place, A Creative Writing Workbook. I invited the artists to sit outdoors and to write very specifically about the scene that was in front of them, how it made them feel, what thoughts came to their minds. Like the colour charts, I felt it was a way of taking some of the Scottish landscape back home to their studios. The responses were really beautiful. I'll let Jo Nan Carr have the final word with her wonderful Word Painting:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Mike Brouse</td></tr>
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<i><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"I walked alone toward the back of the estate heading to a grove of mighty beech trees but was stopped in the middle of the yard with thoughts racing through my mind. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"> </span></i></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>WHERE DO YOU SIT IN PARADISE?</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>“A place of inspiration,” she said. “In silence,” she said. But, where is silence?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>There is the rush of the trees. Have you noticed? Each cluster of leaves from each stand of trees plays a different song like the strings in an orchestra. My steps on the dry leaves and the beat of my heart echo the drums. Then the flutes and wood winds (appropriately named: wood winds) are brought in by the songs of birds in flight.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Isn’t that where we are - in flight. Not to escape but to soar through our existence alone and sometimes with others.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>So, where do I sit? I’m still erect in a clearing. I’m still wondering.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Oh, I’ve found it now, a moss wrapped tree just my size. “Contemplation,” I named this tree whose upward branches fork beautifully to different heights, different choices, different experiences.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>How did I get here? Wasn’t it by choices and longings and enticements?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Wasn’t it by successes and failures and joys and sorrows?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Why am I here?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I’m just a little country girl remembering joy.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>This must be an extension. A beautiful extension of what?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Luck? Good choices? Freedom?</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>I sit in gratitude against this tree on the edge of a mystical moss laden forest and simply breathe.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> "</span></i></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-converted-space">-Jo Nan Carr</span></span></div>
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To learn about other Workshops in Wild Places travels, go to <a href="http://workshopsinwildplaces.com/">workshopsinwildplaces.com</a></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.workshopsinwildplaces.com/"><br /></a></span></div>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-88579314695475481732019-04-21T11:18:00.000-07:002019-04-21T11:21:42.966-07:00A Longing for the Sublime: Painting the North<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the presence of Grace - 2, oil on wood panel, 29"X23"</span></span>©2019 Oxanna Adams</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Recently I attended a beautiful art exhibition by <a href="http://www.oxannaadams.ca/">Oxanna Adams</a> and <a href="mailto:studio7heather@gmail.com">Barbara Shaw</a> at Silence, an art gallery/exhibition space in Guelph, Ontario. The exhibition entitled <i>North</i>, featured paintings that were inspired by the travels of each artist to northern countries, including Sweden, Iceland, Estonia, Yukon and Northern Ontario. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At their opening, each artist described her experience of being influenced by the wild landscape of northern countries. I had the deep sense that these places were profoundly inspiring for both women. I know that my work is also strongly influenced by remote, wide-open landscapes and I find it so difficult to describe that sense of awe in words. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I feel that painting can get closer to describing that sense of wonder than either prose or poetry. Still, I delight in finding writers and poets who stretch language into forms that approach the ineffable. And it's painting and words together that make my heart sing.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grandfather Tree 48x48" Acrylic on panel © 2019 Barbara Shaw</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />There has been much discussion and many papers written about whether painting or poetry is the stronger of the arts, or what the connection is between them. Abstraction can be a wordless way of getting to the heart of things. Da Vinci said, "Painting is poetry that is seen and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen." Hmmmm. No one really cares about the distinction. They are both ways of connecting to the heart. I prefer both.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oxanna Adams and Barbara Shaw at their opening</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />"Language does have a unique power, and occasionally it can lead us up to its own edge, where we step from words into a greater silence". David Hinton</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oxanna Adams work from her exhibition North.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sara Maitland examines that stepping off place in her book, Silence where she describes her experience of being alone in a remote cottage in the Scottish Highlands for a 40-day silent retreat. She writes, "I began to realize that it was not peace and contentment that I craved, but that awed response to certain phenomena of the 'natural' world in which words, and even normal emotional reactions, fail or rather step away from the experience and there is a silence that is powerful, harsh and essentially inhumane." She goes on to say, "These landscapes have been called 'sublime', a word that also describes an emotion and aesthetic as well as actual scenery. I discovered in myself a longing for the sublime, for an environment that, rather than soothing me, offered some raw, challenging demands in exchange for grandeur and ineffability."</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barbara Shaw's work from her exhibition North.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">Both Oxanna and Barbara, in their exhibition,<i> North</i>, responded deeply to the landscapes that inspire them, their images conversing in a quiet, honest way with one another and the audience, describing the ineffable in paint.</span></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope return"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="line number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="page number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #353535;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Past thought<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #353535;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Past silence<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #353535;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Deeper still<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #353535;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Past stillness<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #353535;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">-Chris McCombs</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1179382028"><br /></a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;"><a href="http://workshopsinwildplaces.com/">workshopsinwildplaces.com</a></span></div>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-84578402106996005832019-04-07T15:08:00.000-07:002019-04-07T15:08:46.871-07:00Expanding Your Soul in Wild Places: Two Artists' Stories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baer Art Center Residency that I did in 2016 and 2017.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm always interested in remote places and what draws people there. What words do they use to describe the journey and what sort of work comes out of this experience? I asked two artists if they would respond to these questions: Amy Clay and Laura Moriarty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="">AMY CLAY: I followed <a href="http://www.amyclay.com/">Amy Clay's</a> adventures a few years ago as she travelled around the world from one artist residency to another for an entire year.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amy Clay walking in the gorgeous greens of Ireland<br /></td></tr>
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<span class="" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<i>My life and art is all about the Epic Quest and mysterious journeys to places of the imagination. Pushing beyond the familiar to new territory - facing the fear of the unknown, and seeing what’s on the other side. This relates to my love of wild and remote places. I’m especially drawn to Northern landscapes - as I know you are too! One of my favorite places is a residency on the far southwestern corner of Ireland called Cill Rialaig. It’s remote, hard to get to, and the wind and weather lash your cabin and rattle the roof! I also love Iceland. I'll be doing a residency at Pouch Cove in Newfoundland this November. Very excited for that one!</i></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I’m not even sure why my internal tether takes me to these wild places, but I have no interest in tropical beaches or well worn paths. It could be some old Viking gene in me, or generations of family from Scotland/Ireland/Scandinavia, but it’s my true north, so to speak, and I don’t question it. One of my dreams is to do an artist residency in a lighthouse somewhere in the northern seas!</i></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I’m most definitely inspired by the moody changing skies and the crashing of waves against black rocks. The cool greens and aquas of those places always find their way into my paintings when I’m working in these locations. I don’t paint literal landscapes but the environment is never far from my creative process and seeps in somehow, someway."</i></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fire and Ice inspired by Iceland</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">LAURA MORIARTY: </i><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I met <a href="http://www.lauramoriarty.com/">Laura</a> at the Baer Art Center artist residency in July 2016. She did some fascinating work there with ink on Japanese paper but her main interest is in creating sculptural paintings with wax.</span></span><br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"I make free-standing sculptural paintings with encaustic (pigmented beeswax), using layered sediments of vibrant color and folded accretions that reference geologic formations. The processes used in making my art––heating and cooling, and the window of opportunity I have to manipulate the wax at different temperatures, has led me to contemplate the parallels between human and geologic time."</i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Laura Moriarty on the Outer Cape</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spillway 2017</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Color Field: Ecru 2018</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Color Field: Warm Pink on Aqua Stem 2018</td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Cy Twombly once said of his work, "It's more like I'm having an experience than making a picture." I can really relate to this and that's probably why travel and direct encounters with nature has always been a vital aspect of my creative practice. Artist residencies have let to some of the most pivotal breakthroughs in my work. Each one has been like a gift from heaven. </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>My first residency was in 1996 at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming. Located in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains, with a population of a walloping 25, I spent my days at Ucross being swallowed by rocks; just absolutely getting lost in them. It gave me a kind of enlightenment, as I entered the oblivion of deep geologic time. The inspiration resonates to this day."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks to Amy Clay and Laura Moriarty for sharing their stories of travel and inspiration, each processing their experiences in a such unique, and personal way.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Expand your soul in the mystical land of Morocco: Ait Ben Haddou, October 2020</span></td></tr>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-78923130914640587312019-03-17T09:36:00.000-07:002019-03-17T09:36:33.928-07:00Connecting with the Spirit of Place <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHd20Gy5Ir7j9zH392pCuwmpg4mXwkmZLwFWW3H4LXueKPgMZrP8jaWPOfDtwRq7myvalqY8h4M6GlIX7raBcZivwjhPhB3kGhxMeEpoNWJ52SrG2RJjl2bETajDYRWREMT5HeX1dg598/s1600/Pathway+2.-12x15%2522+Oil+on+paper+on+paneljpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1228" data-original-width="1600" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHd20Gy5Ir7j9zH392pCuwmpg4mXwkmZLwFWW3H4LXueKPgMZrP8jaWPOfDtwRq7myvalqY8h4M6GlIX7raBcZivwjhPhB3kGhxMeEpoNWJ52SrG2RJjl2bETajDYRWREMT5HeX1dg598/s400/Pathway+2.-12x15%2522+Oil+on+paper+on+paneljpg.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pathway 2 12x15" Oil on paper on panel©2019 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My latest exhibition, entitled <i>Spirit of Place</i> is currently running at <a href="http://www.bugeramathesongallery.com/">Bugera Matheson Gallery </a>in Edmonton, Alberta. I chose the title based on my experiences at residencies in both Iceland and Spain. My intention when I travel is to try to connect to the Genius Loci or the Spirit of Place. Wikipedia defines genius loci in this way: "<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">In classical Roman religion, a genius loci was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted in religious iconography as a figure holding attributes such as a cornucopia, patera or snake. Many Roman altars found throughout the Western Roman Empire were dedicated to a particular genius loci."</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Pathway 4 12x24" Oil on paper on panel © 2019 Janice Mason Steeves</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">'m interested in discovering how I feel in a place. Mostly I'm interested in how I feel in the landscape and I search for remote places where I can travel or attend an artist residency. I feel most energized and at peace in wild and beautiful pl</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">aces, silent places, where I feel I can breathe. I was brought up in the Canadian prairies and I believe the landscape of our birth stays in our bones.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Iceworks 35 12x31.5" Oil on paper on panel ©2019 Janice Mason Steeves</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One residency that inspired this work, was in northern<a href="http://www.baerartcenter.com/"> </a><a href="http://www.baer.is/">Iceland </a>where a vast and treeless landscape provided a view down to the bottom of the fiord, and the other was in<a href="http://www.floresdelcamino.com/"> Flores del Camino,</a> a retreat centre in a tiny medieval stone village on the Camino de Santiago, an ancient spiritual pilgrimage route in northern Spain. Although these two residencies seem unconnected, when you open the back door of the retreat centre, you see a wide-open view of the the plains leading up to the Montes de León. One of the connections between the two places, was through the idea of space.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Castrillo de los Polvazares, Spain</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcw2uz4Vy6TyGUEN54zs-OAPP2f7px0R_iY5KHR3xf8GkQZBhZgCv2lVvjhn-t3pqkLjiofbSeyKp1G2hbhblQOvt88cv9DzaHcRMJ2GWp-jHZhwEpuSqeLAmR1umwhPM9S8rzJeUUuEs/s1600/P1050408.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="684" data-original-width="1024" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcw2uz4Vy6TyGUEN54zs-OAPP2f7px0R_iY5KHR3xf8GkQZBhZgCv2lVvjhn-t3pqkLjiofbSeyKp1G2hbhblQOvt88cv9DzaHcRMJ2GWp-jHZhwEpuSqeLAmR1umwhPM9S8rzJeUUuEs/s400/P1050408.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Baer Art Center, Iceland</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the Spain works, developed after I came home, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I began playing with more colour than I'd experienced in Iceland but with the same sense of space. The idea of a pathway came to me, a pathway like the Camino, that led me from one journey to the next, linking the two journeys, the two bodies of work visually, spiritually and emotionally.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5rZS1fabAKaUjJzap8CCKTIYSOJgnahanrYFxWpqiW75WOsGFCYYLjCb5GwCMBALvR-G0aUSMg7c7rEqekby-tlKaYNECJDb5U-qguM-SbctYMiMT0501iEa1cnyavF3bvnoxxp5wWJc/s1600/Pathway+9++16x+24.5%2522.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="1600" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5rZS1fabAKaUjJzap8CCKTIYSOJgnahanrYFxWpqiW75WOsGFCYYLjCb5GwCMBALvR-G0aUSMg7c7rEqekby-tlKaYNECJDb5U-qguM-SbctYMiMT0501iEa1cnyavF3bvnoxxp5wWJc/s400/Pathway+9++16x+24.5%2522.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Pathway 9 16x24.5" Oil on paper on panel © Janice Mason Steeves</span></td></tr>
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"<i>In this stillness, I am the trees alive with singing. I am the sky everywhere at once. I am the snow and the wind bearing stories across geographies and generations. I am the light everywhere descending. I am my heart evoking drum song. I am my spirit rising. In the smell of these sacred medicines burning, I am my prayers and my meditation, and I am time captured fully in this now. I am a traveller on a sacred journey through this one shining day.</i>"<br />
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Richard Wagamese from the book, Embers<br />
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I'll be leading a workshop to this same village in Spain in 2020.</div>
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For this and other adventures, go to <a href="http://www.workshopsinwildplaces.com/">Workshops in Wild Places</a></div>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-4722540793322649192019-03-03T10:45:00.000-08:002019-03-03T10:45:03.227-08:00Meet the Owners of a Scottish Castle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOhDyyhqUBFmd1eJ1KiunOLO6AX7x1yelfw0J53oem0uuaVauHRCAoxm6NmEuFE0czA3EKLzApwxMkhffNHqwt7be5LESSfnoKboTK8nxaSDz6eM8kv1YifkzMf9g5HXL_agO4LkHSd8s/s1600/tm0233.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1068" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOhDyyhqUBFmd1eJ1KiunOLO6AX7x1yelfw0J53oem0uuaVauHRCAoxm6NmEuFE0czA3EKLzApwxMkhffNHqwt7be5LESSfnoKboTK8nxaSDz6eM8kv1YifkzMf9g5HXL_agO4LkHSd8s/s400/tm0233.JPG" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anne Tristine Nguyen, Ali Orr Ewing, their children, Ava, Atticus and their dog, Harriet Beecher Stowe.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Abzi0N0WpLseA0Grk6dZXixkRmzeciYxZOEEO9MXl0YH6TAnxUddcFwSQWn2L0hk5-6u1lXO0NxLDsS5lV5EQX87DXrKeLMuEaFDh0Ez92vQV7KLRVp6kth_82kAMzq6pZSm6-mfAZA/s1600/dusnkey-estate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Abzi0N0WpLseA0Grk6dZXixkRmzeciYxZOEEO9MXl0YH6TAnxUddcFwSQWn2L0hk5-6u1lXO0NxLDsS5lV5EQX87DXrKeLMuEaFDh0Ez92vQV7KLRVp6kth_82kAMzq6pZSm6-mfAZA/s400/dusnkey-estate.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dunskey Estate, Portpatrick, Scotland</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anne Tristine Nguyen and her husband, Alistair Orr Ewing are the owners of<a href="http://www.dunskey.com/"> Dunskey Estate </a>near Portpatrick, Scotland where I will teach a painting workshop in September. Dunskey is a splendid Edwardian castle on 2000 acres of ocean-front land with miles of walking trails. As well as daily workshop sessions in the studio on the top floor of the castle, our small group of artists will enjoy breathtaking hikes, superb accommodation and fabulous meals. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not having met owners of a castle before, I asked Anne if I could interview her to hear a little of their background story and that of the castle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">Can you tell me a little of your personal
story and that of your husband, Alistair Orr Ewing?</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;"><i>Anne
emigrated to America when she was ten years old, but it was at an art gallery
in Saigon, her birthplace, where she met Ali. At the time, Anne was working
with several NGOs on anti human trafficking in the Mekong Delta. Ali was
sauntering around on his Russian Minsk motorbike as a CEO of a real estate
consultancy company. After the first glance, he boasted to a friend at the
gallery that she was the woman he would marry. Against all odds, Ali managed to
obtain Anne's phone number. </i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: #222222;">Eight months,
two lost telephones, and several strayed emails later, on their second date,
they were engaged. A round cross-cut of a chilli pepper served as an engagement
ring. </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: #222222;">It's been
spicy ever since.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">Can you tell me a little of the history of
the castle and the Orr Ewing family?</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: #222222;">James Kennedy Hunter designed Dunskey
Castle for CL Orr Ewing MP in 1898 and. the historic building stands as a
superb example of its type. Most remarkable for its ornate ceilings, extensive
wood work and original carpets, the castle has been little touched since
completion. Mr Orr Ewing also had built 2 world class yachts at the end of the
19th century, the legacy of which are in evidence around the Castle.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i></i><br />
<i></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: black;">Here is an earnest glimpse of life
in a baronial home in rural Scotland at the beginning of the century. The
castle is also noted for its advanced technology in construction, incorporating
some early work of steel beam support and in-home electricity. Step back in
time through the romantic drawing room, the Great Hall, the stately library,
and the gleaming dining room to revel in the splendour of a private home that
has remained preserved in time and heritage. </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i></i><br />
<i></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">When did you decide to turn the castle
into a hotel? </span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<i></i><br />
<i></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: black;">We are decidedly NOT a hotel. In fact we
are considered a private venue hire. We made this decision after trying to live
in the entire house as a family of four, and never felt that it was the right
ethical or environmentally correct thing to do. We have zero experience in hospitality
and never intended to enter this industry. However we knew that the Castle
needed to be shared with as many as possible. We are extremely proud to be able
to accommodate many different guests from all over the world. In fact, our very
first booking were guests who used to deliver fertilizer to the Estate, and it
was a great source of pride and joy for everyone to welcome them into the
Castle.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">What's the best part about living in rural
Scotland like you do?</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<i></i><br />
<i></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><i>There is a Japanese term, shinrin-yoku, that
means forest-bathing. To me, this is the </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: black;">absolute best thing about living in
such a remote area. I am surrounded by intense beauty and tranquility. It
allows me to take on very stressful projects such as working on voters
suppression laws in America. My children also get to have a childhood that is
free from fear and inane competition, for which I am extremely grateful. </span><o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">What are your favourite places on the
estate and why?</span></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;"><span style="color: black;">It has to be the gravestones at the headland. In the spring, the entire area is covered i</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;"><span style="color: black;">n daffodils, and you can have the most magnificent 360 degree view of cliffs, ocean, and woodlands.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">Are there any unusual, amusing, or
intriguing stories that come to mind about the castle, or things that have
happened there?</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: black;">There are many, but we will save this for
the house tour when you are here in-situ.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">What do you hope your guests will take
away from their experience at the castle?</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: black;">I think that ultimately, we want you to
feel that your Dunskey experience is one of unparalleled splendour. Ali and I
are hoping to use Dunskey as a platform to change the hospitality industry, to
humanize it and to truly invest in the people. In the past four years, we have
recognized the brutality of the industry, the demands it places on those
working in it, and the tolls of that emotional labor. We hope to change that by
showing that it is possible to be successful while caring deeply for our staff,
diversifying income streams to accommodate work-life balance, and that
profitability can come in many other invisible forms such as a reduction of
burn-out and turn-over. We hope all our guests will see that the Dunskey
experience comprises of achievements from a team that is well-cared for, and
who, in turn, can care deeply for our guests’ journeys. </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">What else would you like me to know about
you or about the castle?</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: black;">We are very proud to be energy efficient!
Heating and hot water comes from renewable energy via the biomass, our water
comes from a private spring, we have a septic tank for waste, and compost all of
our food. All laundry is done on site, and nothing is machine-dried. </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black;">I understand you are renovating the upper
floor of the castle to be a working studio where you can hold workshops like
the one I'm leading in September. I'm very much looking forward to
seeing photos of it when it's finished at the end of March.</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Thanks so much for offering to tell me a
little of your story and the story of the castle. I'm very excited to meet you, explore your land, sleep in a castle, and teach a painting workshop there!</b></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aerial view of Dunskey Estate</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><span style="color: #666666;">Check out this Scottish Castle Workshop and other</span><i><span style="color: #666666;"> </span><a href="http://www.workshopsinwildplaces.com/"><span style="color: #888888;">Workshops in </span><span style="color: magenta; text-decoration-line: none;">Wild </span><span style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;">Places</span></a><span style="color: #666666; text-decoration-line: none;"> </span></i><span style="color: #666666;">adventures</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px;">Night Sky Mongolia</td></tr>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-42304899160844082052019-02-17T09:58:00.000-08:002019-02-17T10:28:37.971-08:00The Love of Travelling with Other Creative People<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fabulous group at Flores del Camino Sept 2018</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We all know that there are many advantages to travelling, but there's an article in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lealane/2015/03/06/yes-travel-is-extraordinarily-good-for-you-experts-show-how-and-why/#683230bb2642">Forbes</a> describing some research done on the benefits.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Surveys from the <a data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://www.globalcoalitiononaging.com/" href="http://www.globalcoalitiononaging.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Global Coalition on Aging </a>show that even after vacationing only a day or two, 89 percent of people are able to relax and leave work stressors behind. Not surprisingly, the survey also shows that group travel builds social ties, which studies suggest help nurtures interest in life-long learning. And small groups are especially able to deliver personal interactions; whether enjoying a picnic lunch by a vista, or encounters with local families during home-hosted lunches and dinners.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Active travel is proven to lower health risks such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer, depression levels and more, according to the <a data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/report/" href="http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/report/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee.</a>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But even more important than this are the studies that have shown a correlation between creativity and travel. An article in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/03/for-a-more-creative-brain-travel/388135/?utm_source=SFFB">The Atlantic</a> says:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"In general, creativity is related to neuroplasticity, or how the brain is wired. Neural pathways are influenced by environment and habit, meaning they’re also sensitive to change: New sounds, smells, language, tastes, sensations, and sights spark different synapses in the brain and may have the potential to revitalize the mind."</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Using earthen pigments and acrylic medium in Spain © 2018 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pathway 10 12x24" oil on paper on panel ©2019 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In addition to all the science about health and brain benefits, there are things we just know. Travel with other artistic souls, painting together, eating communal meals and staying in the same accommodation is nurturing and important. We share a sense of community, the understanding of the creative process, the way we see things, and a connection with place. Of course we're not all the same and of course there can be differences and misunderstandings. But there's a way of seeing the world that is similar. There is a cross-pollination of ideas, an understanding of what each other is aiming to do, an easy sense of community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"We travel because we need to, because distance and difference are the secret tonic to creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But everything in our mind has changed and that changes everything."</i> Jonah Lehrer from the book <i>Imagine.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Check out my<i> <a href="http://www.workshopsinwildplaces.com/">Workshops in Wild Places</a> </i>adventures</span></div>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-40658024510511674902019-02-03T00:00:00.000-08:002019-02-04T10:13:16.742-08:00Choosing Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pathway 9 Oil on paper on panel 16x24.5 © 2019 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have a friend who turned 103 last August. She was my supervisor when I worked in the psychology department of a psychiatric hospital in Ontario. I was fresh out of university with a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology and thought I knew it all. In the first week on the job, I wrote and submitted my first report.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My friend (we'll call her Martha), phoned me in my office which was just down the hall from hers. There were no computers in those days. She asked me in a very reproachful tone, if I had just submitted a report. Yes, I had, I replied. She told me that I was to consult with her before submitting any report. Would I please come to her office. Martha was sitting behind her desk with a somewhat disdainful look on her face. She did not suffer fools lightly and I most definitely was proving to be a fool.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Martha and I began a very uncomfortable relationship. Very slowly and gradually though, we came to like each other as I grew in my understanding of psychological testing and honoured her expertise. We actually became friends.Then, after a couple of years, I moved away. My life took me to various cities in western Canada. Martha and I stayed in touch at Christmas for many years but gradually, we lost contact.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many years later, she contacted me through one of my galleries. She was a mere 92 at that point. I called her back and asked her how she'd found me. "Jan", she said in her usual abrupt tone, "I googled you". I chuckled. She asked sharply, "What are you laughing at?" I mumbled something about my Mum not knowing how to use the internet. Blah Blah Blah. She had rapped my knuckles once again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We arranged to meet for lunch in her nearby city. Martha had always been a very flamboyant dresser. Nothing had changed. When she came to the door, she was wearing gold earrings, a leopard print blouse and scarf, over black slacks. And at 92, her hair was coloured the same shade of flaming orange I'd always known her to have.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our luncheons became an annual event. For her 100th birthday, she threw herself a big party, sold her house that she'd lived in for most of her life, and moved into a Senior's residence. She had become more stooped and her vision was deteriorating. But that didn't slow her down at all. She hired an assistant to help with her writing and soon after she turned 100, her first book was published, about her experiences as a Psychologist in WWII.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now at 103, Martha walks unsteadily on a walker. Still though, she continues to dye her hair flaming </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">orange and wears sequin tops and leopard print scarves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I missed lunch with her last summer because she was suddenly hospitalized for severe pain. Diagnosed with bowel cancer, the doctors gave her a dire prognosis and suggested euthanasia as the first option. Farther down the options list was surgery. Martha chose surgery! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She chose life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The operation proved successful. It turned out to be a large non-cancerous tumour. She easily recovered and moved back to her senior's residence, where she began working on a second book about her life as a traveling psychologist after the war. That book was published just before Christmas 2018.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She's working on a third!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's never too late to discover your creativity!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac </b>by Mary Oliver</i></span><br />
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<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; line-height: 1.65; margin-bottom: 30px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>1.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Why should I have been surprised?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Hunters walk the forest<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />without a sound.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The hunter, strapped to his rifle,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />the fox on his feet of silk,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />the serpent on his empire of muscles—<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />all move in a stillness,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />hungry, careful, intent.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Just as the cancer<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />entered the forest of my body,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />without a sound.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>2.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The question is,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />what will it be like<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />after the last day?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Will I float<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />into the sky<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />or will I fray<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />within the earth or a river—<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />remembering nothing?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />How desperate I would be<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />if I couldn’t remember<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />the sun rising, if I couldn’t<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />remember trees, rivers; if I couldn’t<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />even remember, beloved,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />your beloved name.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>3.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />I know, you never intended to be in this world.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />But you’re in it all the same.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>so why not get started immediately.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>I mean, belonging to it.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />There is so much to admire, to weep over.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>And to write music or poems about.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Bless the feet that take you to and fro.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Bless the eyes and the listening ears.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Bless touching.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>You could live a hundred years, it’s happened.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Or not.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />I am speaking from the fortunate platform<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />of many years,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />none of which, I think, I ever wasted.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Do you need a prod?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Do you need a little darkness to get you going?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Let me be urgent as a knife, then,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />and remind you of Keats,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />so single of purpose and thinking, for a while,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />he had a lifetime.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>4.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Late yesterday afternoon, in the heat,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />all the fragile blue flowers in bloom<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />in the shrubs in the yard next door had<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />tumbled from the shrubs and lay<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />wrinkled and fading in the grass. But<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />this morning the shrubs were full of<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />the blue flowers again. There wasn’t<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />a single one on the grass. How, I<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />wondered, did they roll back up to<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />the branches, that fiercely wanting,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />as we all do, just a little more of<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />life?</i></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfPpzSozoZtjPLuq2733tVC0z87OyhCMtMJP-EWlBgil3IMvM2cB8S1jgNi0NG2cJY7Uwwe9F9QinQIkz9GHtTy1GSBtcpMedr9yNwv-wyrP1MidkXhqO3C3kG-kbOSdsUefaZt5CafYk/s1600/Pathway+2+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1228" data-original-width="1600" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfPpzSozoZtjPLuq2733tVC0z87OyhCMtMJP-EWlBgil3IMvM2cB8S1jgNi0NG2cJY7Uwwe9F9QinQIkz9GHtTy1GSBtcpMedr9yNwv-wyrP1MidkXhqO3C3kG-kbOSdsUefaZt5CafYk/s400/Pathway+2+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pathway 2 Oil on paper on panel 12x15" © 2019 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-44000834228609519622019-01-20T06:54:00.000-08:002019-01-20T06:54:40.269-08:00Art Workshops and Mary Oliver<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYNdyyNe_ptlJ2GWsTphlY8-KE8knn9PzhDoLTUxRYCT4CZGN8FciBl5zVMqDBgP_eOzxdHLycmaNzLsJY1T6FfeNYivXvhNvQEb4CQT15dixMHcB1phK8Ic8eHk1EMtM9sYtFoOsbVI/s1600/IMG_4161-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="640" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYNdyyNe_ptlJ2GWsTphlY8-KE8knn9PzhDoLTUxRYCT4CZGN8FciBl5zVMqDBgP_eOzxdHLycmaNzLsJY1T6FfeNYivXvhNvQEb4CQT15dixMHcB1phK8Ic8eHk1EMtM9sYtFoOsbVI/s400/IMG_4161-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pathways 4 12x24" Oil on paper on panel ©2019 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To begin each day in my painting workshops, I do a short mindfulness meditation to bring our focus into the studio, into the workshop. And then I read a poem. Words that might inspire. Poems that might, in the words of John O'Donohue, "create an invisible cloak to mind your life".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My workshops are filled with women (mostly) who are generally between 55 and 75. The Boomer Generation. These are women who have worked as teachers, nurses, doctors, professors, engineers and who are now retired or near the end of their careers. Many are also mothers of grown children. And grandmothers. They've come to art later in life and are ready for a second career, finally able to follow their hearts to discover their creativity. But still, many are tied to their roles as mothers and grandmothers and find it difficult, as women do, to allow themselves space and time where they are not nurturers and caregivers. Time for themselves, for their creativity. </span><br />
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">The Journey <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>One day you finally knew<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>what you had to do, and began,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>though the voices around you<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>kept shouting<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>their bad advice --<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>though the whole house<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>began to tremble<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>and you felt the old tug<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>at your ankles.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>"Mend my life!"<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>each voice cried.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>But you didn't stop.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>You knew what you had to do,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>though the wind pried<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>with its stiff fingers<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>at the very foundations,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>though their melancholy<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>was terrible.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>It was already late<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>enough, and a wild night,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>and the road full of fallen<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>branches and stones.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>But little by little,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>as you left their voices
behind,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>the stars began to burn<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>through the sheets of clouds,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>and there was a new voice<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>which you slowly<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>recognized as your own,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>that kept you company<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>as you strode deeper and
deeper<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>into the world,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>determined to do<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>the only thing you could do --<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>determined to save<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>the only life you could save. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>~ Mary Oliver ~ <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>(Dream Work) </i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd9WMftdev75eU84QVkwoAWO75W2tISoBzAj5OHpMIJjk1k9chMmFEku961C02SRIGVfzMuj5w5uW72asnsCqJTbNYKlXl4DJyIVNnbIHwP3PdQ_5DgpzeaWoe0FMJC4j4YW5UqiC2BBA/s1600/IMG_4170.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="640" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd9WMftdev75eU84QVkwoAWO75W2tISoBzAj5OHpMIJjk1k9chMmFEku961C02SRIGVfzMuj5w5uW72asnsCqJTbNYKlXl4DJyIVNnbIHwP3PdQ_5DgpzeaWoe0FMJC4j4YW5UqiC2BBA/s400/IMG_4170.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pathways 1 12x18" Oil on paper on panel ©2019 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">I read Mary Oliver's poems in every one of my workshops. Her words are so accessible and go straight to the heart of our lives. I was saddened by the news of her death this week, but I celebrate the great gift of words she left us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">And on the afternoon of the last day of the workshop, Mary Oliver asks in her poem,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Summer Day</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Who made the world?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Who made the grasshopper?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Now she snaps her wings open, and floats
away.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I don't know exactly what a prayer is.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I do know how to pay attention, how to fall
down</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">into the grass, how to kneel down in the
grass,</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll
through the fields,</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">which is what I have been doing all day.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tell me, what else should I have done?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Doesn't everything die at last, and too
soon?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tell me, what is it you plan to do</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">with
your one wild and precious life?</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">May Mary Oliver's words continue to encourage, inspire and cover you with an invisible cloak to mind your life.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs_tvHFXtEr3OxWKeqQ3hAvNumqRVOdOsA2D-shEXvpaDEaZSvS7x9m2PPjhKBYGMWaSEUQuQ8v-z6V84y2NP-r9tETYJjbSmbM_CI8gNDrIublINl0WlGSmuxIwYAkw8-uvTo0e5PmTI/s1600/IMG_4154-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="640" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs_tvHFXtEr3OxWKeqQ3hAvNumqRVOdOsA2D-shEXvpaDEaZSvS7x9m2PPjhKBYGMWaSEUQuQ8v-z6V84y2NP-r9tETYJjbSmbM_CI8gNDrIublINl0WlGSmuxIwYAkw8-uvTo0e5PmTI/s400/IMG_4154-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pathways 2 12x24" oil on paper on panel ©2019 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-47634380955462676422019-01-09T06:45:00.001-08:002019-01-09T06:45:19.118-08:00Please let me try that one again!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://janicemasonsteevesartwork.blogspot.com/2019/01/what-can-we-as-artists-do-for-this-earth.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;">What Can We as Artists Do for this Earth?</a></h3>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyXjgbA4O2O8A-K7BVyByDSlqo7RidqMHA6s9_ZPle24a6qI7JUHW7jmkU5zEREQcT6PWmODcOuJkfhyphenhyphenATs38nz4GR8qbS28UmKYb_p5L9v4E3CG9klB_nkBB3-dt5w-2aAywn9l9xSUU/s1600/aerial-2229-jl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #888888; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="933" data-original-width="1400" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyXjgbA4O2O8A-K7BVyByDSlqo7RidqMHA6s9_ZPle24a6qI7JUHW7jmkU5zEREQcT6PWmODcOuJkfhyphenhyphenATs38nz4GR8qbS28UmKYb_p5L9v4E3CG9klB_nkBB3-dt5w-2aAywn9l9xSUU/s400/aerial-2229-jl.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px;">Storm-watching workshop at Long Beach Lodge, Tofino, BC</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />I tried to post a video on this blog but it obviously didn't send when I sent out the post.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My apologies. I wasn't able to send a test email first so just took my chances.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I thought I'd resend this blog post and give it another go without the video.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The video I tried to post is really beautiful and well worth a look. Click <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DLnhdnSUVs">HERE </a>to watch it. It was a Greenpeace initiative fro. 2 or 3 years ago but I just came across it. I found it incredibly moving. Pianist and composer Lodovico Einaudi floated along on a platform in the Arctic near the island of Svalbard. He played <b><i>Elegy for the Arctic</i></b>, a gloriously haunting piece, while great chunks of ice broke off from the glacier behind him, crashing into the sea, almost overwhelming his music. So powerful, shocking, sad and beautiful all at the same time. I cried.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "trebuchet" , "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"It's time for a different formal defence of nature", suggests Michael McCarthy, one of Britain's leading environmental writers, in his book <b><i>Moth Snowstorm.</i></b> He goes on to say, "We should offer up not just the notion of being sensible and responsible about it, which is sustainable development, nor the notion of its mammoth utilitarian and financial value, which is ecosystem services, but a third way, something different entirely: we should offer up what it means to our spirits; the love of it. We should offer up its joy."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "trebuchet" , "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"This has", he continues, "been celebrated, of course, for centuries. But it has never been put forward as a formalized defence of the natural world. Firstly, because the mortal threat itself is not centuries old, but has arisen merely in the space of my own lifetime; and secondly, because the joy nature gives us cannot be quantified in a generalized way." "We need to remake, remake, remake, not just rely on the poems of the past, we need to do it ourselves––proclaim these worths through our own experiences in the coming century of destruction, and proclaim them loudly, as the reason why nature must not go down"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">Gordon Hempton, an acoustic ecologist and author of the book </span><b style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><i>One Square Inch of Silence</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">, writes, "We've reached a time in human history when our global environmental crisis requires that we make permanent life-style changes. More than ever before we need to fall back in love with the land. Silence is our meeting place."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">
As a silence activist, Hempton says, " Silence is an endangered species." His art is <span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">collecting and recording natural sound. He records the soundscapes of prairies, mountains, and forests around the world and defines silence not as an absence but a presence. Hempton has made sound recordings inside Sitka spruce logs in the Pacific Northwest, of thunder in the Kalihari and of dawn breaking across 6 continents. Hear his interview with Krista Tippett in the podcast </span><a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/gordon-hempton-silence-and-the-presence-of-everything" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;">On Being</a></div>
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Do you ask yourself what you as an artist can do for the environment? I do. </div>
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In my own small way, I'm aiming to do that by organizing Workshops in Wild Places. The idea behind this initiative is to travel with small groups of artists to remote, silent places, and to encourage them to really experience these places, to fall in love (again) with this glorious earth and to paint from that place.</div>
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<b style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Messenger</span></b></div>
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<i style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By Mary Oliver</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>My work is loving the world.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>equal seekers of sweetness.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>keep my mind on what matters,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>which is my work,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>which is mostly standing still and learning to be</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>astonished.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The phoebe, the delphinium.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>and these body-clothes,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>a mouth with which to give shouts of joy</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>telling them all, over and over, how it is</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>that we live forever.</i></span></div>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-83059170393177883282019-01-08T06:11:00.000-08:002019-01-08T06:11:45.888-08:00What Can We as Artists Do for this Earth?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyXjgbA4O2O8A-K7BVyByDSlqo7RidqMHA6s9_ZPle24a6qI7JUHW7jmkU5zEREQcT6PWmODcOuJkfhyphenhyphenATs38nz4GR8qbS28UmKYb_p5L9v4E3CG9klB_nkBB3-dt5w-2aAywn9l9xSUU/s1600/aerial-2229-jl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="933" data-original-width="1400" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyXjgbA4O2O8A-K7BVyByDSlqo7RidqMHA6s9_ZPle24a6qI7JUHW7jmkU5zEREQcT6PWmODcOuJkfhyphenhyphenATs38nz4GR8qbS28UmKYb_p5L9v4E3CG9klB_nkBB3-dt5w-2aAywn9l9xSUU/s400/aerial-2229-jl.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Storm-watching workshop at Long Beach Lodge, Tofino, BC</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I posted the video below on Facebook the other day. It was a Greenpeace initiative from 2 or 3 years ago but I just came across it. I found it incredibly moving. Pianist and composer Lodovico Einaudi floated along on a platform in the Arctic near the island of Svalbard. He played <b><i>Elegy for the Arctic</i></b>, a gloriously haunting piece, while great chunks of ice broke off from the glacier behind him, crashing into the sea, almost overwhelming his music. So powerful, shocking, sad and beautiful all at the same time. I cried.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"It's time for a different formal defence of nature", suggests Michael McCarthy, one of Britain's leading environmental writers, in his book <b><i>Moth Snowstorm.</i></b> He goes on to say, "We should offer up not just the notion of being sensible and responsible about it, which is sustainable development, nor the notion of its mammoth utilitarian and financial value, which is ecosystem services, but a third way, something different entirely: we should offer up what it means to our spirits; the love of it. We should offer up its joy."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"This has", he continues, "been celebrated, of course, for centuries. But it has never been put forward as a formalized defence of the natural world. Firstly, because the mortal threat itself is not centuries old, but has arisen merely in the space of my own lifetime; and secondly, because the joy nature gives us cannot be quantified in a generalized way." "We need to remake, remake, remake, not just rely on the poems of the past, we need to do it ourselves––proclaim these worths through our own experiences in the coming century of destruction, and proclaim them loudly, as the reason why nature must not go down"</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwM25iMPUA4T7jDVsaR73CVFrI47L4CagjEeGz3qnBQMs0O-Av7CfxJAjJrJKEYgvZ7A6nmwT09bF81u8HdWv5QElg3hCU1IDmCXR3KK6D4EGcZ0xVy-jP4QRQiSqljTd74oqJLvdMgU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-01-08+at+6.59.44+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="932" data-original-width="1452" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwM25iMPUA4T7jDVsaR73CVFrI47L4CagjEeGz3qnBQMs0O-Av7CfxJAjJrJKEYgvZ7A6nmwT09bF81u8HdWv5QElg3hCU1IDmCXR3KK6D4EGcZ0xVy-jP4QRQiSqljTd74oqJLvdMgU/s400/Screen+Shot+2019-01-08+at+6.59.44+AM.png" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gordon Hempton, an acoustic ecologist and author of the book <b><i>One Square Inch of Silence</i></b>, writes, "We've reached a time in human history when our global environmental crisis requires that we make permanent life-style changes. More than ever before we need to fall back in love with the land. Silence is our meeting place."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a silence activist, Hempton says, " Silence is an endangered species." His art is </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">collecting and recording natural sound. He records the soundscapes of prairies, mountains, and forests around the world and defines silence not as an absence but a presence. Hempton has made sound recordings inside Sitka spruce logs in the Pacific Northwest, of thunder in the Kalihari and of dawn breaking across 6 continents. Hear his interview with Krista Tippett in the podcast </span><a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/gordon-hempton-silence-and-the-presence-of-everything" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Being</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you ask yourself what you as an artist can do for the environment? I do. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my own small way, I'm aiming to do that by organizing Workshops in Wild Places. The idea behind this initiative is to travel with small groups of artists to remote, silent places, and to encourage them to really experience these places, to fall in love (again) with this glorious earth and to paint from that place.</span><br />
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<b style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Messenger</span></b></div>
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<i style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Mary Oliver</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>My work is loving the world.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>equal seekers of sweetness.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>keep my mind on what matters,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>which is my work,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>which is mostly standing still and learning to be</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>astonished.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The phoebe, the delphinium.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>and these body-clothes,</i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>a mouth with which to give shouts of joy</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,</i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>telling them all, over and over, how it is</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>that we live forever.</i></span></div>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-84852800373600500852018-12-09T07:41:00.000-08:002018-12-09T07:41:05.806-08:00A Case for Coming to Art Later in Life: Part II: Late-Blooming <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pathways 2 11x15" Mixed Media on paper © 2018 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">There is a timing for things. It isn’t a mistake or a sign of weakness when a person comes to art later in life. The time hasn’t been right for them to arrive any earlier. Like late-blooming plants, they’ve weathered the heat, the winds and the fierce summer storms and now, the autumn is their time.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">In nature most plants and trees bloom in the spring and summer. But some are only ready to flower in the late fall or winter. In Southern Ontario where I live, some fall and winter-blooming plants include Chrysanthemums, Burning Bush, Amaryllis, Christmas Cactus and species of Witch Hazel. The magnificent Saguaro Cactus, which grows in the Sonoran Desert between Arizona and Mexico, can live for 150-200 years but only blooms after 35 years. And the Madagascar Palm Tree blooms with hundreds of tiny flowers only once in 100 years.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><br /> Like the Saguaro Cactus, I bloomed late too, attending art school in my late 40s. It was the right time for me to go through that experience, as I needed maturity and confidence to handle the times where I was flattened by a critique of my work or the lack of interest in it from the instructors. I wouldn’t have been strong enough to handle that in my twenties.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">A few years ago with the idea of writing a book about coming to art later in life, I interviewed a number of artists for their thoughts about the gifts they brought as they began to paint later in life. Here are a few of their comments: One woman said, “I [now] have some dependable tools to help me work through the challenges, and a broad range of skills and knowledge that I didn’t have when I was in my twenties,” she says. “I’ve benefited from the circuitous route that I’ve taken to get here. I have formal training in a smorgasbord of disciplines and these all serve to strengthen my ability to think and create. OK, maybe it does rattle me some days,” she says, that “I didn’t show up early. But honestly it just didn't occur to me that I could ever have these skills.”</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Another said, "“Maybe I did while away a few years in my youth, but all those [life] experiences have made me who I am today and today I am making art. That is what really counts.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">"</span><span lang="EN-US">I<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span>kn<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">o</span>w<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span>th<span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">a</span>t<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span>if I <span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">h</span>ad<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">n</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">o</span>t<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span>alwa<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">y</span>s held<span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">
</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">o</span>n<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">t</span>o<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> t</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">h</span>e<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span>i<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">d</span>ea<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">o</span>f<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">m</span>aki<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">n</span>g<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span>art<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">o</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">n</span>e<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">d</span>ay<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span>and<span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">b</span>eco<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">m</span>i<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">n</span>g<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span>an art<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">i</span>st<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span>I <span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">m</span>i<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">gh</span>t<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">no</span>t<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">h</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">a</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">v</span>e<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">m</span>a<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">d</span>e<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span>it<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span>th<span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">i</span>s far." said another artist. "I
k<span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">n</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">o</span>w<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span>t<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">h</span>at<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span>all<span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;"> </span>s<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">o</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">und</span>s<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span>rather<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">m</span>e<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">l</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">o</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">d</span>r<span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">a</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">m</span>atic,<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span>b<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">u</span>t<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span>I<span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;"> </span>had<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span>some<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">to</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">ug</span>h
ti<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">m</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">e</span>s
in the<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span>past<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span>a<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">n</span>d I<span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">t</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">h</span>i<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">n</span>k<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0666667px;"> [that holding onto that dream]</span> <span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">g</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">o</span>t<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">m</span>e<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">t</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">h</span>r<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">o</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">ug</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">h</span>."</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="p40">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">"Painting at this stage of my life", said another, "has provided me vehicles for focus, mental
agility and excitement once I retired from a pioneering career. I would not be
good at golf or cards, though many people are. I would not be happy watching TV
and the aquarium, as my dad did when he retired. That really sounds like
Retirement, an exhaling and withdrawing from the public arena. The word that
better captures my sense of this period would be</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> <span class="ft6">Inspirement</span></span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="background-color: white;">, a continued breathing in,
waking up curious about the lessons, not the score."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">
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<!--EndFragment--> </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">We bring a richness to our art when we arrive later in life after we have done the work and taken the journey; a depth that wasn’t accessible to us when we were young. No one asks why some flowers bloom in the autumn. We’re just grateful that they do. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"<i>The flower unfolds</i></span></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Only when it knows</span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is strong enough</span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To withstand the wind</span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And the rain." </span></span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-Christopher McGeowan</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pathways 3 11x15" Mixed Media on paper © 2018 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488735896467172908.post-85858095025680105852018-11-26T06:37:00.003-08:002018-11-26T06:37:47.220-08:00A Case for Coming to Art Late in Life-Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNyBwJYV5RKz5PspUKxwgQ8iDdGl7r0TirsSuF5rkBlTYNynUu4iQTGK7NPepWnGjnjWqY7HMipwxdRcH4Ei9ly3QJ1DNQGKXo70vawXExKcHHrhFj8d4HhNlyci65Mg_SpTaNgEdr8GI/s1600/The+Way_4033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1600" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNyBwJYV5RKz5PspUKxwgQ8iDdGl7r0TirsSuF5rkBlTYNynUu4iQTGK7NPepWnGjnjWqY7HMipwxdRcH4Ei9ly3QJ1DNQGKXo70vawXExKcHHrhFj8d4HhNlyci65Mg_SpTaNgEdr8GI/s400/The+Way_4033.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Way 20x21" oil on panel ©2018 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
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There are a lot of us out there who have come to art later in life. My workshops are filled with women (mostly) who are between the ages of 50 and 75 (The baby boom generation). Probably most are between 60 and 75. And what interesting people they are! They bring their life experiences with them to their art––their heartaches, joys, achievements, worries, and gratitude. And they are, for the most part, committed artists. They are embracing art like it's finally their time. It's what they've been waiting their whole lives to do. They come with their souls on fire.<br />
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<i>"and there was a new voice </i><br />
<i>which you slowly</i><br />
<i>recognized as your own, </i><br />
<i>that kept you company</i><br />
<i>as you strode deeper and deeper</i><br />
<i>into the world,</i><br />
<i>determined to do</i><br />
<i>the only thing you could do––</i><br />
<i>determined to save</i><br />
<i>the only life you could save.</i>" The Journey by Mary Oliver<br />
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It doesn't matter how old you are if you have passion for life.<br />
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That passion can carry us a long way. And while recognition is important in the way of sales, or exhibitions, most older artists don't so much need the money, except to take workshops, buy art supplies and travel. Many are retired and have a pension. There's a freedom that's been earned.<br />
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Lunch hour conversations during my workshops are deep and rich. In one especially intense lunchtime conversation, a woman cried as she talked about her daughter who was born with a serious handicap. She mentioned that after 30 years of constant caring, she finally had time for herself and her art as her daughter was now in a care facility. She was so open, trusting and vulnerable that the rest of the group shared their life stories with the same depth. Two shared that their sons had been suicidal, another talked about how she had been scarred by being adopted into an abusive family.<br />
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These are the stories that we bring to our work as we come as mature artists. This is the depth we bring.<br />
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<i>"I will not die an unlived life.</i><br />
<i>I will not live in fear</i><br />
<i>of falling or catching fire.</i><br />
<i>I choose to inhabit my days,</i><br />
<i>to allow my living to open me,</i><br />
<i>to make me less afraid,</i><br />
<i>more accessible;</i><br />
<i>to loosen my heart</i><br />
<i>until it becomes a wing,</i><br />
<i>a torch, a promise.........." </i>I will not die an unlived life––Dawna Markova<br />
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It's important to acknowledge the wealth of experience we bring to our art and how important it is to remain vulnerable and open, to really show ourselves. This is not the time to hold back.<br />
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<i>"I don't know exactly what a prayer is,</i><br />
<i>I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down</i><br />
<i>into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,</i><br />
<i>how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,</i><br />
<i>which is what I have been doing all day.</i><br />
<i>Tell me, what else should I have done?</i><br />
<i>Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?</i><br />
<i>Tell me, what is it you plan to do</i><br />
<i>with your one wild and precious life</i>?" The Summer Day by Mary Oliver<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFMdIUCIBYMn-RZcWaQW4BhLA00kzsjvYNekaLVu03YRKZaDzqOTy00YY-Ac6MMFl7gRetViCxgcLpTdQG37aOUVmlHpy_EpWUwXgnanIoGGfdgYHXBu2gBy3Mk1rrvY7sKk-3T6_TQH8/s1600/The+Way+2_4039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1054" data-original-width="1600" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFMdIUCIBYMn-RZcWaQW4BhLA00kzsjvYNekaLVu03YRKZaDzqOTy00YY-Ac6MMFl7gRetViCxgcLpTdQG37aOUVmlHpy_EpWUwXgnanIoGGfdgYHXBu2gBy3Mk1rrvY7sKk-3T6_TQH8/s400/The+Way+2_4039.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Way 2 16x24" Oil on panel ©2018 Janice Mason Steeves</td></tr>
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Janice Mason Steeveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00146958998411894033noreply@blogger.com4