by ruralpearl | Feb 23, 2012 | Inspiration
I just caught a glimpse of the northern flicker that seems to have made my deck a regular hangout spot.. I had to shoot through the window because had I opened the door, it surely would’ve flown. It’s such a good looking bird — I’m not sure that I’ve ever actually seen one before this one’s first appearance the other day — at least, I’ve never acknowledged one. I know when the woodpeckers are visiting because they squeak when they’re on the feeder. The downey woodpecker has a higher pitched squeak, and the flicker (also a type of woodpecker) has a lower, louder squeak. They’re alternating turns on the feeder as I type. My squirrel friend is also back.. I know it’s the same one as my previous post because when he runs across the deck, he pauses and puts his right paw on his chest, almost like he’s feeling his own heartbeat. He did it the other day, and again today. I tossed him some more seeds to let him know I come in peace. Maybe I’m the squirrel whisperer? …
I had breakfast and coffee on my deck this morning — feels like spring again.. makes me itchy to build (buy?) a cabin in a remote, nature-y area.. it’s my one material goal. Catching up on more emails, getting wholesale orders ready, working on some small commissions for tattoos (yikes!) and trying to figure out some wintery images for a holiday greeting card for Artists To Watch, the company that I’ve published a couple greeting cards with previously.. lots to do, lots on my mind.. til next time.
EDIT: I originally called this bird a red-shafted flicker, but I’m not sure if I had that correct. So, I’ll use ‘northern’ flicker instead– I think that covers it, anyway.
by ruralpearl | Feb 23, 2012 | Inspiration
Night lights of Kansas City – 2010.
Early this morning I read a short book called “My Life and Love Are One” — a collection of excerpts from letters written by Vincent Van Gogh (hence the previous quote on a previous post). I hate to say, as a person that makes art, that I’ve never gotten into art history so much in regard to styles, eras, ‘famous’ artists, etc. I just like what I like, and more often than not, it’s something you don’t find in the textbooks (Van Gogh is an exception)… But I’ve always enjoyed reading personal accounts from artists whose work I enjoy, because I think that’s the only way to know what’s going on in their head and in turn what inspires their work (as opposed to someone else’s interpretation, etc). From what I’ve read, Van Gogh, in fact, seemed frustrated by the public’s and critics’ views of him as opposed to how he viewed himself. So… here’s a few more:
“Do you know what frees one from this captivity? It is every deep serious affection. Being friends, being brothers, love, these open the prison by supreme power, by some magic force. Where sympathy is renewed, life is restored.”
“Love a friend, a wife, something, whatever you like, but one must love with a lofty and serious intimate sympathy, with strength, with intelligence, and one must always try to know deeper, better, and more.”
“That which fills my head and my heart must be expressed in drawings or pictures.”
by ruralpearl | Feb 22, 2012 | Inspiration
Brooklyn, NY, 2006
“When I saw you again, and walked with you, I had the self same feeling which I used to have, as if life were something good and precious which one must value, and I felt more cheerful and alive.” -Vincent Van Gogh
by ruralpearl | Feb 21, 2012 | Inspiration, Photos
Upon returning from a ‘get-outta-the-house’ mind clearing walk, I found this squirrel hanging out by my deck looking for something to eat.. So I tossed him a handful of sunflower seeds, and he let me come as close as I wanted.. And we hung out for about half an hour.. Strangely I had just read the following Bob Ross quote before I took a walk (I enjoy reading quotes often..):
“People look at me like I’m a little strange, when I go around talking to squirrels and rabbits and stuff. That’s ok. Thaaaat’s just ok.”
The same squirrel is, as I type, sitting right outside my screen door next to where I am, and there’s a red-shafted flicker and a female downy woodpecker about 1/3 it’s size competing for space on my bird feeder while a male cardinal spies them from a neighboring tree. And I’m totally enjoying it all. (It’s the simple things..)
by ruralpearl | Feb 20, 2012 | Inspiration
South Dakota wildflower, 2010.
I pulled the following quotes by Thich Nhat Hanh out of an article I read this morning that I think is pretty spot on.. Read the article titled Beyond environment: falling back in love with Mother Earth HERE.
“The Earth cannot be described either by the notion of matter or mind, which are just ideas, two faces of the same reality. That pine tree is not just matter as it possesses a sense of knowing. A dust particle is not just matter since each of its atoms has intelligence and is a living reality… When we recognise the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is born in us, some kind of connection, love is born… We want to be connected. That is the meaning of love, to be at one. When you love someone you want to say I need you, I take refuge in you. You do anything for the benefit of the Earth and the Earth will do anything for your wellbeing.”
“If we are able to touch deeply the historical dimension – through a leaf, a flower, a pebble, a beam of light, a mountain, a river, a bird, or our own body – we touch at the same time the ultimate dimension. The ultimate dimension cannot be described as personal or impersonal, material or spiritual, object or subject of cognition – we say only that it is always shining, and shining on itself.. Touching the ultimate dimension, we feel happy and comfortable, like the birds enjoying the blue sky, or the deer enjoying the green fields. We know that we do not have to look for the ultimate outside of ourselves – it is available within us, in this very moment.”
by ruralpearl | Feb 16, 2012 | Inspiration
The beginning of my day: sparkling frosted fields, barely sunlit sky, rural roads, hot coffee, good company coming through my speakers…
by ruralpearl | Feb 16, 2012 | Inspiration
“Awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.”
-C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew
Atchison County, KS, 2009.
by ruralpearl | Feb 15, 2012 | Inspiration, Photos
Western Kansas, 2009.
“I always think that we live, spiritually, by what others have given us in the significant hours of our life. These significant hours do not announce themselves as coming, but arrive unexpected. Nor do they make a great show of themselves; they pass almost unperceived. Often, indeed, their significance comes home to us first as we look back, just as the beauty of a piece of music or of a landscape often strikes us first in our recollection of it. Much that has become our own in gentleness, modesty, kindness, willingness to forgive, in veracity, loyalty, resignation under suffering, we owe to people in whom we have seen or experienced these virtues at work, sometimes in great matter, sometimes in a small. A thought which had become act sprang into us like a spark, and lighted a new flame within us.
I do not believe that we can put into anyone ideas which are not in him already. As a rule there are in everyone all sorts of good ideas, ready like tinder. But much of this tinder catches fire, or catches it successfully, only when it meets some flame or spark from outside, i.e. from some other person. Often, too, our own light goes out, and is rekindled by some experience we go through with a fellow man. Thus we have each of us cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flames within us.”
-Albert Schweitzer, from “The Light Within Us”
by ruralpearl | Feb 13, 2012 | Inspiration
I woke up to more than I thought would fall. I like the quietness (and being part of it) that comes along with snow.. I tried to get that quietness across in my fawn paper cutting that I did back in 2009.
by ruralpearl | Feb 11, 2012 | Inspiration
“…So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.” -T. S. Eliot
Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, 2009.
