vernal/spring 2016
Ancestry and Gratitude are the two streams of thought and experience occupying my work this spring. Due to generous funding and support, I am engaged in an art residency with open time for new studio work, studies, and writing. The environment I live in for this month of April is on a corridor of land crowned by a single great mountain known as “The House of the Sun”. The title is very appropriate. With its large size yet low profile, from the air its portrait resembles the ageless iron shields of Greek Warriors, with their distinguishing features of a central raised area surrounded by a circular gently sloping surface.
The images in this Blog’s banner show two sketches from previous art journal entries that I feel are applicable in a serendipitous way to this HI-Art Residency, as I have named it; on the right –a woman in solitude writing and contemplating (Retreat Series), and on the left –bare feet in sand shaped loosely like flower petals (111 Drawings of My Feet). The center image is from an Indelible Presence retreat showing a group art offering, arranged on the retreat’s final day of celebration and dedication of merit. The character “heart” is calligraphed on circular gold sun discs.
At this point, being immersed in the process of engagement with my work and mentorship once a week in an accomplished and well-known local artist’s studio, I will refrain from saying more about the actual residency. Honoring this opportunity by remaining in the present without much elaboration is foremost to my process. For now, I would like to express my deep and lasting gratitude to those in my life who have made this opportunity possible.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.