“Someone I have been,
and someone I am just,
about to become,
something I am and will be forever,
the sheer generosity of being loved through loving:
the miracle reflection of a twice blessed life."
       -David Whyte

A Rainer Maria Rilke poem that I find full of meaning -
and part of the story behind my triptych
Alchemy River.

Ah, not to be cut off,
not through the slightest partition
shut out from the law of the stars.
The inner — what is it?
if not intensified sky,
hurled through with birds and deep
with the winds of homecoming.

The piece came to be upon pondering the exploring and learning of the outer world--career, social life, raising family, financial obligations-with our inner life-the world of thought, feelings and self that the outer world doesn't see or experience. My early years I drew and painted birds, birds, birds. They are symbolic of the outer world along with the air they fly in. Fish and water have taken space in the last few years. They represent my inner world. This diptych is the combination of the two worlds co-existing.

As a former high school educator, I have experienced real-time lock downs, and practice drills for shooters and other catastrophic events. I can't imagine the trauma of a true shooter for people in a school. The HYPOCRISY of our ELECTED congressional people who DARE to put the NRA ahead of our children and educators and support staff in our public schools is APPALLING to me. GUN LAWS MUST CHANGE. The March for Our Lives movement has been given to us by strong, brave and enlightened youth. I SUPPORT THEM.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Bob Dylan

I live my life in growing orbits,
which move out over the things of the world.
Perhaps I can never achieve the last,
but that will be my attempt.
I am circling around God,
around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and I still don't know if I am a falcon,
or a storm,
or a great song.

- Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours

And so she presents the first chapter-poem, which she titles “Taoing”:
The way you can go
isn’t the real way.
The name you can say
isn’t the real name.
Heaven and earth
begin in the unnamed:
name’s the mother
of the ten thousand things.
So the unwanting soul
sees what’s hidden,
and the ever-wanting soul
sees only what it wants.
Two things, one origin,
but different in name,
whose identity is mystery.
Mystery of all mysteries!
The door to the hidden.
In a sentiment that calls to mind Susan Sontag’s abiding admonition against interpretation, Le Guin writes:
Everything Lao Tzu says is elusive. The temptation is to grasp at something tangible in the endlessly deceptive simplicity of the words… It is the profound modesty of the language that offers what so many people for so many centuries have found in this book: a pure apprehension of the mystery of which we are part

Winter has it's own palette...moody blues, creams, whites...especially here in Montana. Those colors elicited these two pieces:
The End is the Beginning I & II--A Labyrinth Journey.
24"x24"x2.5 acrylic, gold leaf and glazed, they hold labyrinths impressed in venetian plaster. When we were in Hawaii in January 2018, we hiked and walked the most beautiful labyrinth setting I've ever experienced. It was that walk that inspired these two pieces. When we travel I check a website that is a registry of labyrinths around the world. It is really helpful in finding out of the way walks. This one is on public land, and about a 2 mile hike in. Mind blown!

My month of February started in such a delightful way! I met with eight brownies, a couple moms and a grandma leader and we worked on their painting badge. Second and third graders are so energizing! I was a brownie Scout and Junior scout in my younger years and loved the experience. I brought my heirloom scout outfit and scouting books. It was fun to share with the girls. I think their paintings turned out beautiful – but most important - each girl was proud of her masterpiece!

Mountain life. Cross country skiing in Red Lodge, Montana with the life long buddies. So fun! Skiing in the morning, tailgate lunch, shopping, Yahtzee, downtown dinner—nothing like girlfriend time!

Five dogs. Six big people. One one year old. A Bill and Will double header birthday. Snowshoeing. Card games. Food and more food. Mountain cabin. Most of all, love! Yep, total fun!

Last weekend we were barefoot in the Hawaiian sand, this weekend geared up in the Montana snow!

What lies within