Bent Trees and Gratitude

Some of you may have noticed I have been rather absent lately, both in blogging and in my visits to your beautiful blogs. Some of you also know I went through some health craziness a few years ago. Strangely enough, the crazy and rather massive infection I had from my appendix rupturing ... well, it turns out it had found a place to hide out for three and a half years from all those antibiotics I took! In my left fallopian tube!

Well, poor little tube couldn't take it anymore, and had become very inflamed and was also becoming quite painful. Before going in, we actually had no idea what was going on, just that there was something really weird looking on the ultrasound. (So that was scary.)

Anyway, out it came, just in time before the infection was able to get back into my system. Phew. I'm very lucky. It's four weeks out from the surgery and I am feeling really good now, just working on getting my energy back and thinking about maybe signing up for aTai Chi class. Something new! What do you think?

The gift that health scares give you is a re-boot in the perspective department, and clarity in the form of gratitude and appreciation. It's like the lens of a camera ... all of the sudden there is more depth of field and your sense of everything (life) becomes broader and clearer and in many ways, more beautiful. For that, I am so grateful.

I'm excited to get around to your blogs and see what you have all been up to! Hope you've all stayed cool this summer (unless it's your winter!) and have been healthy and happy and well!

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect.

Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways

and they're still beautiful.

~Alice Walker

Umbrian Olive Grove, Assisi Italy

Pastel with oil underpainting

Blessings and light to you, my friends!

Inspiring Little Women part 3

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap

but by the seeds you plant.

~Robert Louis Stevenson

This is my 3rd post with this theme but I love to share what these "little women" can do! They are not only inspiring because of their amazing talent but their beautiful spirits, as well. I just love em'!

The Clown

charcoal on paper

Zola, age 15

Dog Portrait in a Garden
Watercolor and charcoal on paper

Ellie, age 7

The Wave

Acrylic on canvas board

We don't see things the way they are, 

we see things they way WE are.

~The Talmud

Isabella, age 8 3/4

Dolphins at Sunset
Pastel on Paper

Amber, age 16

Jumping in Landscape
ink on paper

Molly, age 14

Hummingbird Portrait
Watercolor on paper

Roxy, age 11

Sunset Lake
Watercolor on Paper

Eliza, age 11

Bust from Antiquity
Charcoal on paper

Molly, age 13

I found that if you love life

it will love you back.

~Arthur Rubenstein

Like I said, this isn't a new theme for a post
... if you want to see part 2, from last year, click Here
If you want to see part 1, (and Zola at 13) click Here

Hope you are all keeping cool, if it's your summer and
loving life, wherever you are.

Blessings and light!

LACMA - Art Mix And A Big ol' Rock.

A couple of weeks ago I finally made it over to see Levitated Mass at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Levitated Mass became kind of big deal in L.A. In large part, because of what it took to get this 340-ton megalith, the 105 miles, from Riverside County to Wilshire and Fairfax. Actually, it's close to 6th Street, but anyway the rock finally made it, and so did I.

Levitated Mass

To get a better idea of the 11 day journey, that traveled no faster than 5 to 8 miles an hour, check out this YouTube video ...

Before heading to see levitated mass (above), we (my friend Marcello and I) walked through the other galleries. Here's a little sampling of what we saw. Remember to click on the photo to enlarge! :)

Group of Figures (Groupe de Personnages)

Joan Miro'

1933

Egyptian relief ... I forgot to write down the info on this, but isn't it beautiful?!

Michael Heizer: Actual Size

"A series of fifteen individual photographic prints from 1970 of actual size monolithic rocks. Taken together, Levitated Mass and these installations make a statement about humanity that is both sweeping in scope and specific to our time. "We live in a world that's technologic and primordial simultaneously," Heizer has said. "I guess the idea is to make art that reflects this premise."

Sorry it's a little dark to see ... 

Loved the life sized photos in the exhibition. 
Marcello and I had some fun with this. 

Archangel Raphael
Italy, Naples  c.1600
Polychromed and gilded, wood 70 inches  
(he's up on a podium so he seems to hover over the gallery - he's beautiful and totally awesome! :)

Drouet, 1859  (Love how gorgeous and loose this Whistler is! He was the man!)
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Print, Etching and drypoint

October   (click to enlarge!!! This piece is so so beautiful!!!)
George Inness

Oil on panel, 1882

The Cotton Pickers
Winslow Homer
1876

Here we go! Heading down the 456-foot-long concrete slot, over which they placed the big old rock! 

Love the play of light and shadow ...

There was a guy underneath it hanging out with his kid for awhile, which just seemed wrong. I ran.

And out I went ... to the other side.

The best thing, with all the hype of this rock coming, was that it has brought so many people to the museum!

For more on Levitated Mass click here.

Congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant

and broken the monotony of a decorous age.

~Emerson quotes

Hope you are all enjoying the summer!

Blessings and light!