Thanksgiving ... and Sunsets in the Garden

By loving, forgiving, and serving, 

it is possible for your whole life to become one single vision 

of the sublime beauty of God.

~Hazrat Inayat Khan

Don't you just love that quote?! I get daily quotes and lessons sent to my email daily, called "Bowl of Saki" and so many are just incredibly thoughtful and beautiful. Thanksgiving seemed to be a perfect day to share a few of them.

These photos are from various evenings in my parents' cactus garden. (Ojai, California) For some reason, it's one of the most beautiful places to watch a sunset! Perhaps it's the grand sculptural shapes or the way the light reflects off the hills in that particular part of the valley, but I find myself often running outside to that garden when the sun is going down.

It is not the solid wood that can become a flute,

it is the empty reed.

~Hazrat Inayat Khan

 

the commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

It is not solid wood that can become a flute, but  the empty reed. It is the perfection of that passiveness in the heart of the messenger which gives scope for the message from above; for the messenger is the reed, the instrument. The difference between his life and the life of the average man is that the latter is full of self. It is the blessed soul whose heart is empty of self, who is filled with the light of God.

God is within you;

you are His instrument, 

and through you He expresses Himself 

to the external word.

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

The words 'within oneself' might confuse some people. They might think 'within oneself' means inside one's body ... If man only knew how large, how wide, how deep, how high is his being, he would think, act and feel differently; but with all his width, depth, and height, if man is not conscious of them he is as small as thinks himself to be. The essence of milk is butter, the essence of the flower is honey, the essence of grapes is wine, and the essence of life is wisdom.

There are those who are like a lighted candle:

they can light other candles, 

but the other candles must be of wax-

if they are of steel,

they cannot be lighted.

~Hazrat Inayat Khan

It is a very high stage on the path of love

when a man really learns to love another

with a love that asks no return.

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

Many blessings and much light to all of you.
Happy Thanksgiving dear friends!

Fall All Over

There is more to life 

than increasing its speed.

~ Gandhi

Yes the title of the post has a double meaning ... I fell last week and took a header down a driveway. I'm blaming the whole daylight savings/time change thing (for everything) any chance I get, so let's go with that! It's usually light when I come out of my student's house, and with my arms full of art supplies ... well, you get the idea. Anyway, nothing broken, just a bit bruised so I got lucky! Phew!

So, after two Aleve, a bag of frozen peas on my knees and a little glass ofDon Julio Añjeo I cuddled up, and it felt like fall.

Paradiso, Assisi

I mentioned a few posts ago about looking for signs of fall in Los Angeles, or at least fall colors. On Pinterest I have a board called "Artful Autumn" with various images of paintings and photographs by all sorts of people that speak to me of fall. Sometimes it's just the colors and tones.

Anyway, I decided to go through some of my travel photos and see what I could find, from past trips that I'd taken in the fall (that I hadn't already posted.) Most of the photos are between 2008-2014. 
I threw in a few of my earth toned artworks in the mix as well.

Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 

Ojai, California

Happiness is when what you think,

what you say,

and what you do

are in harmony.

~Mahatma Gandhi

Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 

Ink and conte on paper, 2008

Freedom is not worth having 

if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

~ Gandhi 

Shrewsbury

Lake Como, Italy

Rome, Italy

La Maddelena, Rome

The weak can never forgive.

Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

~Mahatma Gandhi

Shrewsbury

When I admire the wonders of a sunset

or the beauty of the moon,

my soul expands

in the worship of the creator.

~ Gandhi 

Sancta Santorum, Rome

 Ink and gauche on paper, 2008

Ojai, California (2012)

Piemonte, Italy

 Shrewsbury

Rome

Shrewsbury

Assisi, Italy

King Gilette Ranch, Santa Monica Mountains

You must not lose faith in humanity.

Humanity is an ocean;

if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,

the ocean does not become dirty.

~Gandhi

Cat Sanctuary, Rome

Watercolor on Paper, 2013

Lake Casitas Ojai California

This was the post I was planning to put up over the weekend before the attacks in Paris. So many of the Gandhi quotes synchronistically resonate. Along with all of you, I am continuing to keep Paris in my thoughts and prayers, as well as Beirut, Iraq, Syria, Central Africa, those that lost loved ones in the plane crash in Russia, and the 60 million refugees and internally displaced. My dear friend's family also lost a loved one last week, and they are always in my mind and my heart.

Where love is,

God is also.

~Mahatma Gandhi

Blessings and light
Stay safe
Heart open

Vive la France

Sending love and prayers to France and to everyone affected by Friday's terrible events. It's heart breaking.

I was working on another post but I went through my files of students' artworks and wanted to post these pictures instead. You can see the Eiffel Tower is a favorite subject for the kids, and a perfect subject for today's post.

Shelby's Moonlit Eiffel Tower, 2013

Lana and her Eiffel Tower at Sunset, 2015

Delilah's Hello Kitty Picnics by the Eiffel Tower, 2013

Leo (4) and his Eiffel Tower in Animation, in 2012

 From Marianne Williamson's Facebook page ...

Dear God, 
Please send your angels to the city of Paris. 
Pour forth your love upon all her people. 
Bless those who suffer and protect those in danger. 
Work a miracle in Paris
and everywhere.
Thank you, God.
Amen

Blessings and light

A Saturday in Pasadena ~ PMCA and Corita Kent

Maybe we are less than our dreams,

but that less would make us

more than some gods would dream of.

~Corita Kent

Pasadena Museum of California Art

A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with my friend Karen in Pasadena and chatting. All of the sudden she said, "I have free passes to the Pasadena Museum of California Art." Neither of us had been before and we looked at the clock and figured if we raced over there, we'd have a little more than an hour. So, out the door we went!

Love the moment,

and the energy of that moment

will spread beyond all boundaries.

~Corita Kent

Turns out the main exhibition was of Los Angeles artist, Corita Kent (1918-1986), who was also known as Sister Mary Corita. She was a sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and rose to fame during the 60s and 70s, for her serigraphs. Her art is a reflections of her spirituality and her conviction as an activist, often making statements about social justice and what was happening in the world, at that time.

admirable exchange

1951

Someday is Now

The Art of Corita Kent

June 14, 2015-Novemeber 1, 2015

the lord is with thee

1952

This quick video explains a bit about her work.

christ suffering over jerusalem

1951

then feathers all

1958

All the alphabet, done in 1968

(from above piece)

YOUR

NAME

is 

A

golden 

bell

hung in

my HEART

I would

bReAK

my body 

to pieces

to CALL

you

ONCe By

youR

NAME.-

f is for food

1964

(from above piece)

is 

FOR

FOOD

FULL

FINE

FAVORITE

FLOWERS

FUN

FLAVOR

FREEDOM

FRANK

FOUNDATION

FOUNTAIN

FAITH

FRIENDS

help the big bird
1966

only you and i (2parts)
1969

The moment in which light comes

is God

Only you and I can help the sun 

rise each morning.

If we don't it may drench itself out in sorrow.

~Camus

 tiger
1965

if
1965

... Someday when we're dreaming

Deep in love, not a lot to say Then we will remember

Things we said today

Me, I'm just the lucky kind

Love to hear you say that love is luck

And though we may be blind

Love is here to sty and that's enough

~McCartney and Lennon

This is a great little documentary about her, with interviews with people who knew her. In this video I think you get a really good sense of her as an artist and educator. Go ahead and skip to 2:05, if you'd like. That's when it gets going!

new hope

1966

 (from above)

i love you much 

(most beautiful darling)

more than anyone on earth and I like you better

than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singing welcome your coming

although winter may be everywhere

with such a silence and such a darkness

no one can quite begin to guess

(except my life) the true time of year-

and if what calls itself a world 

should have the luck to hear singing

(or glimpse such sunlight as will leap higher than high

through gayer than gayer someone's heart at your each nearness)

everyone certainly would 

(my most beautiful darling

believe in

nothing but love

~e.e. cummings

be, of love, (a little) more careful,

than of everything

1967

 I think this one, above, was my favorite.

After the museum we went to El Cholo in Pasadena for margaritas and appetizers, then walked around a bit and wondered into Pasadena Antique Mall which had various vendors. One of the vendors had these amazing pieces of stone!

Amazing malachite, right? They were 450.00 and 500.00. The Labradorite below was breathtaking and was 240.00.

Heading back to the car, she wanted me to see the beautiful Pasadena City Hall building, with its Spanish Colonial/Mediterranean Revival architecture, which was completed in 1927. It was designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. and John Bakewell, Jr.

Life is a succession of moments.

To live each one is to succeed.

~Corita Kent

video footage of Sister Corita ...

To visit the PMCA (Pasadena Museum of California Art) website, click here.

For more about Corita Kent, you can visit the Corita Kent Art Center website here.

(It located in Los Angeles at the Immaculate Heart High School.)

Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us.

To create means to relate.

The root meaning of the word art 

is to fit together

and we all do this everyday.

Not all of us are painters but we are all artists.

Each time we fit things together

we are creating-whether it is a loaf of bread,

a child, or a day.

~Corita Kent

Blessings and light!