Southern California ~ In Gold, Green and Blue

Watch for all that Beauty reflecting from You

and sing a Love song to your Existence.

~ Rumi

This post is a mix of pics from the last few months, since Christmas, that I never got around to sharing!

Ah! And who doesn't love a little Bach!?

These first photos are in Ojai, just after Christmas ... A photo walk with my niece and nephew.

We are all bathed in the same light.

~Rumi

Los Angeles after the rain ... (yes, it actually rained!)

The alleys behind Melrose never get paved, so you must be extra careful not to lose a tire! Makes for cool patterns and reflections after the rain though!

Tractor Landscape

Mixed Media on Paper

Wyatt, 9 
Artist and creative philosopher  

Back in Ojai, in January or February ...

All the particles of the world are in love.

~Rumi

Each Moment contains

a Hundred messages from God.

~ Rumi

Oh look!

I open my eyes and the Beloved

releases the sun, the wind, the trees,

the birdsong, all for me to play with.

~ Rumi

Inspired by Georgia

Animation cell, mixed media 

Ruby, 9
Artist, hugger, and my tap dance instructor  

 Do you know what you are?

You are a manuscript of a divine letter.

You are a mirror reflecting a noble face.

This universe is not outside of you.

Look inside yourself;

everything that you want,

you are already that.

~ Rumi

Happy April, my friends!

Blessings and light!

Avila Beach!

Avila Beach!

January 2015

After driving around the ranch the day before, (see previous two posts!) we enjoyed some great food and a lot of really nice wine. We had planned to go wine tasting the following day but after sampling all that really nice wine ... wine tasting didn't sound so good, all of the sudden.

New plan. We headed into town, to San Luis Obispo, for a big healthy salad and then a lovely view of the ocean! I'd never been to Avila Beach, and really wanted to see it, after hearing raves from my bosses, at the art studio. They go every summer, on their week off. 

It was a gorgeous January day, just after New Years and a great way to start the year off! Somehow,  I can always breathe better by the ocean. My heart and lungs open, and I have a sense of peace ... and freedom.

Here's some music for the journey ...

Freedom is the oxygen 

of the soul.

~Moshe Dayan

The freedom we are looking for 
is the freedom to be ourselves,
to express ourselves.
~Don Miguel Ruiz

The best freedom
is being yourself.
~Jim Morrison

All good things 

are wild and free.

~Henry David Thoreau

Freedom requires 

that you discover your own inner language

you own life rules-

your own vision.

~Zephyr Bloch Jorgensen 

My friend Tim. Thanks Tim!!!

For to be free

is not merely to cast off 

one's chains,

but to live in a way that respects and enhances

the freedom of others.

~Nelson Mandela

Letting go

gives us freedom, 

and freedom is the only condition for happiness.

If, in our heart, we still cling to anything -

anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Blessings and light, my friends!

Rustic Beauty and Decay ~ An old Mine ...

There is something so visually interesting to me about something in a state of decay. When there are wonderful textures and vibrant combinations of color, in an ever slowly changing state ... it is even more fantastic! 

These photos were taken up at my friend Tim's ranch up near Santa Maria. On the property there is an old diatomaceous earth mine, which was so fun to photograph!

Just heard this Debussy piece, below, at the Disney Hall last month and somehow I thought of it, to go with this post! Please press play. ;)

Through that open spot in the photo above ... this is the view inside of the diatomaceous earth, left behind.

Life is one long decay, no?

There's a lot of beauty in it.

Like the patina in an old city.

~Urs Fischer

Love creating abstracts from the crazy colors and shapes and beautiful textures ... the rust and the blue below. Gotta love those complimentary colors! ;)

There is no such thing as death.

In nature nothing dies.

From each sad remnant of decay,

some forms of life arise.

~Charles Mackay

This, below, might be my favorite ...

I have always looked on decay as being 

just as wonderful 

and rich an expression of life

as growth.

~Henry Miller

If you don't know what Diatomaceous earth is, you can read this. What is cool, is that it consists of fossilized diatoms ... a type of hard-shelled algae! 

Hope you are having a beautiful March!

Blessings and light!