Belonging

I slept soundly last night. In my childhood bedroom, the clouded moonlight ghosting through the open windows. It was chilly and the air was clean, fresh, almost fall-like. The first place I ever belonged. It's for sale now, my parents planning to move closer to their kids.

Belonging...to place...is it where you feel peaceful, calm? The place that makes you smile when you look at the twilight skies or hear the name of the state or see the skyline from the plane as it is landing?

My childhood belonging was different then - as I sought to leave - to belong to something else. Going back now thought I can feel the pull, enveloped in nostalgia and bittersweet tones, the feeling of safety and the memories of summer and snow.

For the past almost decade I have belonged to another place and again I am leaving even though my heart clings to it...

I took some photos this weekend, the first bit of creativity in over a month. Perhaps I am ready to belong somewhere else or perhaps I now realize that the places I have belonged to will always belong to me?

On the Rails

Bolts. Connections. An old train. Cared for and maintained, it holds messages from all of it's rides down the rails. Connected to the past and the present.

From a Railway Carriage

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches,
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.

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Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and grazes;
And there is a green for stringing daisies!
Here is a cart run away in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone for ever!

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Fragments

Fragments is an ongoing portfolio inspired by looking deeper into a scene or image, with different outcomes. In the case of 'equine', as I looked deeper into a pattern on a tile in a hotel I was staying in, I could see (with eyes squinted a bit) the abstract outline of a horse's head.

In 'lights over danube', a chilly nighttime walk along the danube in budapest served as inspiration. The lights danced and blurred across the wide danube looking from Pest to Buda. The river wall reflecting the dancing lights and the scene loses context when considered in fragment.

'green tea fragments' takes on the same effect, losing the context of the cracked and peeling worn restaurant sign into something more serene.

The latest of the Fragments collection is 'sunset weeds' inspired by a late sunset walk where the very low warm orange of the sun was reflected as in panes of glass in a stand of golden weeds.

Probably a lesson here, embedded in the fragments, about complexity, looking more closely and not being afraid to alter perspective.

hope #twitterartexhibit

I've just finished up my entry, entitled 'hope', for the 2012 Twitter Art Exhibit, organized by the fantastic @DavidSandumArt http://bit.ly/w84C8y This is the (still wet) untrimmed view of  a 4"x6' acrylic and pigment pen on paper.

'Real' Painting

I have decided to try my hand at creating art from a non-digital beginning... a holiday gift of an assortment of paints, pens, pencils, pastels and papers have provided the motivation...so I have slid my Wacom aside for the weekend and began experimenting.

I've decided to begin my foray in small format - two postcard sized works - one realistic, and one abstract - both a watercolor and acrylic combination. To begin the effort, I decided to use watercolor pencils - which are quite cool and allow for a lot of flexibility in details without sacrificing effect.

My photo of Shavings and Scribbles is the sidebar to the work. Stay tuned for the finished products!