Author: bsefran

The Tree Sets Sail

From the Tree as Symbol series : The Tree Sets Sail

The Tree sets sail; how absurd is that!  Well, perhaps you remember that in this series, The Tree is a symbol for the individual and /or for our society, even our “world”.  This is the world of myth, so a tree can sail!   Here, the Tree is not adrift; its own branches and leaves are its sails. It has left its safe harbour and is setting out  on a voyage into unknown waters.

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The real voyage of discovery consists not of seeking new  landscapes, but of seeing with new eyes. – MARCEL PROUST

Every day is not just another assignment. It is a small but contained voyage of discovery- DAVID DOUBILET

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. We must take the current when it serves, or lose the venture                    – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

 

Mixed Metaphor

I have always been fond of Oriental carpets, particularly irregular tribal ones, and have usually had one or more wherever I have lived, from childhood on. My most recent move was to an apartment where there was no space for my favorite rug. So it remained rolled up in storage. Later when I went to unroll it, out flew hundreds of moths! They had had such a good meal that, though I considered it, there was no sense in trying to restore it. So, sadly, out it went. A rug which had flown across several continents, both before it became mine, and afterwards as I moved, made a final journey into the garbage!

This is made from a photo of a poor replica of such a carpet, a small factory- made rug. The resulting twist reminds me both of a butterfly (a relative of the moth, I suppose!) and of the flying carpets of myth and children’s stories, both of which could be a metaphor for flying away to some wonderful place or state.

It is interesting to consider why you love to have certain objects around you in whatever place you may live. Is it because your childhood home had them? Is there a symbolic reason? For instance, I have lived in many types of dwelling, from one room to a large house, but just to name a few things, there always have to be cushions, handmade pottery, lots of little wooden drawers, in my home, and because I am a bookish woman, many shelves. (My ex said once, “you are a shelfish woman”. He had to build them!)

Do you have certain musts in your furnishings or decorations?

Mandala: Lines of Connection

Just as I have many Tree pictures, I also have quite a few mandalas, created in many different ways. It is the making of them, more than the final result, which is the project for me. It also happens to be soothing and absorbing in times of stress (such as during Covid 19 !)

This mandala, if it is “about” anything, is probably about the tangled interconnections between . . . everything!

A page about Mandalas in general is coming to the header soon.

At the edge of the woods

The edge of the woods… Did you think that meant looking in to the woods, or looking out towards the town from inside the woods !

SOME QUOTES ABOUT EDGES:
When you walk to the edge of all the light you have
and you take the first step into the darkness of the unknown,
you must believe that one of two things will happen:
There will be something solid for you to stand upon
or you will be taught to fly.
-Patrick Overton

“Life” is a concept, like the Universe, that expands as soon as we reach what we think is the edge. – Kamand Kojuri

Sooner or later, we will come to the edge of all that we can control and find life waiting there for us . – Rachel Naomi Remen

Through a blind, lightly

This is a picture probably best left undescribed, but if you do want an explanation . . . read on!

It shows a view of trees through one of those long roll-up patio blinds . Actually, there is a view of trees through that blind, but it’s not those particular trees. They are somewhere else! This is a composition using two different photos. The colours of the top one, the blind, are intensified.

Sometimes our distant memory actually does confuse or put together two different events!

Everything that we see, that we experience, is seen through filters of one sort or another: the amount of light (physical or mental) which we can shed upon it; our own personal and cultural history and our memory. Of course, generally speaking, we have to proceed, day by day, taking things as they appear to be but it is good to remember that whatever we see, it is always from a certain angle, from one physical, emotional or mental point-of-view, at a particular degree of magnification!

Perfectly Imperfect Mandala

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This mandala is titled “Perfectly Imperfect”:

1) because it is made from a photo of a natural process. 2) because I much prefer somewhat asymmetrical mandalas to rigidly constructed, perfectly circular ones.
3) Life, to me, is both “perfect” and imperfect. Don’t ask me to explain that one!!

I make my digital artworks in several different ways; the category, Art Methods (in the header) explains several of them for those interested. In the case of this post, the method explains the name, so I’ll tell you here. It’s simple: I notice something. I take a photograph of it. I play with it … and something else “arrives”!

I have a small, square black plate. I don’t have a dishwasher, so sometimes a few dishes may remain on the counter by the sink overnight! In the morning I noticed that as the plate dried, it had grown some crystals, flat ones like frosted glass, probably from a bit of salt or soda and probably a splash of dish-detergent. Where there was a glass standing on it, a circle appeared. I started to wipe the plate then realized that the circle was somewhat mandalic and I could make something of it. So I did!

This way of working appeals to me because it involves three things: the offerings of the world, chance, and whatever I make out of it. ( As we all do every day: just what we do with what we are given!)

All the added parts are cuts from the photo of tiny crystal formations. The picture below shows the black plate with the crystals. Unfortunately I wiped off the bottom part before it occurred to me to save it.

A City Called Life :All the World’s a Stage

All the World’s a Stage. From: A City Called Life Series

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. – William Shakespeare (from As You Like It)

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Tangled Garden: Chocolate Lilies

Tangled Garden Series : Chocolate lilies

Although I have a fondness for poppies and roses, it is wildflowers and ferns which I like best.

Native lilies are a real source of joy in the Springtime. My favorites are the white Camas lilies, also called Easter Lilies,  but unfortunately they don’t take well to this particular b/w style.  Instead, here, we have chocolate lilies!

Chocolate lilies, Fritillaria, are found all along the Pacific Coast from California up BC to Alaska.  The Salish and other indigenous peoples used them for food.  The root is bulb-like, containing  grains a bit like rice,  which could be boiled or steamed. They could also be dried and stored for the coming winter.

The name comes from the colour, a purplish brown, not the taste, which is somewhat bitter, and as for the smell, the nicest way to put it is a bit like skunk cabbage! This attracts flies, which are the pollinators rather than bees.

If you want to know more about this interesting plant, here’s one source, a great site about nature on the west coast:

https://heartofthewestcoast.com/2012/04/26/spring-feast-for-the-eyes-chocolate-lilies/

To all experience, Gassho. To all experience, I bow.

“To gassho” means just bringing the palms together and making a slight bow, like namaste.

This drawing (an actual drawing in this case, not digital) was part of an article which I wrote many years ago for the newsletter of the Zen Buddhist group with which I meditated. The article is called Bowing Happens and gives my take on the various kinds of bows, mainly for people who have difficulty with the idea of bowing! A gassho, here, is the kind of palms-together in front of the face little bow, with which many non-meditators also are familiar, an acknowledging, greeting, accepting bow.

The meditating person on their cushion, enfolded in the gassho-ing hands, is in black, because that is what we wear in zen when meditating (in a group). He or she is faceless because when we sit, we are (in one sense) self-less; we are as Buddha-mind. However, in the heart region, the region of compassion,  where there is a face which could be either a Buddha face or a female person (or both!)  this figure is also tenderly cradling a face with tears.   We hold all these factors, these “faces”, in our hearts.  

If anyone would like to read the full article, here is a PDF. Remember, this was just my viewpoint at the time, not a official one!

bowing-happens-aspdfDownload

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