This month I reached an age milestone, in company this year with Liza Minelli, Candace Bergen, Cher, Sally Field, and others. My birthday celebration will continue through July and August with a solo show of art and poetry in our church’s art gallery!
It has been a lot of fun choosing the paintings and poems for “This Earthly Garden,” putting the final touches on the text, which is now being made into a catalogue, choosing frames, framing, paintings and poems, then attaching hanging wires. I’ve beavered away at all the big and little jobs, so now, just over a month from the date we’ll hang the show, I can see the finish line!
But putting together this show has depleted my creative energy. I’ve painted only a few original works during the last couple of months, many of them small pieces. I’m actually fine with this, as I recognize I’m in a sharing season of my creative practice. which demands its own energy.
Today I’ll share one of the pieces I painted during this time. It was inspired by a bed of rocks that borders a nearby condominium. It made me more aware than ever, of the beautiful ordinary around us.
The poem was originally written and gifted to a fellow-poet in a 2012 poem swap.
Rockhound
“I have jars and jars and jars of rocks
and shells in my studio.” – Katya C.
Soapstone and sandstone
porphyry, slag …
I fill all my pockets
and carry a bag.
Scoria, gabbro
schist, mica and flint
in rust, white or yellow
smooth, banded or glint.
Argillite, anthracite
quartz and feldspar—
hurry them home
to my rock collect jar.
Tiger’s eyes, unakites
agates and shales
dream of their middle-earth
riverbed tales.
Travertine, basalt
obsidian, chalk.
Listen. Be still.
You might hear the rocks talk.
Serpentine, marble
jade, pumice and tuff …
I can’t stop collecting
I’ve never enough!
© 2012 —Violet Nesdoly
That’s it for May. Wishing you all a happy June!
Violet Nesdoly 