Circling in on Creative Wisdom

As January comes to an end, the year sees its first thirty-one days left as etchings in our minds. The memories hint at a body of experience yet to come, serving as a skeletal platform of what we now know. In this manner, this month's offering is a skeleton of words, proposing a life experience between birth and death. A mere 20 words including the title, it had to circle in both directions, becoming an organic flow of circular poetic verse. It was inspired by leaves, which began as cells underground then grew to tilt towards the sky, neither buried nor carried on the wind, but living somewhere in between two planes, mimicking our own existence. Read it forward then backward or see if there are other combinations. As in life, let curiosity be your guide.
  branching out-                                 out branching-                      
   strung between poles,                    in the creative
   my childhood infirmity                    wisdom
   that holds                                          now
   the truth                                            reflecting
   in beauty,                                          in beauty,
   reflecting                                          the truth
   now                                                    that holds
   wisdom                                             my childhood infirmity
   in the creative-                               strung between poles-
A circle with a simple twist becomes infinity-the shape of eternity.

This Train is Bound for Glory

Closing out 2011, Ticket Book, a singular verse project, was sent to the local Alzheimer's Association to fulfill a fundraising request for art palettes to auction. Check it out in the viewing pane on the right. It's a two part work that integrates a model train layout collage on an artist's palette with a singular verse bound in a ticket jacket. The layout is called "A Life Laid Out" and honors my father who lived with Alzheimer's Disease for over a decade. The verse entitled "An Impression of Alzheimer's" describes his disease process of hoarding gone wild, a neurological exaggeration of his thrifty saving. Even in his disease, he was a singular man, who I miss very much. When I was contemplating what to do with the palette, I thought of collaging a brain since the palette shape was similar. So, I started in the realm of pink paint as part of the 10 layer collage process. While the piece was developing, I took a trip to Sedona and hoped the pink landscape would provide additional inspiration. Looking at the terrain, I found my pink. Then, a train went by, a very, very long train, and I thanked my dad for his gift of divine encouragement. He was an avid train enthusiast, so the deconstructed map reveals locations important to him in his life journey. From Key West to Cambridge, Cincinnati to San Diego, and points in between, my dad worked as a chief engineer in the aerospace program, earning a commendation from NASA while working at a small engineering firm. As the train runs around the track with the ghost of my dad in the engineer's seat, my mother sits in a boxcar with Denver a mile high above her as a hurricane touches down in the Southeast. My brother, my dog, and I all wait on a distant shore, as we did as children listening for the whistle of the train that would carry us West. Alzheimer's is a disease of memory loss. Perhaps in the process of recalling the very best times of our lives, we finally transcend our losses.
https://sanalz.ejoinme.org/MyEvents/MIMArtAuction2012/tabid/299638/Default.aspx

Whirlpool Galaxy and a Peaceful Intersection

I have been so fascinated by the Whirlpool Galaxy some 31 million light years away from us in the Hunting Dogs constellation. It may be because I love dogs, and hunt for my dogs in my dreams. It may be because I love the spiral, a symbol of breath, the pulsing swirl of the spirit, and life force. It may be because this galaxy is birthing stars, and who does not love the sense of that creation. We see its individual offspring as distant lights of a starry night in our Milky Way. Whatever the reason, it is the interaction of two galaxies intersecting that creates a force strong enough to compress the spiral and birth a star. For me, the potential in the intersection is magic. There has been so much opposition in the world today, whether for conflict and supremacy or for fairness and justice. Conflict is conflict, whether it is armed engagement or violent protest. If grandma's rules are correct, then you catch more bees with honey, so how do we lessen conflict and opposition? It seems to me the answer is in the heavens. We propose instead of oppose, and bring into a peaceful intersection the new with the old to regenerate. In short, we birth...new ideas, new projects, new creations, new individuals, new communities, and renewed selves. We birth to instill the perpetuity of life in our galaxy and perhaps beyond. Welcoming the end of the year and the birth of the next one, as 2011 draws to a close.

Tour the galaxy at: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/tours/tour-m51/