Art Floozie

This week I saw Monet's water lilies in the flesh for the first time...
 it was a breathtakingly, achingly beautiful exhibition at NGV in Melbourne....
.... moved me to tears... and being privy to the work of the master has left me wondering so much about where to go with my own creative work....

With spring growth putting on a spurt, I am drawn outside to the garden, to create & maintain... inside the cluttered studio tells the story of someone who has never specialised in, or perfected any medium...

I confess, I am an art Floozie, with a capital F! I haven't had one life-long passionate love affair with any particular medium, in fact I'll play with any pretty thing that comes along! Some may be horrified at my lack of fidelity, but I simply can't pass up a new creative experience...... yet I don't consider myself "dilettante", which implies being hopeless... I am brilliantly, blissfully happy in all my art relationships...

There is potential for creative expression in almost any activity, whether tidying my personal space, or making something for others...

I like to make my work from many blended elements - knitting with 30 or 40 colours thrills me, and mosaics that employ varying shades of hundreds of carefully cut pieces of glazed tile delight me...

I'd never make a meal from one ingredient, yet those I choose must compliment & balance each other, lest they result in indigestion, and a badly executed painting has a similar effect on the mind.... on it goes, into every area of my life, this ordering, this impossible quest for beauty & perfection....

So, I think life generally, is an opportunity to express myself & connect with my inspiration, whatever I happen to be doing at the time... 
BUT, is this art? Is a life well lived one in which creativity has been priority, as well as pleasure?
 A reason for living could be to create a channel through which the Arwen flows unimpeded... but is it art?

Taking sides

....trees are helpful for finding your point of view....

...some people say it can be hard to see the wood for them....

...a Kookaburra seems to know what to do... just laughs, & finds a better vantage point....

 

..... perhaps your point of view might depend upon which side of the tree you find yourself standing on.....

Blessings of Imbolc and Lughnasadh

Waiting for spring feels akin to waiting for the first breath of a baby... all is anticipation for the new life that is...

The wisdom of the seed (or in this case, bulb!) is to store potential for growth...but it needs the animation of fire, the sun's illumination, to grow....

....this morning, as I reflect upon on the association of this time of year with Goddess Brigit, flame within the icy waters, it occurs to me that as midwife and healer, poet and smith, nothing in this world manifests without the warmth of illumination, and tender care.... that potential locked within a protective casing of ice over the fallow period of winter, now needs to be gently nurtured to fruition...

In my part of the world, we have had no snow over winter this year, but the symbolism still fits... the spring thaw has begun, and I look forward to a new season of growth and hope for a fine harvest.

In the South, I wish you the gentle blessings of Brigit's clear light, and in the North, I wish you the blessings of Lugh - God of golden sunshine - may you enjoy stamina enough to reap a fine golden harvest.