If I told all the stories of the months between the last time I came here -
the story of an exceptionally challenging winter: deep, deep snow, arctic cold,
storm after storm, roof raking, food poisoning, sledding a new cord of wood over
the enormous snowplow mound to the woodshed, a major flood in the house
when the washing machine overflowed (luckily missing the new bamboo floor)
burn out and exhaustion - it might explain my absence here, and how,
when spring arrived and school ended, the only thing I wanted to do was to
be outside reveling in the sensual medicine of the earth.
I appreciate the emails from people wondering if all was OK. I am very much
better than I've been in a few years, but, coming out of a very long, dark,
underworld journey has meant a shifting so profound that, in my emerging,
I am blinded and taking time to refocus. As anyone who has gone to
the underworld knows, there are great gifts to be mined if one stays in the
dark mystery, trusting that it will be done only when it is done.
them from the river, listening to frogs and birds and the gentle ringing of Japanese
Temple bells in the Medicine Garden is replenishing the places that felt hollowed
and emptied.
I haven't been painting, all my creative energy is going into nurturing myself
and the plants and finishing projects in the Medicine Garden. I have forced
myself to do some of the business end of art, with a goal of finding a few
new galleries to represent me as I am shifting away from the ones I've worked
with before. Like most artists, this is my least favorite part of it all, but to balance
it with so much outside time is good. So if I am not in the studio, I am creating
beauty in the garden, and, for me, it is all about beauty, in the many ways
that it can be defined.
Rhu Bear is a big kitty now, just over a year, and over ten pounds. He is really
quite a character, mostly well behaved, but sometimes very, very naughty. He
has obviously come here to fill my heart with joy and to throw in an occasional
monkey wrench in case I'm getting too comfortable.
Though these paintings were made while the snow was still waist deep (which
actually wasn't that long ago!) I just got them back from my photographer and
wanted to share them with you as I don't believe they were posted here yet.
We'll see what happens when I get back into the studio, which will be soon,
but I was finding lots of pathways to explore with these last ones.
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| "Blue Shadows" watercolor on paper, 15" x 22", V. Claff, 2015 |
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| "Winter Forest" watercolor on paper, 15" x 22", V. Claff, 2015 |
