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| 'Fields of Gold' by Allard One |
I just planted some purple vinca ground cover around my new
Purple Ghost Japanese Maple. The tree is only two years old and very tiny still. I buried the ashes from my last Golden
Retriever, Buffy, at the bottom of the tree hole and sat down for a moment
remembering her.
I also thought about
the rope swing hanging from my 75-year-old maple. I love to swing and do so whenever I have the
chance. I repeated to myself the poem I
learned as a child; ‘The Swing’ from Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘A Child’s Garden
of Verses’. I read those poems to my
children and grandchildren. Since April
is Poetry Month, I want to share this poem with you.
The Swing
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside—
Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown—
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
Beats of a Different Drum
Pink Martini is an orchestra that has appeared several times
in Omaha and their focus is jazz, pop, classical, and world music. They started in the 90s in San Francisco and
have made an international name for themselves.
They started playing together because they wanted fun and interesting
music to play at fundraisers. Since Arts
for All is a non-profit and we do fundraisers too, I thought it was
appropriate. Here is their song, 'Hang On, Little Tomato'. Check them out!
Here’s a poem that goes along with this season as well as
Poetry Month. It is called ‘The Spring
Wind’ and can be found with other seasonal poems in the poetry book ‘Changes’
by Charlotte Zolotow.
The summer wind
Is soft and sweet
The winter wind is strong
The autumn wind is mischievous
And sweeps the leaves along.
The wind I love the best
Comes gently after rain
Smelling of spring and growing things
Brushing the world with feathery wings
While everything glistens, and everything sings
In the spring wind
After the rain.
Now here's some "eye candy" for you. I’m curious if you would consider this art. There is a woman named Kristen Cummings who
uses Jelly Belly’s Jelly Beans as the ‘paint’ for her art. She uses many different shades to create
depth and realism, much like working with mosaics. She has sold her sweet works for thousands
and has many of them displayed at the Jelly Belly corporate gallery. It takes her a week to turn 12,000 jelly beans
into a work of art! There are 50
different flavors of jelly beans, so that’s how many colors she can work
with. In this interview with CBS,
Cummings says ‘I like making things out of weird stuff’.
Come to Your Senses
The colors of Spring are subtle at first…fresh greens poking
out of the ground and budding from trees.
Then the whites, pinks, reds, purples, and yellows of the flowering
trees and springtime blooms begin to greet the warming weather. In my yard, I sit close to an early flowering
lilac, red and yellow tulips, and a crab apple tree now in bloom. I love color and I can’t imagine a world
without it. However, my eyes are getting
worse every day. Because of birth
defects with my eyes, glaucoma, cancer medicines, and age…my eyes don’t see as
clearly as they once did. Losing my
sight would be worse than cancer, for me, because I love the world I see. For these reasons, we will be focusing on
color this month…as well as circles.
Try making a color wheel.
Colormatters has some useful information on color theory, you may
want to check out their site. Start with
the primary colors: red, yellow, and
blue. Then add the secondary colors and
follow that with the tertiary colors.
These colors, and so many more, impact our lives in ways we don’t often
think about. They can change your mood
and energy, give you a sense of peace or joy…even the lighting in a room or
shadows over colors can have subtle effects on our emotions. Think about how you decorate your home, yard,
and environment. Does it feel good to
you, fight you, displease you, or calm you?
Are there color combinations you gravitate toward? I like warm colors, perhaps because they seem
to energize me. I am a passionate person
and the warm colors suit me well.
Following along with the color wheel, the shape for the
month is the circle. Circles are
never-ending, enclosing and inclusive, and all can see each other when in a
circle. Notice the circles around you
this month. How do you feel about circles?
Where do you see them? The photo
at the bottom of this page is of a building in China that is in the shape of a
circle and was inspired by I Ching coins.
Movement of the Muse
Last month, we called on our inner muse to find new avenues
to create solutions. If you tried the
nine dot puzzle, what kind of solutions came to mind? Did you allow yourself to step out of the box
and see a different path? My favorite
solution is to cut out 3 rows of dots and put them side-by-side in a straight
line…then draw the line right through all nine of them. Here’s a link about this puzzle which is meant to expand our pathways and inspire us to ‘think outside the box’.
Now that we’ve opened up more pathways for our muse to
spread more seeds of creativity, things can start to blossom. Color is bursting out everywhere and the
springtime of creative expression begins.
Go back to the color wheel. Start
with your favorite color. Look for and
think about all of the things in your environment that are that color. I chose yellow and Felina Kavi, who helps
edit this blog, chose the color opposite mine on the color wheel: purple.
Do you wear your favorite color often?
Does it make you feel a certain way while wearing it, or when you see it
on others or in your environment? What
does the color opposite your favorite color on the color wheel make you feel
like?
Try this for the coming weeks: choose a ‘color of the day’ for a few
weeks. Wear something that is that
color, but also notice how many times you recognize it wherever you go. Allow colors to guide you along a pathway
each day that brings a new awareness to your mind. Suddenly choices become clearer as the color
seems to pop up in unexpected ways to answer whatever questions may arise.
Now take those paints, colored pencils, or whatever you used
to make your own color wheel and get a blank canvas/piece of white paper. White can represent an absence of color, but
you can also look at the potential of the void that is there. Now let’s put some music to it. While listening to this song, ‘How the Garden Grows’ by Michael Franks, allow the colors to be informed and guided by the music. Do away with the thought that often comes
when faced with a fresh start, ‘What should I do?’ Allow the muse to travel along with the song
through your ears, into your mind, and through your fingers. See what you come up with.
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use it, the more you have.” -Maya Angelou
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| Guangzhou Circle in China |
