The act of creation is the greatest art. You must think of the whole as you create each part. Things put in conflict must balance as well, or what was once heaven can turn into hell.
Every yin has its yang as dusk has its dawn. Every awakening gives way to night’s yawn. But why peace must be broken by violence and war is something that tests one’s faith at its core.
When the world is unbalanced by warfare’s grim sin, It seems perhaps nature’s starting over again to create a world less given to baking recipes of destruction that will be our unmaking.
These nuclear toys require such careful tending, or it’s become clear we’ll create our own ending. And next time perhaps our creator will find a recipe that doesn’t include mankind.
Prompt for day 19 of NaPoWriMo is to create a creation myth poem. Please leave comments on Judy’s site! I have closed comments here.
As devoted museum and historical site visitors, we have a lot of art in our collection. I have a fair amount in my home, but for this challenge, I used some of my favorite bronze statues … and one very large and exceptional wood carving.
Magnificent life-size carving of a Native American man with tobacco
Two of the big Samuel Adams statue at Boston Harbor’s Tea Party museum. Although he was also a brewer of ale and beer, he was a major troublemaker and agitator for revolution. One of those guys you had to love or hate, often both at the same time. On the whole, the Adams family we probably the family most singularly responsible for convincing America that we needed to separate from England.
Sam “The Man” Adams … in bronze, life-size
The feet of John Adams – in bronze
Garry with his heroes of baseball at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York
The Flying Woman — though I think she may be swimming (hard to tell) alongside Boston Harbor
Last week, Topaz had a 1-day filter sale. “Simplify” was available for just $20, so I decided to give it a whirl and see what it can do. It was snowing pretty hard when I got up this morning. Bummer. It was predicted, but the last one missed us. I had hoped this would miss us too. So, if snow is going to fall, I might as well take some pictures.
It turns out, Simplify offers a good selection of ways to render a photograph as art. It includes many painting styles including, impressionist, oils, acrylics, watercolor and more. My favorites are sketch, pen-and-ink, and line art. If you have the right photograph — for line art of any kind, you need strong contrast– you can get some very interesting and fun results.
Here are two versions of the same picture. I’m loving the way they came out.
While I was growing up, my world was entirely serious music. I was a piano student and my spare time was consumed by practicing. It wasn’t until I recognized I’d never be good enough to be a professional musician that I started to explore the world of “folk” and “pop.” Tom Paxton, The Chad Mitchell Trio, even the Kingston Trio … followed by a crowd of folk singers from great to not-so-great became the go to people in my musical world. They seemed like personal friends. Joni Mitchell. Judy Collins. Carol King. Joan Baez. Pete Seeger. Linda Ronstadt. Emmy Lou Harris. Maria Muldaur. There were so many, back then.
Judy Collins is still performing today and she’s as good (maybe better) than ever.
Concert tonight!
Now that Judy Collins is 75 and I’m 70, I relate to this song so very well.
The Beatles were the first group in the pop arena I truly loved. After “A Hard Days Night” (I loved the movie and the score), and “Rubber Soul,” I was a fan for life — which means I still am buying remastered Beatles CDs.
Eventually, I added many other singers and groups, and other categories of music.
John Prine was a latecomer to my “playlist,” but he remains a favorite. Better known as the writer than the singer, here are a couple of songs that I particularly love and always cheer me when I’m blue. Not everyone has heard of John Prine, but he wrote many songs. He sang them himself on various recordings, most of which I once owned on vinyl. Lo and behold, there’s a CD collection of his work available … just $10, double CD. I ordered it. Of course. No, I don’t like to trust my stuff to the cloud. Especially when I’m traveling.
Sometimes, nothing says “life” like music. Maybe more often than sometimes. Maybe always.
And finally, I’d like to add an old song that’s a current favorite. It’s our “road song” and we tend to listen to it over and over again while driving down (or up) the highway. “Pancho and Lefty” is a story song. If you’ve heard it (and many people have sung it over the years, you probably think that maybe it has something to do with Pancho Villa. It ought to. Actually, Townes Van Zandt says it has nothing to do with him unless it fell out of his unconscious directly into the song. Just a song about two loser outlaws in Mexico.
“Pancho and Lefty” written by Townes Van Zandt was recorded by Emmylou Harris for her 1977 album, Luxury Liner, released on Warner Bros and available on CD on Rhino.
Every time I hear it, I see it in my mind’s eye too. The dusty desert where Pancho breathed his last. This is the Emmy Lou Harris version. My favorite, though there are, as I said, many others. Hers may be the most difficult one from which to catch all the lyrics, so I’ll include them for you. You won’t need to, as I did, keep listening and replaying the lines until finally, you get it … only to discover the words are actually printed on the CD’s paper insert.
PANCHO AND LEFTY – TOWNES VAN ZANDT
Living on the road my friend, Was gonna keep you free and clean Now you wear your skin like iron, And your breath’s as hard as kerosene. You weren’t your mama’s only boy, But her favorite one it seems She began to cry when you said goodbye, Sank into your dreams.
Pancho was a bandit, boys His horse was fast as polished steel Wore his gun outside his pants For all the honest world to feel. Pancho met his match you know On the deserts down in Mexico Nobody heard his dying words, Ah but that’s the way it goes.
And all the Federales say They could have had him any day They only let him hang around Out of kindness, I suppose.1
Lefty, he can’t sing the blues All night long like he used to. The dust that Pancho bit down south Ended up in Lefty’s mouth The day they laid poor Pancho low, Lefty split for Ohio Where he got the bread to go, There ain’t nobody knows.1
And all the Federales say They could have had him any day They only let him slip away
Now the poets tell how Pancho fell, And Lefty’s living in cheap hotel The desert’s quiet, and Cleveland’s cold, And so the story ends we’re told Pancho needs your prayers it’s true, But save a few for Lefty too He just did what he had to do, And now he’s growing old.1
And a few grey Federales say They could have had him any day They only let him go so wrong Out of kindness, I suppose.1
A few grey Federales say They could have had him any day They only let him go so wrong Out of kindness, I suppose.
Given “miniature” as a subject … and since, just last week I did a whole series of pictures of tiny carved Native American fetishes, this prompt certainly seems to be begging for more of those pictures. So here they are.
Every piece was hand-carved by an individual. The carvers are all either Navajo, Hopi, or Pueblo … with (I believe) a couple maybe Sioux or Cherokee. I have one carved by a local Wampanaug man who lives on Martha’s Vineyard. He carved it for me and I got to see it emerge from the antler.
I used to have all the paperwork that told me who had carved which piece, when, and where. I lost all the papers. Not just one … the entire packet. Moreover, having bought these from a lot of different places, often directly from the carvers themselves, I can’t reconstruct the trail.
I don’t, honestly, care about the provenance, except for wishing I could honor the artists by giving them credit for the work. I just love these beautiful pieces.
Mountain lion, wolf, and a lovely stone horse … and of course, my favorite dancing bear
The Corn Maidens are (mostly) much larger than the animal fetishes, but they vary quite a lot in size.
Right side of medicine bear
Authentic
These are all parts of my modest, but lovely collection of modern carved fetishes. Although some (many) are “old-style,” the oldest of these is no more than 20 years. The materials are wood, alabaster, marble, turquoise, antler, and bone.
Each of these animals and the Corn Maidens have meaning in a ritual or religious context, but none of these have been appropriately blessed. I admire the art, but I would never appropriate someone else’s religion and pretend it was mine.
I have been on the other end of that sometimes. It’s annoying. Sometimes, it’s also pretty funny.
“The undiscovered places that are interesting to me are these places that contain bits of our disappearing history, like a ghost town.” ~~ Ransom Riggs
