Tiny Angel

Sometimes we all need a little angel to look over us,

Tonight I know there are some of you who do more than others,

This little angel is for you.

Peace & Love

B 2011

A Balanced Life

BALANCE

It is my aim to lead a balanced life, one of emotional, spiritual, physical and societal balance.


Not such an easy task most days.  How many of us can balance it all on our own?  That persistent ache that keeps pulling you back from a balanced set of exercises, the persistent puppy that keeps me from a balanced time of work. . . Ah, perhaps that is not true.  It seems the puppy forces me to balance my time away from the keyboard with some time outside breathing the fresh air and observing the grass grow, and, of course, getting my share of furry love too.  Perhaps the persistent ache keeps one from going too far off balance by over-exercising and re-focuses the vision on the reasons for the ache, the imbalance of skeletal use.


Nothing in life is constant fluff and peace. We learn life by torment and turmoil. We learn love by pain. We learn value by loss. 


I find Asian styles fascinating.  They are beautifully balanced in all elements, laden with lessons for living. Perhaps we Westerners should contemplate the Eastern forms of design and life to learn a better way to balance our life of over-consumption, over-indulgence, over-activity, over-achievement.


Are we over the top? Have we unbalanced ourselves to the point where we cannot right ourselves again? Or are we teetering on the brink and still capable of pulling our selves back to a balanced stance, one firmly planted in fairness, love and equality. 


I pray this is so.  Pray, pray for balance. 


– B

Floating Light

Floating Lantern, Morikami Park, Delray Beach, FL

Lately I have begun to think a great deal about different customs of honoring or remembering the dead in various cultures.  We were lucky enough this past weekend to attend one such ceremony at Morikami Museum in Delray Beach, Florida. (Okay, some of us weren't quite as lucky as others; they sacrificed their option of exploring the festival by reserving the wonderful photo spot we had staked out early in the evening.) 

It was a lovely event, spoiled only by a sudden thunderstorm at the very moment the lanterns were being released to the lake. Paper lanterns were floated on the lake in honor of the dead. There were messages written on some of them, others were plain. Hundreds of them were being released last night.

The park itself is lovely and made up of different Japanese gardens from different time periods. It is a place I would like to revisit without the accompaniment of the thousands of other tourists who were trying also to enjoy the area.  The photos were plentiful and lovely. I have about 1500 to edit from the weekend, including photos also from the American Orchid Society, and Blowing Rocks in Jupiter, Florida.

The lantern ceremony, as brief as the weather made it, was the most influential on me. It floats in my memory, much as the lanterns themselves. The symbolism, I hope, will remain with me as a spur to research and begin a visual journey down the road of remembrances of those passed on to the next realm.

Stay tuned for occasional and infrequent updates and photos.

Peace,

B

Birthdays Aren't For the Age Conscious

Another year, another milestone. 

The zoo, a few hours with the animals in the heat.

Home, a few hours clipping the dog so he can stay cool in the heat.

Out, party with friends -- great evening.

Gifts that were thoughtful, wonderful, perfectly suited and incomparable.

A lovely day, quite a lovely day.

Peace, B

Just that kind of night...

 ¹ LORD, our Lord, 

   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

 You have set your glory 

   in the heavens. 

² Through the praise of children and infants 

   you have established a stronghold against your enemies, 

   to silence the foe and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, 

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 

⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

 human beings that you care for them?

 ⁵ You have made them a little lower than the angels

 and crowned them with glory and honor.

⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands; 

   you put everything under their feet: 

⁷ all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild,

⁸ the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea,

 all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ LORD, our Lord, 

   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8

Just that kind of night.

Peace,

B

This is the wing of a Roseate Spoonbill.  

I do believe that God was having a grand time on the day HE created this bird.  It is the strangest looking bird, but, oh, it has the most beautiful feathers! Pink, and what a glorious pink it is.  Shades of pink, enough to make any girl's heart flutter!

Feathers fascinate me, and pink ones?  They are the ultimate in feather wonder. Why do I mention pink feathers on a very funny looking bird tonight?  Perhaps because sometimes that is how I feel, beautifully bedecked and yet somehow ackwardly misfit. Isn't self-consciousness a hard thing to juggle?

Ah, I take comfort in the fact that the Spoonbill is completely unaware of his or her misfitedness in the world of avians. We could learn some lessons from this humble and strange bird.  

• Use your strangeness to the best of your ability, make the world a better place.  
• Sift your opportunities with wild abandon, as he sifts the water for fish. 
• Raise that wing, who cares if a feather or two are broken, the wing still flaps and will lift you high. 

Ah, Spoonbill, or Rosie, as the case may be, thank you for your simple lessons, you never let vanity get in your way. 

                                       

Peace, B

By A Slender Thread, ©2011
Encaustic collage with digital and iPad montage on rice paper
BL Desrosiers




It appears I'm committed to making a go of this encaustic media. I have to confess, it is like coming  home from a journey far away. The return to molten wax is something I have fantasized about for years and now that I have taken the plunge, I can say that I won't be straying too far from it again. (So, dear unknown soul who stole my wax delivery off my front porch, your efforts will not impede my determination to create.)


I began my love affair with wax in the 1970s in Taiwan where I took batik lessons from an artist, Sammy, in our village for two years. We created paintings in batik, not fabrics such as is commonly practiced, or was at the time. I then continued to batik for another 5 years once we returned to the states and loved it. I gave it up due to the toxicity of the dyes at the time and my daughter's asthma. I have always missed the aroma of the melted bees' wax and the challenge of getting the molten wax to the surface and laid as I wish before it hardens. Now I can cheat and use a heat gun, oh joy! 


I owe a great deal of gratitude to my friend, Judy, who has been gracious enough to share techniques with me and be my mentor in encaustic art. Thank you, Judy.


Encaustic is so much more fulfilling also, I can play with the surface and leave texture. No more boiling it all off! My initial efforts are, well, a beginning. I hope to improve with time and continual practice.


The above piece is entered in the show, Elements, at the Art Gallery of Viera.  It is 16x20" and is a marriage of my digital work and wax - a perfect match if there ever was one, at least in my heart!


Peace, 
Barb