"it's the stillness that fills me with peace"
words by robert service wander through my mind as i walk the dark snowy streets...
"'til the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,
and the stars tumbled out neck and crop"
the mountains all around are deep with snow but there are still rock faces that are bare, a white landscape full of various shades of grey
the northern snow is so different, dry, granular and sparkling in both sun and moonlight
dark limbs show starkly
a graphic world of angles and lines
last year i gessoed a piece of white scrim and tried printing on it with my gelli-plate
it came with me and last night i sat looking at it for a long time, finally tearing off a piece for the tag you see above
it tore easily and like a child enjoying an impulsive act of destruction, i kept tearing it
the lower piece, i have plans for though they will have to wait until i'm home i think... but i'll be working with the upper one in the coming days
you can't see it here but there's a lovely sheen to some of the painted areas, with the whole having the effect of late-season dirty snow
(if you click on the tag image to enlarge it further you might see it there)
today i opened the blinds to this; the spaces between the fence boards created beautiful lines of light slanting along the surface and my grandchild's footprints, somewhat snowed in, created an interesting disruption in the pattern
the image below has been purposefully darkened to make the snow sparkle a bit like what it was in real life
it's been hard to settle into any determined work; each night when my supplies are brought to the table i find myself unsure of what to do but full of a desire to work with what I'm seeing and feeling
things feel tentative, exploratory, kind of like dipping a toe
i'm enjoying it though, the quiet contemplation
the small simple things i'm doing will build into something stronger and for now i'm not just figuring out what to do, i'm thinking about what matters to me and letting that guide me
"i am the land that listens"
3 comments:
For me the only saving grace about snow is seeing it sparkle in the sunlight. Although we've had snow here this winter we haven't had the sun so there hasn't been any glittering diamonds for me to appreciate. I keep forgetting to pay attention when we have a full moon to see if it's bright enough to reflect in the snow.
I was able to embiggen the pictures - clicked on them twice and that brought out the detail and I could see the glisten and the texture.
Where some people have to work quickly and worry at things, you seem to be able to allow ideas to well up in their own time. Your fragments talk to you, don't they!
Such a beautiful post. Stillness in the snow all around reflected in the stillness of your mind. Do you think they enable each other to exude a sense of calm and deep thinking. I am sure the land is capable of thinking too. The tag is lovely... reminiscent of tyre tracks in the light covering of snow on a roadway (from your last post)
Post a Comment