Longing for Light

Longing for Light

Sometimes light breaks in where it is unexpected,
finding shapes in the darkness of shadow stones
my luminous finger flows across fault line crack.

A stampeding sky horse, I gallop as a mad stallion
eight legs flying across land and water, hammering
hoof-fall a mythical rhythm of skaldic visions now.

One-eyed Gods of poetry – nothing more than lust
licking with words, as high above winged laughter
mocks blind master free of memory, void of thought.

-Jim Larwill

Tiny flame within is fed with oxygen
and bursts into a roaring blaze
Suddenly all is made clear in the
burst of light

River Truths

River Truths

A spruce hangs clinging to frozen soil:
here at this river’s bend, winter weighs
heavy with – hazardous storms of truth.

Cloudy virgin ice mirrors and mocks this
spring-doomed tree with erect visions of
youth, still straight with heavenly belief.

Soon falling storms of snow will razor wash
face of lonely branches with an ashen beard,
roots cracking like old fingers anointed at last.

-Jim Larwill

Working with a Poet

Below is one of my paintings alongside one of the many beautiful poems that the Ottawa poet, Jim Larwill has written for my paintings. It is a humbling experience to work with a poet who can look at the paintings and reflect them back in words that reveal new energies within the images. I am able to see my work more clearly with these new revelations. The paintings are somehow more complete with his lyrical words framing the images. It is a joyful thing to share the creative process with an artist of another medium, we are presently working on putting a book of images and poetry together.



Passion

A quake threatens to tumble upon a tender
meadow with an avalanche of love as fall beauty
pulls upon fractures of a root tickled hillside.

Raspberry leaves, these wind licking flames -
a burning bush torturing this grey slate rock:
heart of the mountain beats hard and steady.

Cracked teardrop tongue of stone cries for sweet artist cut;
below her glass breath sky – hearts of granite skip-a-beat.
Everywhere at once a sentinel spruce sings free - trembling.

-Jim Larwill

Coming Snowstorm

There's a snow storm coming, I can feel the stillness in my bones. There are blurry blends of warm and cool grays in the clouds, I can smell snow. Spent the day learning about glazing acrylics at the Visual Arts Center in Montreal. The glazing of acrylics intrigues me as a new medium to replace the toxic oils I am now using. I can't wait to get back in my studio and give the acrylics a try on larger canvas...have plenty of ideas brewing. Montreal Studio is a busy place these days since we have
the St-Henri Art Walk coming up and all three of us are participating. The studio is FULL of paintings, feels so alive in there!!

Dancing and Breathing

Have returned from a week of breathing and yoga at the Kripalu Yoga Center in Mass. Heaven on earth. Doing yoga and breathing always centers me and helps me to remember my heart song again when I have forgotten the music and song that live inside. As long as I listen to the calling inside with complete faith I am alright but when I try to ignore it my life derails and becomes unrecognizable. Aside from the yoga, I was able to drum, dance, hike, breathe and rest...all parts of me that I had sadly neglected recently...I feel fully alive again and ready to sing my heart song with all my being.

Went to a very stimulating contemporary dance performance tonight by a group from Israel called "Batsheva" (founded by Martha Graham)I felt every cell in my body come alive as I watched this remarkable group of dancers move their bodies in such an expressive collective cohesion of movement. It felt as though the entire audience became a part of their dance just by watching. I can still feel their movements
flowing through me, hope to be able to express some of this in my next paintings.

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others"'

from The Life and Work of Martha Graham [1]

Swamp Healing

I have been receiving daily radiation treatments to my left breast for the past 5 weeks. I have worked on this painting of the
swamp the entire time. It has seen me through many uncomfortable, sad, exhausted moments. I feel this
painting holds the balance of my healing in its quiet stillness. As I walked the streets and parks of Montreal
I saw many yellow maple leaves on the ground covered in large black blotches, the trees are sick. After having
spent every week day for a month in the oncology dept of the Montreal General Hospital and seeing the pervasiveness
of cancer, it's hard not to compare the sickness of the maple leaves with the sickness
of our own bodies. Our great mother is in distress and I can feel it in my own body, a microcosm of the macrocosm?
Perhaps we are more connected to her than we like to believe.