Roaring RIver ~ Final Version ~ a painting for and of the earth

Roaring River / 72" x 54" / acrylic on canvas
I think this one is finally finished! I have been dancing in this river for almost a month now! I started without my usual
reference photos or sketches and just from the inside of my belly! I let the paint splash and fall how it wanted to as I
thought about and felt all the pain of the earth as it sighs and heaves under it's heavy human load. I am so in love
with this planet and it breaks my heart a thousand times to see what we have become as we stand apart from the
earth and think ourselves to be greater than the whole. This painting is for the earth and of the earth. I can think of nothing else to do but paint my way through these turbulent times of change.

Color is a language with soft whispers or passionate vibrations.

Some details of the canvas that are difficult to see in a jpeg. Lots of tar gel, sometimes applied with tenderness and love and sometimes applied in a violent release of anger.

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River Roar

Roaring River / 54" x 72" / acrylic on canvas

 Forest and River

"I wish I were like you,"

Said the forest

to the roaring river,

"Always travelling,

always sightseeing;

Rushing towards the pure domain

of the sea,

The kingdom of water;

Water,

The passionate, vigorous spirit

of life,

The liquid turquoise of light

With eternal flow ..."



"But what am I?

Only a captive,

chained to the earth.

In silence I grow old,

In silence I wither and die,

And before long

nothing will remain of me

But a handful of ashes."



"O forest, half-asleep, half-awake",

Cried the river,

"I wish I were you,

Enjoying a seclusion

of living emerald,

And illuminated by moonlit nights;

Being a mirror

reflecting the beauties

of Spring;

A shaded rendezvous for lovers."



"Your destiny, a new life

every year;

My life, running away from myself

all the time;

Running. running, running

in bewilderment;

And what is my gain

Of all this meaningless journey?

Ah ... never having a moment of calm

and rest!"



"No one can ever know

what the other feels;

Who does care to ask

about a passer-by

If he really existed

or was only a shadow?"



Now a passer-by

Aimlessly walking in the shade

Comes to ask himself,

"Who am I? a river? a forest?

Or both?

River and forest?

River and forest!"

~Jalal al-Din Rumi

Forest Incantation 2

Forest Incantation 2 / 28" x 22" / acrylic on canvas

Painting from Inside the Landscape on the Behance Network

Painting from Inside the Landscape on the Behance Network

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle. ~ Walt Whitman

Jina Wallwork: The Art of Holly Friesen

Jina Wallwork: The Art of Holly Friesen: 'Blood of the River God' by Holly Friesen This painting beautifully depicts how water reflects colors. The scene is being captured from two...

Lumen Naturae

Lumen Naturae / 48" x 36" / acrylic on panel board / © 2011 Holly Friesen

Knowing that it knows,
The light of wisdom is clear and void and timeless and has no objects
Not knowing that it does not know,
The light of nature is dark and void and timeless and has no subject.
Both reach for us; from above and from below: through the clarity of the sentience of our minds and also through the dark processes of our body.
The mind of an angel and the mind of a stone.
Lumen Sapientiae & Lumen Naturae

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