Bears in Their Garden!

Boys Will Be Boys

98.5"h x 46.5" w x 39"l

This week I have enjoyed being inspired at Lauritzen Gardens here in Omaha, NE. The weather was great and all the rain has created a lush environment.  Particularly I was there to scope out the 35 works in bronze by sculptor Dan Ostermiller of Loveland, CO.  These pieces have been placed throughout the Lauritzen Gardens, encouraging one to walk the paths all around the beautiful acres.

Dan grew up with a taxidermist father from whom he gained his thorough knowledge of animal structure.  Dan seeks to not only portray the realistic features of his animals, but to capture their personality as well.  

This Bighorn sheep was my favorite as I really enjoy Bighorn sheep anatomy and behavior.  It is titled "The Emporer" and he looks like it!!  

I highly recommend Lauritzen Gardens to you if you are ever in Omaha.  A variety of the gardens within it are representative of a number of world gardens.  This beautiful facility and acreage are located near Interstate 80 and the Missouri River.

Be brave and courageous!

A Photosynthesis Selfie

Social media "selfies" or pictures taken of and by one's self via cell-phone are all the rage now.  So what is a photosynthesis "selfie", you wonder?  As I was walking in the nearby park the other day, I was noticing the brilliant sunlight on all the trees and the rich greens of their leaves.  Everything looked so lush and alive.  Vibrant!  And that got me to thinking about the process of photosynthesis that allows the trees to have that look or even to be alive.  

Photosynthesis is a quiet, ongoing process of how leaves take in sunlight energy through chloroplasts in their cells.  They take that energy and mix it with carbon dioxide and water to make chemical energy or food for themselves.  So where's the "selfie" thing in all this?
Follow me...what struck me as I walked was the concept of what was being taken in by the leaves.  They were absorbing sunlight.  And this affects their very existence and the quality of how well they exist.

The metaphor for us is huge.  What are we taking into our lives on a regular basis and how is that affecting our liveliness and quality of life?  Former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once said, "Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think."  What we take into our lives on a daily basis is forming the sculptural shape of our lives.  We can't help but be what our mind's diet is.  Like the leaves, we need the light in our lives.  Jesus said that He was the light of the world.  If we walk with Him we won't walk in darkness.  Our lives will be full, rich, flourishing, and thriving.  And that takes time.  Time of being still, quiet, turning off the noise in our lives.  Ramping down the schedule.  Making time for intake of what is nourishing for our souls.  Getting away from the Internet and exposing our selves to what really enriches our inner lives.  Things like getting out in nature, reading great books,  listening to great music,  looking at great art.  Spending time with God in prayer and reading His Word.  That way we will have something to benefit the world that is truly good.  Our times of interaction with others will leave them with a positive charge, will fill their cups instead of draining them and leaving them with less.

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Here's a few more little watercolors of The Eyes Series that I've been working on this week:

Rhino Eye

4" x 4"

Watercolor

And no, this is not a selfie taken by the rhino!  

Starting to sketch the ring lemur's eye....

Ring Lemur

4" x 4"

Watercolor

Be bold and courageous!

A Week of Wood and Horses

Victory Riding Academy

Founders:  Tony and JoDee Barnes

My life has been so enriched by the people that God brings across my path.  This week I am going to give a "shout-out" to three of them.  First, let me introduce you to Tony and JoDee Barnes who founded the Victory Riding Academy for the purpose of offering complimentary horse experiences to military, police, fire, first responders, and their families.

Both Tony and JoDee have served our country in the military, and bring an awareness of servicemen and women's needs to their work.  

Last week week I met with Tony and JoDee to discuss my bringing a class of young art students out to their stables for horse drawing lessons. Then I was able to spend most of Sunday with them watching as they did their horse work at a benefit fundraiser in their honor. 

Victory Riding Academy is registered as a Horses4Heroes riding facility.  They also are a registered Equine Assisted Therapy Center providing a variety of services to those with special needs.  VRA has many outreaches including the Scouts, and provides riding classes.They work with the University of Nebraska Biomechanics division in research of horse movement and the human gait.

Victory Riding Academy seeks to use the special relationship of horses with humans to help people persevere, overcome, and conquer any of life's challenges.  Currently they have a fundraising goal of $150,000 to help with property acquisition, program development, and ongoing expenses.  Their informative website can be found at  www.victoryride.org .  Theirs is a very worthwhile endeavor!! 

 

Next, my other "shout-out" goes to Lonnie Theer of Theer Creative here in Papillion, NE.  Lonnie is a very gifted artisan with wood.  

Here are some samples of his fine quality work:

Lonnie is always willing to give advice to me regarding my own woodworking/framing questions.  This morning he graciously gave me an hour and a half of his time to help me in cutting frames and providing all kinds of woodworking tips.  Lonnie also sells many varieties of wine sauces and barbecue sauces at his shop in the Bell Place Shops here in Papillion, NE.  You can follow him on Facebook at Theer Creative to see all the variety of very creative works he does in wood.

Here's a frame I built this week for my 9" x 12" pastel of the Columbia River:  

Be brave and courageous!

What I Found in the Bird Nest

The Quiet Watcher

21.75" x 23"

Pastel

$450.00

We''ll get to the bird nest in a moment.  First, let's take a look at what is fresh off the easel this week.  This is my latest work in pastel and there's a bit of a story behind this painting.

 This barn stood in northwest Arkansas until recently.  It has since been taken down, but that's where art can preserve the beauty and memory of a place.  My sister Robyn's friend, Jennifer Brown, happened to capture this unique moment on camera with the cat in the hayloft at her neighbor's barn. 

 When I saw the picture, the cat with the dark background immediately resonated with me.  To me, it speaks of those moments we all so greatly need for stillness, for time as Robert Frost wrote..."to sit and stare as cows do." 

 All our technology is a wonderful tool, but remember you are a human being with the capacity for so much more than what you experience on the Internet.  And what happens when your soul is refreshed in those quiet places is invaluable.  Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, wrote:  "...people who are self-reflective----who take time out to pray or to meditate or have some way of being in nature regularly, who spend time being with themselves and have a rich interior life----are better able to pay full attention to other people."

Okay, now off to the bird nest thing!  Here is what I found on my walk yesterday afternoon:

What a prize, eh?!  This bird has a degree in design engineering!!  Okay, so you are wondering what I found in the nest?  Here goes:  as I was out walking in the local park here, I passed under a tree and saw this nest lying on the ground, apparently having been blown out in the thunderstorm during the night.  I picked it up and continued walking, but kept studying the structure of this little dwelling of twigs and straw.  The more I looked at it and reflected on what I was seeing, these metaphors emerged from the nest:

*Raw Materials - This bird used what was available and creatively built with the materials on hand.  The challenge I found was to look at what are available resources to me in skills and opportunities, to think outside the box.  Straw + twigs + beak = incubator for life!

*Limitations - This bird only had a beak to accomplish such a secure, tight dwelling for the eventual tiny tweeters that would live there.  How she managed to maneuver all those hundreds of little twigs, pieces of rope, straw, and mud into this sturdy nest is pure amazing!  I have more than a beak.  I have a variety of abilities with which to create, so what all could I accomplish with that!  I need to focus on possibilities with what I do have and not on my limitations.

*Craftsmanship - This bird built a sturdy structure, tightly-woven together to last the duration till little wings could take flight.  You have to really tug hard to pull it apart.  There are no substitutes found in short-cuts or sloppy work.  Jack Canfield said that how you do anything is how you do everything.  The whole  process, start to finish, needs to be stamped with excellence.


*Order - There is a timeline or progression for every endeavor.  This bird didn't start out with the soft straw you see in the middle.  It started out with the chunkier twigs and mud.  Then at the end comes the fine, soft straw.  I find in art that the first part of the process is the framework for all that follows.  Logical procedures must flow from the concept to sketches to first strokes all the way to final touches and evaluation.  You can't be haphazard in your approach.  Self-discipline and staying focused are critical to the overall success of a work.

Now that I've finished with this latest pastel work, I've got to play catch-up and head to Home Depot for lumber to build some frames.  My art studio supervisor Michelangelo says to be prepared to swim there because of all the rain we've been getting.  

Be brave and courageous!