Cold nose comfort and

Biscuit making purring fill

The tired, empty.

 

Five days into the new year, and I’d like to start some sort of create-a-day venture. I enjoyed my Tree-A-Day holiday countdown, and my trees were featured in several Etsy Treasuries. Of late both Sam and I have been writing haikus and leaving them for each other at night and in the morning.

I know a lot of my friends like to write haikus, so if the well is dry I’d like to feature guest writers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painted Sky

Fragile is a day

Sun slips bashful glow pink red

Moon boasting yellow

(bev)

Sam’s haiku

Moon shining brightly

In the midnight blue sky of

Cool  January.

I’m working diligently on the “Art Prescription Kit.” This seems like a good exercise to add!

Art Prescription: Take a walk at dusk. Admire the sky as the sun goes down and the moon comes up. Write about it…a haiku or any other feelings this evokes.

 

 

To celebrate Christmas Day 2011 I’d like to share some of my favorite quotes that reflect the spirit of Christmas past, present, and future. Peace and joy to you!

“For each one of us, there is a desert to travel. A star to discover. And a being within ourselves to bring to life.”

-Author Unknown

“There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

-Edith Wharton

“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind. The answer is blowin’ in the wind.”

-Bod Dylan

 

“Sometimes, if you aren’t sure about something, you have to just jump off the bridge and grow wings on your way down”

-Danielle Steel

“At Christmas I no more desire a rose than wish a snow in May’s newfangled mirth; But like of each thing that in season grows.”

-William Shakespeare

“Opinion is a flitting thing, But Truth, outlasts the Sun – If then we cannot own them both- Possess the oldest one-”

-Emily Dickinson

“O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!”

-Edna St. Vincent Millay

Art Prescription: “Let It Be.”

-John Lennon

Do you feel like crawling back into bed with something warm – a cup of tea or a cat? Holiday bedazzlement getting to you? Well you are normal. You are experiencing the yin of winter, and tomorrow (December 22, 2011) marks the most yin day of the year, the Winter Solstice. Yin is slow, feminine, and quiet. Look how well nature does yin, resting for a new beginning in spring.

Don’t despair this is time for celebration! The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year and the longest night. But now the glorious sun will begin to return day by day. This time of the year celebrated throughout history and across cultures, is time for quiet contemplation and renewal.

Painting is a great yin activity. In Chinese culture on the Winter Solstice, families would hang an unfinished painting of a plum tree and 81 uncolored flowers. Each day one flower is painted, and once the indoor blooms are complete the early buds appear outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art Prescription: Find a yin activity that brings you peace. Get quiet and warm.

To celebrate Winter Solstice I am painting a tree a day – holiday countdown. And maybe I’ll start a plum tree with 81 blossoms!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/beverlydyer

I love this editorial response to young Virginia’s question, “Is there a Santa Claus?”

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be [grown-ups] or children’s are little.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!…The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor [grown-ups] can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest [grown-up]…that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view…the beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else so real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art Prescription: Read that again!!!!

Just out of a lavender-eucalyptus hot bath. The perfect way to end my open studio weekend. Thank you. Thank you! All my friends and neighbors made my holiday sale a huge success.

Our neighborhood, with luminaries lining the streets was magical, full moon and twinkling candles. For me the quiet, still beauty of a winter’s eve and neighbors walking is what the holidays are all about. Sharing a joyful moment with others.

What stands out to me  is this. Over Thanksgiving I did some collage. A new neighbor was interested in a piece, and I explained to her the inspiration and wording comes from my favorite Emily Dickinson poem. The words “hope is the thing,” is collaged onto the art along with rice paper and leaves. I quoted her the rest of the verse, and she said she was looking for a poem to read at her husbands funeral. This was a touching moment and reminded me of the healing quality of poetry.

She bought the art.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers-

That perches in the soul-

And sings the tune without the words-

And never stops – at all-

Emily Dickinson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art Prescription: Sometimes words bring a different meaning to our daily round. Writing and reading poetry reaches us on a deep level…rhythm, metaphor, subtle…but in a moment catches your breath. Next time you journal write it in prose. Let your mind’s eye be your guide.

I spent most of my Thanksgiving holiday in my studio, in the woods and meadows at Mason Farm sketching, and luxuriously drawing at bedtime. It all came together as a new collection of Geo Florals. I’ve been studying nature’s form for quite some time, and as I look back this clean and colorful style has been showing up in my sketchbook. It seems to be a combination of my love of  organic botanical  lines, designs I’ve long admired on my antique plate collection, fabric on a quilt made by my great-grandmother early 1900’s, with whisper of brush painting, and the joy of drawing nature in the field. I often discover intricate patterns in nature using my 10x lens! Mesmerizing!

Geo Holiday Collection

Geo Fall Floral

Geo Floral

6 x 6

Canvases

Art Prescription: Trust your instinct when parts of ideas come to you. Write them, sketch them, and when something takes hold of your imagination – Go with it!

What better place to comment on my neighbors who rescued a stray cat today, only to find out she is pregnant. The cat prescription! Art comes in many forms and sometimes it comes in unexpected ways. The art of taking in a stray cat and providing a loving environment is tops.

The Art Prescription is a place you can come for a dose of art. It may be sketches from my garden, a new painting, a haiku or poem and guest artists. My hope is to provide a dose of art for anyone who needs it. Your dose can be a quick fix or a meandering visit. I welcome comments and ideas and please come back soon.

^..^~ Beverly Dyer MSN, RN, Botanical Illustrator

Sunlight

Dappled light shines through

The forest leaves with a bright

Yellow trail of light.

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