Saturday, October 10, 2020

NY (1)

When I eat outdoors, as has been the case for both breakfast and lunch thus far today, I eat al fresco. 

When I paint outdoors, as has also been the case today, I paint en plein air.

When I put my iPhone down on a picnic table outdoors, as has further been the case today, I end up with a phone covered with a big glob of pine pitch—¡quĂ© desastre!

I am away from home, staying at a small secluded rustic cabin on 45 acres of otherwise undeveloped land. My cleaning-supply resources are limited.

Dawn is the bird cleaner of choice in oil spills but pine pitch just thumbs its nose at Dawn Ultra brand dishwashing liquid.

Refuses to yield to 719 Walnut Avenue brand Ocean Mist liquid hand soap.

Laughs at Simple Green brand all-purpose spray cleaner.

Scoffs at Fantastik brand Scrubbing Bubbles heavy-duty all-purpose spray cleaner.

But Walnut Creeek brand 100% vegetable oil cleans my phone up easy peasy and has it like new in no time! Vegetable oil! Who knew?

I've brought with me on this getaway some 6x6" paintings done years ago on gessobord. I plan to paint over them this week, making new starts of some sort. That's it. Cover 'em up in one way or another and see what I do with them once I return home. 

First gessobord, in progress:








Thursday, October 8, 2020

Across the Silence

To pray is to enter 

into a humble receptivity. 

It’s to realize the familiar self’s 

inability to deeply know. 

Most fundamentally, 

to pray is to open to wisdom 

that’s available 

to come to the heart 

in a time of readiness. 

This is not 

the emotion-saturated heart 

cramped by desire or need, 

but the open one 

that’s receptive to truth, 

painful or otherwise.


—Jan Frazier


The Ways We Are Changed by the Answering Silence
4.5 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, collage, and pastel on paper
abstract landscape
2020




Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Coming to Life (8)

How wonderful to recognize the presence

of a mistaken idea as a mistaken idea!

Such notions have power

only if they are believed in

and only as long as the belief lasts.

Even before truth is realized,

guilt, blame, and bitterness 

begin to die, and inspired ideas

get born as we begin to see

what questionable ideas

we are living around.


—Polly Berrien Berends, Coming to Life



Before:



After:

Give Up Your Part in the Melodrama
3.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic, ink, and collage on cardstock
abstract
2020



Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Coming to Life (7)

Since most problems are by-products 
of erroneous survival-seeking thoughts,
it is very hard to give them up.
We dare not give them up for good
until we see that they are not necessary.
The secret is to give them up
for just one moment.
Just for one moment.

Polly Berends, Coming to Life


Before:



After:  

Try This: Sit Down, Get Still, Remember God
3.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic, ink, and collage on cardstock
abstract
2020

Monday, October 5, 2020

Coming to Life (6)

We tell each other stories,

baffling little anecdotes

from firsthand experience,

and then we look at them

in a spiritual light.

We try to see what ideas

are running our lives.

Then we look for truer,

spiritual ideas and consider

how to let them

take charge of us.

—Polly Berrien Berends, Coming to Life


Before:



After:

The Suspicion That We Aren't Seeing Straight
3.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic, ink, and collage on cardstock
abstract
2020

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Coming to Life (5)

Every now and then, feeling along the wall,

one of us comes to a corner and discovers

another wall, feels along that wall,

comes to a door, opens it, and is confronted

by a much larger, brighter space

where he finds that he can see. The rest of us

see the light on him. When he steps outside,

we wonder where he has gone. 

Now by the light shining through 

the empty doorway we find our way as well.

Others have gone through the door for us.

Each of us goes through the door for others.

     —Polly Berrien Berends, Coming to Life


Before:


After:

The Whole World Wakes Up a Little
3.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic, ink, and collage on cardstock
abstract
2020

Thursday, October 1, 2020

Coming to Life (4)

If something is going badly,

there are two possibilities:

Either we are going about the right idea

in the wrong way, or else

it is simply a wrong idea in the first place—

in which case

there is no right way to go about it.

—Polly Berrien Berends, Coming to Life


Before:



After:

To Discover What Is and What Isn't
3.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic, ink, and oil pastel on card stock
abstract
2020