The Grace Meridian

Renewal 2011

2011-01-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

Beginning again for 2011. Happy New Year! Since my last entry, I have completed an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Spirituality with Goddard College. I'm a graduate faculty advisor for a Prescott College student and a Poetry and Short Story mentor for an undergrad at Prescott. A few weeks ago, we welcomed baby Elsa. My granddaughter is beautiful, and I have shifted generations.

I'm writing from a farmhouse in Illinois. I am visiting my son. Each morning, I watch the sunrise clearly on the prairie's horizon past the harvested cornfields. Today there is no water....I checked, and it's frozen out at the well.

Discoveries - New Moon & Solar Eclipse

2009-07-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

Encounters On Which I Count

2009-07-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

This morning I took an early morning bike ride to Meadowbrook Park. Along the path, I thought I saw another stag beetle like the one I photographed yesterday. When I hopped off the bike and stooped down, the tiny creature reared up hissing and brandished its pinchers at me. I had an encounter with a small crawfish (crawdad). It was making its way through the puddles from yesterday's rains toward the creek. I tried to reassure it, and it started grooming its antennae over and over with little feet.

Earlier in the week, I interviewed at Champaign County Forest Preserve's Homer Lake. Twin fawns were grazing at the entrance. Further into the park, I came across a deer getting a drink in the slough. Dragonflies were abundant and "fishing" on the lake surface.

Independence Day

2009-07-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

Watercolor by Ann Johnson

Chartreuse on Cement Canvas

2009-05-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

Digital images by Ann Johnson
Ephemeral Maple Flower Spirals by Ann Johnson

Breathe with the Tides

2009-04-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

Video and Poem, Humble Flow, by Ann Johnson

Humble Flow

She used to speak with THAT TONE
and the raw sense of self-assured knowing
until the Universe humbled her
and she accepted the offer.

[Note: begin soundtrack for the transformation –
Arvo Part’s Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in Mirror)]

And now she watches energy flow
through a lens of contemplation.
The lens of amusement became self-righteous and cynical
and was discarded.

So, take the invitation to walk with her,
to breathe in and breathe out,
to step between the tides.

See how bids are made
for the wave to crest
at one shore or another.

How some keep the harbor free-flowing
and others begin to erect a dam
while standing on the peir shouting,
fist to the heavens.

How even others wander the pebble beach, chanting,
dip their toes in the waves,
then move out into the current, past their knees, immersed
to the level of their open arms and hearts.

Happy New Year! Enter 2009

2008-12-31T12:36:00.000-08:00

Winter Solstice

2008-12-16T12:19:00.001-08:00

Now

2008-11-06T18:33:00.000-08:00

A light appears at a clearing in the forest. Two nights ago, Obama is elected. Last night David Spangler spoke of the election and of the Spirit of Home....the physical space, the energetics of what nurtures us, our planetary home, and our capacity - and responsibility - to extend an open hearted sense of belonging to others, hospitality. From wood, weaving and found objects, Penelope Bourke surrounded the hall with intriguing sculptures on the theme of Homecoming and the Odyssey epic.

Obama's in the Lead - History in the Making

2008-11-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

Without TV, I'm following the election on internet and radio. Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin have the world's attention.

Samhain, All Hallow's Eve, Dia de los Muertos, All Saints, All Souls

2008-11-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

We move into the season of fruitful darkness. It is time to remember and rekindle the light deep inside. It is time to acknowledge that light in our selves and in each other.

Happy Birthday, Erin !!!

2008-10-29T09:56:00.001-07:00

Twenty-six years ago today, a wide-eyed baby girl came into the world. She is now an amazing woman who has taught me so much by sharing time on this planet. Happy Birthday, Erin!

Vote !!!

2008-10-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Reminder from South Whidbey Island, WA.

Home

2008-10-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

Island Women's Presence and Teachings

2008-09-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

I am grateful for the wisdom of several island women who work in relationship with Nature. You may be interested in their work: Julie Charette Nunn at http://www.crowsdaughter.com/ , Penny Bauer at http://www.bauerstudio.com/, and Mara Grey at http://www.natureweaving.com/. Traveling from Scotland several times a year, Fionntulach, anam cara and carrier of the Ceile De tradition, comes to an island retreat to bring teachings of the order. See http://www.ceilede.do.uk/ .

A favorite writer - a new website

2008-09-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

David Abram
Wild Ethics

http://www.wildethics.org/

The royal purples of Michaelmas daisies and ripe plums are banners heralding the new season. Again, a liminal space for me that calls for another shift...

Autumnal Equinox...Harvest Home...

2008-09-22T18:59:00.000-07:00

Well, the experiment is what it is... I repeated my experiment from the Spring Equinox hoping that the Autumnal Equinox egg would also stand in fine balance.

I will just have to consider its equilibrium being in place on the horizontal plane. A glorious day, however. Autumnal Equinox.

Reporting on Work

2008-09-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

New works for my G-3 semester....part of Packet#1

The Apple Tree Garden at Chinook

2008-09-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

I volunteer at Whidbey Institute on south Whidbey Island. I suggested a blog to welcome and educate people about the plant residents and the healing space therein. The gardener's daughter will be designing one quite soon, so there will be a blog for Chinook's Apple Tree Garden. I have been asked to provide images. Recently, I put together three items for the bulletin board as visitors cross the threshhold.

Recovering from a state of self-forgetfulness,

I have caught myself counting the stamens of a flower.

~~~Tufu

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Observe the wonders as they are around you. Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.

~Rumi

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The child awakens to a universe.

The mind of the child to a world of wonder.

Imagination to a world of beauty.

Emotions to a world of intimacy.

It takes a universe to make a child,

both in outer form and inner Spirit.

It takes a universe to educate a child,

a universe to fulfill a child.

Each generation presides over the meeting

of these two in the succeeding generation.

So that the child is fulfilled in the universe

and the universe is fulfilled in the child.

While the stars ring out in the heavens!

~~~Thomas Berry

In Balance! Join the Experiment!

2008-09-06T14:27:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendars! Very soon on September 22, 2008, I hope you will consider joining an experiment. It will be the Autumnal Equinox, equal day/night, in the Northern Hemisphere. The Equinox arrives in Pacific Daylight Time at 8:44 a.m. ---- 10:44, CDT; 11:44 EDT; 15:44, UT or GMT. I will be repeating my egg balancing experiment that happened on Spring Equinox in April. There is a window of opportunity, several hours on either side of the exact time. Use a raw egg - not hard boiled. Try this with me and report your results!

Blackberries

2008-09-05T17:37:00.001-07:00

The blackberries are ripening just out back, and I spent a few minutes early this morning listening to the very happy birds while I was picking. Our variety is actually the invasive Himalayan blackberry. The oldest stalks are the diameter of small trees. They'll overtake trees and hillsides. The deer feed on them.

The old plum tree is loaded and needs another week to ripen. I gathered one that dropped, and it reminded me why I love to dry them and make jam. I wonder how mashed ones would work for pigment? I see an experiment brewing.

Collaboration with Snail ala Studio Libertiny

2008-09-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I was inspired by Thomaz Libertiny and his bee colony. I wanted to do a collaboration with someone from the animal kingdom. Here on Whidbey there are multitudes of slugs and snails. I remembered last winter waking up to glistening trails all over my livingroom rug. Several snails had been at work while I was asleep after escaping from the planter I brought in from the yard. So for a collaborative project: "Ah, perhaps a glistening design on velvet," I thought. The snail agreed to come in if I brought the leaves. I placed a velvet square in a glass pie plate and nestled the leaf with snail inside. By morning there was a glistening path on the velvet which made me notice the lint. Where oh where is the snail? He had climbed out of the pie pan and glued himself onto the lens of my glasses on the counter. OK, so it is 2-Dimensional, not 3-D like the honeycomb vases. But I like the potential of how I might enhance the shimmer pattern. It is a Work-in-progress, and snail has been returned to its garden home for more green leaves. Is this art or a diversion from writing a gazillion job applications?!

I'm thinking of the lesson of the snail and being placed in a new situation not to our choosing. We can just make our path --- make it glistening --- and stay true to ourselves. No hurry. We carry all we need with us, a pureness of being. Those who do not understand may call it slime, but it is evidence of a true path. We may have to make our way across the darkness, but we can get to the other side. We climb out of the dark unknown and maybe into another unknown, but anchor ourselves to tools of seeing. We trust all the while that we will be returned with care to our home.

Studio L I B E R T I N Y

2008-08-31T16:23:00.000-07:00

Studio L I B E R T I N Y

Artist/Designer Thomaz Libertiny offers a framework and collaborates with hundreds of bees who produce an honeycomb amphora. I love the idea of collaborating with the natural world, though I'm not sure the bees had a choice to be there or not. As the process was repeated, each successive project revealed variations on the design.

Families Gather for Kim John Payne

2008-08-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

I sat with Kate in the Middle School Auditorium on this cool, rainy, Pacific Northwest evening.

South Whidbey Island parents turned out to hear consultant Kim John Payne this evening. He brought a gentle, genuine tone to navigating some of the challenges with our young ones. After a historical overview noting how the pendulum swings over the decades for parenting fads, Kim demonstrated with humor.......and always respect..........how to shift the dynamics that lead to challenging behaviors.

Kim invited a simulated discussion with Adam, a Waldorf father/parent coordinator, to model how to manage a child's typical bid for attention while parents are conversing. He demonstrated how to stay invested in the conversation while signaling "stop" to the child, then breaking eye contact and giving a clear message that a choice for "a NOW " answer will always be "NOW without the W." Clever...make them think! But clearly, the cues would be taught at an earlier time, because "in our family we don't interrupt." Teach teamwork as part of family values. Kim John Payne designed a three-fold model that involved teaching to willing, feeling and thinking capacities of our young ones.

Check out his site: www.thechildtoday.com. I'll be adding more...................

Working Definitions

2008-08-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

Grace:

*Seemingly effortless beauty, care, form

*Honor, Refinement

*Gentleness freely given

*Divine love

Meridian:

*Zenith, highest point

*Channel through which energy flows

*A Great Circle encompassing wholeness

*Highest point of development

G-3 Residency

2008-08-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

Taking a Ferry to School

2008-08-14T18:01:00.001-07:00

See that land mass across the Puget Sound? That's the Olympic Peninsula, home of a couple of temperate rainforests, beaches that touch the Pacific, and Port Townsend. A cluster of us gather to work on an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts with the west coast cohort of Vermont's Goddard College. The residency is held at Centrum campus on the grounds of old Ft. Worden.

I take the Keystone ferry from west Whidbey Island to Pt. Townsend. Upon arrival the last February, eagles were circling our quarters. We live in the old non-commissioned officers houses. There was a full moon. Deer were grazing on the green between our residences and where classes are held. Faculty, students and guest artists offer seminars during the eight days. The planetary weather will provide a lunar eclipse and full moon as we settle in for the week of classes, set up the "Considered Spaces" gallery, and begin designing study plans. I think of it as a school for nomads or a theatre. You arrive and set up, and then you strike the set and go home to work all semester.

Each semester has a focus. We have completed Person, Place and Practice. We have just wrapped up Liminal Spaces. Now we begin Sustainability and Social Justice: Our Presence in the World. I need to get back to packing!

Changing Patterns

2008-08-10T17:55:00.001-07:00

Seems to be a shift calling for a new formation. I will watch for the Perseids meteor shower after 2am on the 12th. Shooting stars are always a wonderful show, encouraging us to move in new ways or into new territory. Here's to the spiral of life!

Creative Harvest of Lughnasadh, Lammas, First Harvest

2008-08-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

August opened with a new moon in Leo. Now is the time for creativity (isn't it always time?) and confidence. Grace and gratitude cushion the path. The birds are having a convention in the cherry tree in the garden. They are harvesting the little bing cherries. A mother robin feeds her young one - who, with its speckled breast, is as big as she is. It stands on the walkway flapping its wings, nagging its mama with an open beak. Some intergenerational gesturing is universal! Oregon grape, filbert, and crocosmia lend autumn color. I made Lammas bread for art group that met at the end of a winding road that turned to gravel and then to mud and back to solid ground.

It's Been Just Beachy!

2008-07-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

I just spent a wonderful week with my daughter. Erin came to the Island following her Intercultural Communications conference in Portland, and we went to the beach every day. Twice we went to Maxwelton Beach where Mount Olympus rises snow-capped out of the Olympic range across the waters. Other days we were at Double Bluff with the eagles and herons. Mount Rainier is visible from Double Bluff on the clearest days. Erin met her goal of finding spiral moon shells. We packed a picnic or snacks, flip-flops and Keens, water, camera and blanket. Both Rainier and black cherries are in season, and she found twins in one batch. I nestled them into a shell from her collection. Though we talk and email often between Illinois and Washington, it had been 19 months since we had seen each other. I stored each moment with her deep in my marrow.

Langley Arts Festival: Choochokam 2008

2008-07-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

Festival! And can you imagine that in the Pacific North West that I am having to water a patch of green outside my door?

Integral Being

2008-07-07T19:34:00.001-07:00

The compass design posted on July 4th resides on the belly of Integral Being. The ceramic sculpture is from a clan I've made: one primitive, earthenware; one Black Madonna, black clay; three celadon (Jack-in-the-Green meets Sheila-na-gig? Integral Beings surely). The head is a vessel for new growth...what springs from intention.

En Plein Aire

2008-07-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

The Art Women met at Gateway, A.T.'s garden. Four of us - A.T., Kathy, Mary and I toured the plantings of mountain laurel, horsetail and horsemint, iris, rue, fragrant "Patricia's" rose, dramatic burgundy lilies, poppies and pinks. Out of all the luscious plant life surrounding us, I chose to paint just what was in front of me....where I was planted.....Primative, I suppose....the feast interpreted.

Nature's Imprint

2008-07-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

Finally (!) I completed a piece that began as mail art. It was initiated by Jessica, another MFA student at Goddard, when she sent me a packet of collage materials. She sent papers, buttons and a solargraphics image she did using herbs, plus a blank paper for me to try. I made a small collage to return to her, but I lingered on just what to do with the blue paper and the "sister images." I had been working with natural materials and mini-Zen gardens as interactive collages. I used dried poppy seed pods for my sun paper experiment. To make this a complete work, I wanted to combine both images somehow. The final assemblage uses sheer ribbon, a blue-and-gold painted cedar branch, a brass bell, wool roving for stuffing the images like a "pillow," gold-painted poppy pods, gold thread, clear glitter glue and spiral wrapped brass wire.

Days of Independence

2008-07-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

I think the firecrackers have ceased in Langley, Villiage-by-the-Sea. On the 4th, I walked to the beach and watched the stream of colorful bursts across the Saratoga Passage. Along the beaches of Camano Island and over in Everett the night skies filled with waves of fireworks. I could pretend that the land was in love and was flirting with the sky. Our lives are the love connection! So...as Mary Oliver writes, "So tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" I am asking myself this question.......change is upon us.

Solstice stone, Cedar burl

2008-06-22T17:32:00.000-07:00

I could wrap my hand around the burl of this 400+ year-old cedar tree. It marked the the entry of the cave in its trunk. The solstice stone, layered with quartz crystals, will be carried till equinox.

Summer Solstice Dawn

2008-06-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

Acrylic, gel, coffee grounds, tiny teal glass beads, walnut ink, powdered copper mica pigment

Paste Paper

2008-06-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

New Crop of Pen and Watercolor

2008-06-17T18:43:00.001-07:00

Forest at South Whidbey State Park

2008-06-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

Rain

2008-06-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

Nacre voit (Mother-of-pearl sees) ~Rimbaud

2008-05-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

Recommended viewing: Into Great Silence by director Philip Groning

Design & Transformation

2008-05-29T09:01:00.001-07:00

Tulip

2008-05-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

I've been working on an abstraction from my photo series of tulips, and using acrylics. It is still in process.

I play with abstraction also with digital images.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-10T21:55:00.001-07:00

She shines
and takes
a new direction
when her child
arrives.

Intent

2008-05-07T14:41:00.000-07:00

Intent

on making progress,

straight along

the heart-side

of life

Steady

Luscious

Glide

May Day

2008-05-01T11:33:00.001-07:00

I wove Brigit's Crosses of grasses and spent daffodil stems tied with linen.

May morning dew

Lady's Mantle delight

2008-04-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

The Belly Cauldron is a mixed media piece: ceramic, acrylics, moss and slate slab.

Happy Birthday, Seth

2008-04-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

My son is 30 today! I remember that when he was ready to "arrive," I grabbed a bunch of lilac blooms and we drove into town from our farm in Illinois. I am remembering this from my place on an island in the Pacific Northwest. After many adventures, Seth recently returned to the homestead and is anticipating the later-than-usual lilac blooms to open. His friends came to the farm, I hear, to plant a Japanese maple and to celebrate with birthday cake. Happy Birthday, Seth!

Spring Chicken

2008-04-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

Gathered fresh from Bayview Farmers Market!

Also April 23

2008-04-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

The most recent participant left evidence of the concept medial axis raked into the black sand. It is the tree-like path that forms in sand and between the objects in Zen gardens. It is said to be a visual link to the axis mundii, the world tree, giving rest to the individual who gives attention to its form.

April 23

2008-04-23T14:57:00.001-07:00

We strike the show today. These are the latest pics of what has been designed since Earth Day.

Progression & Participation

2008-04-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

Gallery visitors accepted the invitation to re-imagine and re-assemble the space with materials from Nature. Co-creating is a skill to develop as humanity moves forward. Knowing what is around us, listening to the possibilites, playing with options to nurture our communities...all are part of our work. I notice what is placed and included in the boundaries and what is on the "borderlands."

Different forms of moss and lichen were placed in the four corners. At the very center a spiral (moon shell) appears and holds the movement that is happening inside this alchemical vessel (copper/Venus/love). There are really two vessels: the linear space and the rounded one containing more possibilities. The
large poppy seedhead holds sand in its crown...the soil, the fruitful darkness,
the possibilites of the fertile landscape. A copper/pearl/blueberry scepter
stands proudly in the corner in front of moss. A family of blueberries
encircles a white feather and buried pearls. A pearl's copper spiral weaves
inside a hole in a white shell. The little geode (crystal) coracle now holds
black sand - perhaps to transport that fertility to a new endeavor. The large
schist stones from the island of Iona in Scotland are ringed by shell, jasper,
Apache's tear and quartz. Moss "grows" again on its surface.

Thank you to each person who contributed to the new design. What do you think? The Earth Day art gallery will be open at Bayview corner, Whidbey Island, until Wednesday, April 23rd.

Earth Day 2008

2008-04-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

Marc Dion designed Neukom Vivarium, a
greenhouse housing an eighty foot nurse log near Seattle's waterfront. The Olympic Sculpture Park is designed to provide experience in “archetypal” land areas. The archetype framed by the nurse log is one of forest renewal…..as the old form dies, it provides nourishment for the new life to come.

In the digital image, we are stepped back in layers: out of the forest, out
of the sidewalk greenhouse room, wanting to be close to the
Nature that
renews.

The window reflects the ripples of photographer’s grip
overlaid
on the distorted image of the nurse log with the plant life it
supports.
Reflections of the street lights in silhouette, a green traffic
light and a
street that “reads” green in the image demonstrate the levels of
activity in
this
urban forest. The old cedar supports sword ferns, baby
big leaf maple,
Oregon grape, lichens and fungus. We view the old log
juxtaposed with the neon
sign for The Old Spaghetti Factory. Both
“factories” offer their own kind of
nourishment with sound reminders of the
incessant gaze of the city itself, as
the nurse log continues on its
now-very-public quest to support renewal.

On Whidbey Island, Earth Day included wind, solar and electric car demonstrations; information tables for Castle Goat Farm, Whidbey Institute ( calculate your carbon footprint), Pam's Seed Saving, and Whidbey Watershed (salmon protection and outdoor classroom). Music celebrations happened throughout the day, culminating with Open Circle Singers who invited audience participation. The Earth Day art show contained sculpture, collage, assemblage, photography, painting, and multi-media.

Earth Day on the Way

2008-04-16T11:33:00.001-07:00

The moss, copper, pearls and sand are an interactive assemblage called

Brothers and Sisters of the Island inviting the Earth Day Art Show audience to "play in the garden." It includes a field of green silk, a copper bowl set to the side with materials from nature, and a tiny woven copper rake for Zen-garden-like design.

During its previous appearance, the assemblage evolved over the course of Goddard College's "Considered Spaces" exhibit - with the theme of liminal space. This was created as a segue piece between the themes of liminal spaces and people, place and practice. People not only played and re-arranged, but brought objects from Nature, such as feathers, a bee, a carrot, and an orange peel that dried into an angel silhouette. The invitation to play motivated others to add to the offerings and to expand the composition. We'll see what happens during Earth Day 2008!

The trail is a lovely path through the Chinook lands of the Whidbey Institute. I find beauty and deep teaching here.

Another dream image - painted first, written about next. The most striking objects were the glowing forms growing out of the land among the greening fields. The filaments of gold were similar to ones in a dream I had eight years ago, where everything was just vibrating with these threads. A voice from an unseen source said, "Step through." Now there is new life being born across the land within the circles of the golden threads. It gives me pause..........

Taxes are done - Amen!

2008-04-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

Grateful for a little peace and time to keep painting. The dream image with the gold huts has me on the path toward welcoming sanctuaries. The Contemplative is a work-in-progress.

Message in a Bottle

2008-04-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

I knew their voices
at first light.
Welling from the deep –
whale prayers.
Revival meeting-
a salt water tent.

Elegant bodies,
roll with geyser breath,
nest in underwater
moss-
The Mother wakes them.
They could plunge their
toes in her muddy coat
if they had feet.

They do
have low,
rumbling song.

I wake
to their voices returning,
move in unison,
weighted, fluid,

swimming in the soup
of Saratoga,
the Salish Sea.

Pluto retrograde

2008-04-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

The beginning...the word...the image. Equinox ushered in the evidence of balance and hope.