Hello all you dear beings ,
Wow, it's once again been a month since I've found the time to actually sit down and write in, but I've been checking in on this thread and the whole board in general frequently, and thinking of you all often, so I thought I'd pull up a chair, get a cup of hot chocolate (Dagoba organic hot cocoa is my favorite! Mmm!), and chime in on the ongoing coffee-table dialogue that this massive lovely thread has become famous for!
Sweet
Sandy, thanks for writing in with your kind and encouraging comments right before your trip, and how cool to read about your synchronicity with the turkey vulture! I hope you're doing well out here in the U.S.A., and I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we all miss you!
A lot of the art I've been doing has been incorporating local animals that we see in this area. One of the first silk hoops I painted was of a grey squirrel, then a couple days later, a grey squirrel just like the one in the painting started hanging around on our back deck, and still comes to visit regularly. It really seemed as if painting the squirrel had attracted him to us. So then I thought about it, and realized that in all the books I've read about communicating with animals, they say animals communicate a lot through mental images. When doing art of animals, I usually find photos of them on the Internet first, then look at them on my computer screen while drawing/painting them, so I am literally focusing on their image and holding it in my mind for an extended period of time. Ron and I started talking and thinking about this concept, and soon, other creatures began to show up outside near our back deck, posing right near us, turning all different ways as if giving us a full view of themselves from every angle, and looking right at us (including that encounter with the turkey vulture above), as if to say, "I'm here too! Paint me too!"
So now, any time a new creature shows up somewhere in the view from our back deck, I take it as a sign to make some art of it! This has happened so far with ravens, hawks, Steller's jays, snowy egrets, and hummingbirds in addition to the squirrel and the vulture, and some other as-yet-unidentified birds. Just the other day, I even saw, and heard the tap-tap-tap of, some sort of red-headed woodpecker in a nearby tree, so I'm adding him to the list too. It all seems like an interestng manifestation of the law of attraction as well! Perhaps I'll even add the raccoons that keep trying to get into our trash cans at night (even though I haven't actually seen them yet, just heard them, and seen their little paw prints all over the sides of the cans)!
The art gallery's still not quite open for business yet, though it's close. The folks doing the remodeling are rushing to get it open later this week or this weekend so we can bring our art in. We've been madly pricing, labeling and inventory-ing our pieces as part of the preparation, an educational experience in itself!
Once again, it's impossible to catch up on everything in this thread, and I imagine that I'll have to begin practicing the art of writing shorter, quicker posts so that it's easier to post more frequently! But I'll comment on a few things, at least:
Memawlaura, I looked up that link you sent in on the energy vortex in Jacksonville, Oregon! Wow, that's fascinating!
Gypsie Deb, I also Googled Mt. Warning. That really looks like a beautiful and powerful area, with the rainforests and all those tall trees, the volcano, and sacred land! Also, I haven't written in on the thread with the beautiful photos on your granddaughter yet, but I've been following it, and congratulations, she is lovely!
Oh, by the way,
Nicola, last time I wrote in, I forgot to congratulate you as well on the new little angel you are expecting!
Dear
Liz, I've seen many of your posts, but haven't said hi to you yet! Welcome to the boards, and I too have been enjoying your kind-heartedness, givingness, and enthusiasm! And it's true, all the pictures you've posted of yourself are indeed cute as a button!
Mo, that was a beautiful movie on blessing that you sent a link to; it had me in tears as well! Also, how wonderful that you got to see the Muir woods and the parrots on Telegraph Hill!
Petra, I love your current avvie with the owl, as well as your story about it and the characteristically humourous way in which you told the story! That must have been quite an experience! Maybe just seeing this owl in your avvie means I ought to paint him too, eh?
PP,
Memawlaura,
Mo and all, it's great to see all your work on the 11:11 get-together and the other threads you've started about it. In all honesty, due to a combination of several different factors, when it comes right down to it, I'm not sure whether I (or Ron and I) will actually be able to make it, so I haven't been chiming in with any further input or preferences. But I will be keeping an eye on the evolution of the plans, and just see how things evolve...
Welcome also
Amy,
Alesandro and
Nimi! I hope I haven't missed anyone else!
Oops, time to go make lunch!
Much Love and Blessings to Every One of You,
Aqua Deb
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