Story tellers

I really like this way of visually telling a story (from Moon River)





It reminds me of the work of Charlotte Salomon, whose Life or Theater? I studied while working in gouache many years ago.

Heart and moon

Rilke poem speaking to me today...

"I love you, gentlest of Ways,
who ripened us as we wrestled with you.

You, the great homesickness we could never shake
off,
you, the forest that always surrounded us,

you, the song we sang in every silence,
you dark net threading through us,

on the day you made us you created yourself,
and we grew sturdy in your sunlight…

Let your hand rest on the rim of Heaven now
and mutely bear the darkness we bring over you."

—Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

Untitled, Ramallah

This *might* be the last of the Palestine series. I'm hoping to make a book out of them, or at least prints, if I can stop making new ones for a little while...

Studio shot

All the little scraps and edges from finished collages wind up looking like the beginnings of something new..

The long road

I've been doing lots of little studies of the hillsides surrounding Ramallah, building up to this one. The squares are tracing paper blocks created by sewing into the paper and pulling away the negative space, which I filled in with photos printed on vellum.

Outlines of Ramallah

Red leaves

New paints and a new project...

Records

The oldest thirst there is

Give us gladness, a taste of the quick
you that makes a cyprus strong
and jasmine jasmine

Give us the inner listening
that is a way in itself
and the oldest thirst there is.

Don't measure it out with a cup.
I am a fish. You are the moon.
You cannot touch me, but your light
can fill the ocean where I live.

-Rumi

Sky light and Heavy-light

The second and third pieces...It is hard to convey the textures of Sky light through a scan, but the black lines are made of knotted thread.

Palestinian Road

This is the first completed piece from a new project I'm working on, inspired by the 2 months I've spent in Palestine so far this year. More to come...

Pieces

Last chance to visit Artomatic

Artomatic closes tomorrow so we took one last visit and found some new favorites on previously unseen floors...The lights are small lamps made out of vintage appliances.

Bedroom in the afternoon

Perfect for a weekend nap

Poem/inspiration

The Summer Day

Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

I was inspired this morning by Approaching Prayer, this weeks Speaking of Faith on NPR.

Opening night of Artomatic

Settlement

Ramallah

The Valley of Fire

This is the road to Bethlehem and Hebron for Palestinians without yellow plates on their cars. It takes at least twice as long on a good day (though we lost 15 minutes in each direction at the container checkpoint, shown. Not to mention the several hour wait at the checkpoint outside Ramallah later that night) over a road that was more of an unpaved rural path until the second Intifada. In some places it still looks like an untraveled country road, barely two lanes wide with tight bends in the road. There are also incredibly steep inclines that trapped more than one giant truck full of chickens on the day we passed.

The landscape is beautiful though...at times like you'd imagine the moon, and at others lush clean farmland dotted with olive trees, stone walls, and grape vines. And everywhere men in traditional Palestinian head dress herding sheep like in year one.

Jerusalem/Al Quds/yerushalayim

Jerusalem
Dome of the Rock
Church of the Sepulchre
Garden of Gesthemane
A cross in the Ethiopian camp on the roof of the Church of the Sepulchre


This past Friday I took a walking tour of Jerusalem's old city and surrounding sites, the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gesthemane. It is incredible how close everything is--the Dome of the Rock is immediately next to the Wailing Wall, is next to the Al-Aqsa mosque, and most churches are accompanied by mosques. And all of these religions and cultures--Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, etc.--are nestled together in a square mile. As one of my co-workers said, "who says we can't all live together?" The location of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount remains an unresolvable issue of contention. However, as one story goes, in ancient times two Christian sects could not decide who should hold the key to the church door so it was given to the mosque next door to keep the peace.

Mansaf

Today half the men in the office disappeared to go pick up giant plates of Mansaf, the Jordanian national dish (also loved in Palestine). It is typically served for festivals and I thought it might be one after all the music and firecrackers I heard last night, but it just felt like one with the entire office gathered together joyfully talking and eating. I didn't know what I was eating until it was explained to me later--the Jameed was somewhat disorienting--but it was delicious!

Mansaf
Mansaf has three basic ingredients; rice, lamb meat and goat milk.

Ingredients

- 1 kilo cooked rice "washed, boiled in water and with butter added at the end”
- 1 kilo lamb meat “cut in big chunks”
- 1 big whole onion
- ½ kilo liquid salted goat milk “you can buy it from the super store or a “Jordanian house” store, the product is called Jameed El-Kasih”
- Pine nuts “fried”

Wash the meat and drain it until it has gotten rid of all its excess water, put it in a big pot and pour the Jameed or goat’s milk over it, add 4X as much water to the milk, cook it on a high fire and drop the onion in the pot. Let it boil for one hour, then lower the heat and leave the pot uncovered, stirring occasionally.
To cook properly, it needs three hours on the fire.

When done and the meat is soft and properly cooked, put the rice in a big round tray, and put the meat over it, pour some Jameed over them all and sprinkle the pine nuts all over the tray.

Pour the rest of the Jameed in a bowl and keep it on the table in case you would like to pour some more over the rice to make it soggier.

Picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansaf; Recipe from http://www.waleg.com/kitchen/archives/000912.html

Under the bridge (Theodore Roosevelt Island, DC)

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Paraty, Brazil

First place

My piece Hillside, Galway just won first place in a juried on-line exhibition. More details here: artistsemerge.org

The Gate and The Wanderers

One new collage and one much older one that I've finally decided is finished.

Hebron Tannery

A walk around Ramallah

Today was a crisp sunny day in Ramallah, a small hilly city the color of sand under a bright blue sky. The call to prayer rang out from the center of town and people bustled from shop to shop. I climbed the steep streets into the old quarter of the city, searching for a vista out over the terraced hills surrounding town.

Unfortunately, there has been a lot of violence in Gaza in recent days and today it was closed to all movement of goods or people. Among other things, that means no food or health supplies can go in. While West Bank (Ramallah in particular) with its neatly tended quiet streets feels like it couldn't be more different than Gaza, it seems impossible that life can continue as is in either place.