Natural Art

Can you imagine, walking through a forest and all of a sudden this appears ahead of you? Oh I can imagine it but unfortunately it is so far away that I'll never see it in person.

Sculptural artist Spencer Byles spent a year creating beautiful sculptures out of natural and found materials throughout the unmanaged forest of La Colle Sur Loup, where he lived with his family.

This project is intentionally secretive -- the only way you'll see these works, short of photographs, is by going into the woods and finding them yourself.  What magic that would be!

Everything being natural these are not meant to last a long time.  As each sculpture is reclaimed by nature it will also change through the seasons.  

For me this is true art -- something made by hand and heart, with instincts and learned talents.   Being natural these pieces will change and eventually disappear -- which makes them even more precious and wonderful.

"The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness." - John Muir

Into The Woods

Just behind our house is the forest.  The land drops off and we walk down, down, down to get to the bottom where we are surrounded by forest.

At the very bottom there is a small pond -- but the journey to get there is what its all about.  For there are any number of things to see if I look carefully.  The other day I came upon these red mushrooms -- a blast of color in a world of green and brown.

There is a bench there but sadly a southern forest in the summer is no place to stand or sit still. Things are crawling and buzzing and 'alive'.  Its better to keep moving.

Do you suppose the fairies dance in this bed of ferns?

Time to head back up the stairs and leave this deep forest in its mystery.

"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness." - John Muir

Today I am thankful for...

Sunshine

While walking these days, I'm aware of the warmth of sunshine on my shoulders.  I feel it sinking into my body, warming my bones.  Thankful am I.

I have been blessed to see the sun rise in the desert...

...the sun set over the ocean...

...the sun filter through the sheltering trees of the woods and forests.

Oh yes, I am ever so thankful.

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow." - Helen Keller

Stand Still

We took a walk up one of the trails in the Pisgah Forest the other day.  It was early morning and dew was still on some of the leaves.  We were literally surrounded on all sides - above and below - with green.

We walked across streams.

We wandered through and beside and past all manner of ferns, mosses, grasses, shrubs and trees.  Except for little slices of blue sky that sometimes appeared above - we were in a green world.

At the end of the trail we were greeted by this waterfall -- pouring down with a rushing noise. 


Lost
Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let it find you.
An old Native American elder story rendered into modern English by David Wagoner, in The Heart Aroused - Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America by David Whyte, Currency Doubleday, New York, 1996.

Dupont Forest

Once upon a time there was a chemical facility run by Dupont in the middle of the forest.  Dupont closed its facility and the State took over the forest.  It is now a beautiful place in which to walk.  There are many trails and at the end of the main trail a lovely waterfall that breaks over huge, ancient rocks.

We went for a walk there last week.  In all the times that we have visited the area and the falls we have never seen as much water as we did this year.
 

It was standing in places where it had never been - run off from the surging stream.

It was flowing off of rocks and making beautiful white water.

There have been times, in years past, that we hiked up to the top of the falls.  Not this year!  The water has taken over its whole space.

Over this past spring we often wondered if it would ever stop raining but seeing all that water made those soggy days well worth it.

"In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time." - Leonardo da Vinci

Fall Giveaway

Being surrounded by the beauty that is this fall -- I'm going to 'fall back' to an earlier creation and offer it as a giveway.  This artist book, "Tugging at Nature" is in an accordion style and is made primarily of fabric and chock full of forest images.  

So here you go -- if you'd like your name to be put into the hat please respond to this posting.  I'll draw a name next week, Thursday the 3rd of November, and then pop this little bit of autumn into the mail

I thank each and everyone of you for sharing this journey with me -- and love the opportunity to give back a bit.

"If you stand still outside you can hear it...Winter's footsteps the sound of falling leaves". - Takayuki Ikkaku

Into the Swamp

Come along with me into the Congaree Swamp.  We'll walk the boardwalk (so as not to get muddy and wet) and see what lies within this place.

Bald Cypress trees put their roots down into the water becoming huge trunks looking somewhat like an elephant's leg.

Cypress 'knees' surround the trunks of these trees.  They serve to aerate the trees. To me they look like pieces of clay formed into conical shapes at the foot of the trees.

The water is dark and full of nutrients throughout the swamp.  This is an environment that is unique to place and works together to create a magical, mystical swamp forest.

Sometimes I look up to see the bright blue sky above.

And looking back down, the dark water makes it appear that there are two forests that I am walking in. The one above and the one below.

"During all these years there existed within me a tendency to follow Nature in her walks". - John James Audubon.

"Enchantment"

I was thrilled when I pulled the word "enchantment" out of my word jar.  And then -- not so thrilled because I just couldn't think of how I would portray this word.  Its such a rich word -- it brings all sorts of images to my mind as I think of it.  Enchantment is actually what I try to create when I bring a beaded figure to life. My mind then drifted to the places of enchantment that fill my life and, looking out my studio window, the forest beyond drew me in.  What can be more enchanting than our natural world? 

Here in western North Carolina we are blessed with rich, dense forests.  The color green is all around us during this time of the year and narrow paths draw us deep into the woods.  There in the woods we hear birdsong and the rustle of squirrels and the croak of the frog.  Ahh, my inspiration for 'Enchantment' had arrived.  There is a small pond outside my studio window and it brims with frogs.  At times the noises they make are so loud that I can hear them clearly while I sit here and bead. 

The 'greens' in this piece don't show up as well in photography as they do in person -- they are more 'olive' colored and deeper and richer in tone.  Sorry about that!

And so, my June BJP has become a piece of this enchanted forest and perhaps there's even a prince out there in disguise as a frog.

"Enchant: subject to magical influence, cast as a spell over, bewitch - 'enchantment' act or art of enchanting".