Inspire Me Mondays 13

It's been a week of big changes, things breaking, wind blowing, friends flying off

for life changing adventures. All of them alright. So here's to big change.

My gift in this was finally remembering why I want to paint.

It's not about what things look like, but what things feel like.

I got rid of the mirror on my studio table and the silly notion that things need to look a certain way. That's always the hardest to do, and remember. More to come.

For beloved travelers, we'll leave the light on.

Inspire Me Mondays 12

Reflections & that sort of through the looking glass don't quite know where you are sort of image or feeling. I guess another term would be the transitional phase, the in-between place. I really like these 2 photos they are sky, wood, water and rock all at once, and nothing at all. I think I'll continue looking for more examples of this phenomenon to help guide me on my way to change.

Rock Week Saturday

I love interesting architecture especially with carved columns and capitals- with the human touches. I'm also intrigued by how a lot of modern buildings are nothing more than styrofoam with a cement veneer stripped of all humanity. Guaranteed to last about a week and a half. The Ancient treasures of architecture are all stone- some in good repair, some crumbling back to the dust they were born from. The hands that built them and that have touched them for the past centuries must have left their energies in the stones. The stones in my pocket have absorbed me and I have absorbed their energies with lots and lots of touches.

Rock Week Friday- Peace Rocks

This photo was part of our original discussion about rocks and earth works. This was on a beach at Olcott, NY. I was taking it from above and couldn't get down on the beach for a better view. I'm all for things like this. This invites others to play, leave their own mark and in the etch-a-sketch area of the beaches it vanishes without a trace. Perfect for temporary artwork. Love the rock stacking in the streams for the same reasons. The pure pleasure of doing it without pretense, no admission fee and think how you feel when you stumble upon someone else's creation. You get that little ahhh and a smile. In a sense creating that warmth and joy that we need so much in lives- just from rocks. The problem of getting older and forgetting how to play is serious. Don't you think more bored meetings should take place in a creek building a dam out of rocks? Or some tense negotiations should be wandering along the shore looking for shells and rocks skipping stones as they go? Wouldn't things just work better? No one really needs to go farther than where they are to do this. I'm guessing there are few places on earth without an abundance of rocks. The Sahara from the looks on TV & the Antarctica but beyond that?? I think were good. We'll just have to spread the word-

Peace Rocks.

Rock Week Thursday

This is the stack of rocks in my backyard. When they're snowed under it's 3 feet deep in the backyard. They're old foundation stones from a house we used to live in. Naturally, I had to lug them when we moved. I will get a hernia when we move again, but hey,

they're my rocks. I got'z to. What's one more collection?

Rock Week Wednesday

Oi, Luckily these images don't need a lot of words. The classic combination of rock and water, pretty much like peanut butter and chocolate in my book. Jelly is just gross with pb- maybe too much Goober Grape as a kid. Anyway. The water sculpted layers with the falling water, music for the eyes and ears. This is just outside of Ithaca, NY. behind Buttermilk Falls. Go there and stop by Moosewood for lunch or dinner. A little farther down the road go to

The Orchid Place and adopt yourself an orchid or two. Makes for a full yet satisfying day. Have fun!

Rock Week Tuesday

This is my best friend's husband, showing off his mad stacking abilities. This was at Muir Beach also. He had the best time. It was kind of like one of those birds doing the mating dance, calling his wife over to inspect just how big he could make his towers, before they would collapse under their own weight or precarious situation. It was adorable. Certainly one way to rock someone's world.

Inspire Me Mondays 11 Rock Week

The rock in the top center is with it's portraits of where I found it, Muir Beach, California. Undoubtedly someone placed it on the larger rock shortly before I found it, the wave action would have knocked it off long ago. This is one of my very favorite rocks. It reminds me of special friends and one of the best trips I've ever been on. More of that trip tomorrow.

Once upon a time a friend told me a story about an acquaintance. She would go for walks with people when she first met them and casually pick up an interesting rock and hand it to them. She used the rock to help read people. If they dropped the rock they probably didn't match her interests but, if they slipped it in their pocket then they did. Match.com probably think of this one.

Rocks, the building blocks of the planet, will be around far beyond romance and sentiment. They've seen it all before, the world goes on around them, the rise, the fall- even as they are being ground away to sand, new ones are being created.

Do rocks have souls & love lives?