( a few veggies, mostly flowers )

First gardening pics of the season. It's been a long harsh winter. I am looking forward to the sun on my skin and the earth under my fingernails. We hope to build our greenhouse this year. Time flies. Time flies. We'll see. EDIT: C.P. made the garden pictures into a trippy music video and posted it in the comments.

dreamfall

This video has me all teary eyed because I am a sap and I love music. Stick with it. There is a pay off. I'm not even sure why the audience was so cynical and against the woman in this video. I think she is adorable and has a lot of charisma, not to mention chutzpa.

Embed was disabled on the video so here is the url. Too bad. I think this should be more easily shared.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Dragonflies in flight are a wonderful sight to behold. Large, iridescent bi-winged creatures zooming and weaving as if playfully. They begin their lives as nymphs, aggressive aquatic predators that can remain in that stage as long as five years. By contrast, the adult stage we all know as the dragonfly proper is only the briefest part of its lifespan, at most a few months.

In much European folklore the dragonfly usually has sinister significance, associating them with devils or fairy mischief, an example of which is the English nickname of "the Devil's darning needle." By contrast they are held to be auspicious by many Native American tribes, symbolizing swiftness, renewal, purity. In some other parts of the world it is held to be a sign of good luck if a dragonfly lands on you. The japanese hold the dragonfly as a symbol of courage and happiness and often feature then in haikus.

Serpent devours tail, lion devours sun, and the phoenix rises. It has been an exciting week here in the crow's nest studio as you can see. Three new action, adventure, and symbolism packed works on a timely theme have emerged from the debris of spring cleaning. I've been having this wave of nostalgia about Lebanon, Palestine, and my father lately. I kept thinking I would write something up about it to go with work. My father was something of a phoenix as well and his spirit still rises in the lives of everyone he ever touched. The personal writing never came together. I did manage a description of the piece that ties it all together. I guess this isn't the time for a personal exploration so here are the pictures. Worth a thousand words that are apparently not forthcoming at this time. Perhaps I need a "ghost" writer.

The phoenix is an eagle-like bird that is said to be nearly immortal. Some variant of the phoenix appears in the mythologies of many of the world's ancient cultures. In classical Greek myth the phoenix undergoes a death-and-rebirth cycle approximately every 1,000 years, by building itself a pyre of myrrh branches in which it is burned to ashes. From the ashes a new phoenix is born.

In modern times the phoenix is a symbol of the Lebanese people, who are descended from the Phoenicians, and of Beirut in particular, a city eternally reborn from its own ashes. In alchemy the phoenix represents the element of fire and the fiery aspect of sulphur. It also symbolizes the perfection of unified opposites, in that it reproduces from itself without need of an "other."

Such a rare occurrence that I felt it should be documented. I'm just kidding. I do go out. I go into the garden and to the beach every day excepting blizzards. Sometimes, I go all the way to the rocky point under the bird sanctuary to sunbathe with the seals. I rarely go out into the actual people populated world though, unless I am on errands. I do exciting things like visit the post office and the farmer's market.

I'm not sure why I have become such a hermit. I have always been introverted but this is over the top even for me. I'll have to give myself a jolt and go on an adventure. I am the one who used to kidnap other people and take them on adventures. Maybe it's that the world seems so insane to me lately or is it the other way around. Heh. Kidding again.

Sometimes I think now that I am just a ghost that you can see like in the Gordon Lightfoot song. I've become so singular and adept at creating my own little world that I may be out of phase somehow with the more collective reality. Fortunately, C.P. McDill is a collector of ghosts so this doesn't phase him. I couldn't even scare him off with my poltergeists and gremlins.

Today we went treasure hunting just to push me out a bit. I found more amazing old books and magazines. I will scan in the interesting pictures and post them. I thought it was about time to take updated photos of me. I wanted to take pictures on the beach but it was mad windy and so cold. I also quite like the cap I am wearing so I fled. I took a picture in the car. It's not so glamorous but it is up to date.

Wow. I am looking at these and thinking that I really have some whacked looking eyebrows. My eyebrows are amusing to me. They actually meet in the middle if I let them. I must look just like a werewolf when I forget to keep them apart.

We are all dreaming of spring here. Kitties spend all of their time in the windows wondering why they are not cracked open yet. The ordinarily silent and stoic Freya complained about it this morning. She tapped on the glass and meowed loudly. It's still quite cold with light frost in the evenings and those damp bone chilling early mornings.

I have my little winter tabletop kitchen garden for greens and herbs. The seedlings have all peeked up out of the earth in their little pots. The hot peppers and tomatoes are up. I usually start salad geens and spring flowers outside. This year everything is beginning on the windowsills and under the lamp. The rack Nemo is sitting in is where I used to start plants but he will throw them on the floor out of his way. It is the coldest wettest latest winter we have had here in two decades. We are all ready for spring here. Pretty please.

The kitchen shot is a still from video footage C.P. took with my cheapo little camera. It came out so clear. I was surprised. He's been experimenting with making videos. The latest one is just C.P. making breakfast in our kitchen. Too funny. My favorite so far is the Saluki Regicide video made from a campy old kitchen appliance commercial. It seems we have a kitchen theme going on there. No idea why!

I have in my hands this small fabulous book from 1835 titled "The Young Reader", so well rubbed in all the right ways that it is an artifact of sculptural elegance. The content is as fascinating as it's current presentation. When I look through early readers such as this one, I don't have to wonder why certain authorities seem determined to eradicate their existence.

There are currently attempts to pass ridiculous "Nanny State" laws which seek the physical destruction of such wonderful objects and the complete removal of their content from circulation. The value of such a book is not just in the obvious charm of aged paper, a young artist's scribbles, and whimsical yet technically proficient illustrations. The value is also contained in the artfully chosen collection of stories, poems, and lessons.

The lessons contained therein do not attempt to dumb down or disney-fy (Fie!) certain aspects of reality. There is an odd and effecting mix of grittiness and sentimentality presenting a common sense wisdom. The young readers are addressed with respect for their intelligence, potential, and emotional fortitude. They are assumed to be capable of learning self sufficiency. This particular copy was once owned by Henrietta Henrietta who seemed determined to master the letter "y" with sepia toned ink and a feather pen. She has delightfully decorated a wee treasure containing an eclectic mix of literature, fables, and moral tales which also happen to encourage basic reading and comprehension skills.

These older books have become popular with home schoolers and educators who are fed up with the neurosis-inducing thin skinned political correctness and vapid spiritless mind-numbing nonsense favored by our current system of education. Why would the gatekeepers of culture and so-called "education" feel threatened by this material? There could be lead in the books they so claim. Lead my left butt cheek. Every page is pure gold.

"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure."

This quote scrolled past me today, somewhere in my travels. I liked it and snagged it. Now I forget who said it. Bill Cosby?

C.P. McDill and I have been talking about fear and anxiety in this context. I always pay attention to synchronicity. Sometimes inspirational quotes are thought of as hokey. I think they are helpful. Besides, it's okay to be hokey. Why not? Fear literally is the mind killer. It can also be a mind virus that is spread around to others. What I observe is that the media and various authorities in our lives attempt to keep us in a constant state of anxiety and fear. Why? Sometimes it is a bad habit and not deliberate. There is quite a lot of subtle peer approval awarded for negativity and cynicism. We become trained to police each other in this manner.

Sometimes though, it is part of a design to keep us in a state of mind that is dis-empowered, more easily controlled, and perhaps more accepting of injustices and absurdities. One certainly can not be audacious if the mind is kept focused on fear and failure. As always, I am speaking to myself as much as to anyone else when I write up this kind of thing. Expel the "bad fairies" from your mind.

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

New astrological miniature of the Taurus constellation. I posted this a few days ago and forgot to put it on LJ for everyone silly enough not to be subscribed to my improved website's new work feed or the shop feed on etsy. Hehehe. Kidding. Really though, aren't these new fangled thingies so convenient? I love RSS feeds.

I redid arianadii.com in wordpress so that it could have a feed and better content management. What a Herculean task it turned out to be that I was not prepared for! It isn't actually a blog like this one or like the wordpress blog on wildmuse.net which is sort of a mirror to this one. It's just that the wordpress is so easy to update. I still need to put up links and a few other pages. I'm working on that. Okay. Whew. That's done and now I can just have fun posting to them and spend more of my time in the studio where I belong.

I'm not sure this is a good idea little dude.

These are the art books that were left out of my art books are love post on Valentine's Day. They were spread all about the studio and when collected made quite a pile. I thought I should include them, seeing as these are the books most currently referenced, they are probably the most important. I have another motive though. It's been a few weeks since I made my plea and very people have complied. C'mon peoples. Show me some love. Doesn't even have to be a studio. Let's see some art book collections Maybe we will pump a little creative spirit into this ghost town that LJ has become lately. The bigger photo is behind the cut and on flickr. The rest of the studio book collection is in this previously mentioned post. The difficult to read titles are Ray Johnson's "Correspondence" and Shirin Neshat's catalog from one of the most amazing art exhibitions I have ever experienced. It was in Edinburgh's fabulous Fruitmarket Gallery and it literally choked me up. That doesn't happen often, especially at modern art shows.

It seems that amulets and talismans are in the ethers lately, which makes perfect sense. It's the times. It's the times. These times are strange aren't they? This is the debut of a small line of one of a kind jewelry with tiny versions of my paintings as the jewel. They are one half inch to one inch square original works (not prints) that I have made into charms and pendants.

( the bigger pictures )

I really like the way the ouroboros turned out. I like the mischievous look in his eye. He sold while I was typing this post. His little (very little) friends are still around for now though. They are under 8mm teeny tiny mixed media paintings set in sterling silver bezels. This was fun to do. It took me a long time to work out exactly how I wanted to make small paintings into jewelry. That's how it seems to work for me. I spend a long time contemplating and researching before I get around to anything. Once it came together, I wondered why I hadn't done it before.

Don't wait. Make your own. It can be done. This is a wonderful blessing.

"I hope you all fall in love with your lives, and act accordingly!"

My favorite post of the day and I think it's true. I love my life. I think that is why my life loves me back. I'm going to spread this idea around today. I don't always remember it. I will remind everyone as a way to remind myself.

I also love love love pictures of artist studios and I love art books. I go to open studios as much to see the work spaces as the art. I posted pictures of Freya in the studio last night. Someone asked about the books in the background so here are the books. I think everyone should post more pictures of their art studios or their books. I love to snoop in other people's libraries. Don't you?