I was late and when I arrived, I was kind of jostling and trying to find a spot to sit.  The proper etiquette at Rumble House is to arrive in time to set up and when the artists are painting, yes, interact, but don’t blow the beautiful flow of painting and creating that is happening at the time.  I was ‘the bull’.  Thanks to Jess and Rich for helping me get sorted.
I sat to paint, but had been filled with a bit of a melancholy all day.  I never really know how it’s going to go.  Do any of us?

Presently, I’m listening to Vance Joy’s music on Youtube.  It’s beautiful.  Thanks, Jess.  Two mamas have a little teeny son, August, and Jess woke at 4:00 a.m. with the sweetheart and listened to this.  Such a beautiful song…and it leads to others.  There is so much amazing joy in being engaged with life…but, there is also huge struggle.  Yesterday, my cousin Jaime’s words of sadness and loss hit me very hard as well.  The experiences that we are offered and challenged to face with grace and gratitude are limitless.  Cayley has told me that I’m a bit of an empathic, so again, I feel a lot of this in my bones.

I went out on my walk at Frank’s Flats yesterday early afternoon and the extreme variety of life experiences was exemplified in the glorious and the gut-wrenching pain to be found in nature.  I stalked the great blue heron that had been perching for the past week or so at the pond’s edge…a very nervous bird who shifted its location at the sound of the train or a person walking the path some distance away…agitated…so powerful in flight…so truly amazing in its structure and appearance.

Eventually, I grabbed some shots, not technically astute, but a testament to what I experience daily at the flats.

©Kathleen Moors

This, just across the pond from a coot with a broken wing, trapped in the water some distance from shore.  And…I came home and wrote this.

©Kathleen Moors

Last night, I tackled a very small panel. I combined a feeling of the claustrophobic experience of grey skies blanketing the sun these last many days due to raging forest fires in Washington, Oregon…dangerously dry country, it seems, everywhere this summer and this bird raising up out of loss and injury and finding wings to fly.  I made an effort to shift the consciousness and to honour the life energy of a single bird.

Congratulations to Jess Szabo on her exhibit of last night.  I’m looking forward to Changing Face, featuring artists Daniel Audet, Amy Gaulin, Aaron Sidorenko, Rich Theroux, Nick Rooney, Brian Flynn, Doug Nhung, Ness Nelson  and Shon Anderson.

I was glad to have connected with Andrea, who took this bird home after auction.  She has such enthusiasm and such an ability to project hope in otherwise hopeless situations.

I love the energy of the people at Rumble House.  Enriquito, my heart is for you on this journey.  If I can give support, your Godmother-in-art is here for you.

One of my favourite people tonight…Kai, featured here with his painting of Smudge the Shark.