Tag Archives: Soul

The Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul

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I enjoyed another wonderful opportunity facilitating with Wendy Lee’s create! program.  When I arrived, somewhat flustered because of a whole series of misadventures, Wendy had the coffee burbling and welcomed me with open arms.  So good to see friends down at the East Village!

Eyes…the windows to our soul?

The origin of this profound thought is attributed to different writers and great thinkers…not precisely as it appears in my title, but in one way or another.  Here are just a few, appearing on the Quoteland.com site and shared by the moderator.

The quote originated with Cicero, but in a different form.

The eies. . . are called the windowes of the heart by which love enters into the same.~Stefano Guazzo, Civile Conversation, bk IV (1584)

These lovely lamps, these windowes of the soule~Joshua Sylvester, Devine Weekes and Workes (1591)

The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs records the Latin “vultus est index animi (also occulus animi index, the face (also, eye) is the index of the mind” and “The eyes…are the wyndowes of the mynde.” (1545)

Today, inspired by a North Park University community art project, we painted eyes. Participants of the North Park University made images of fellow North Park students (or in a couple cases, faculty). 67 blocks using various media, mounted on a gold-leafed tondo. It is now installed in the vestibule of the chapel at North Park University.

Eye ArtI decided to begin create’s! portrait series at the Golden Age Club in the East Village with a look at the basic structure of frontal view eyes.

To begin with, one of the participants arrived, sporting an AWESOME fashion statement and gave me permission to photograph him.  AWESOME!  Yellow lenses?  Are you kidding?  More AWESOME!

P1150556While everyone was tentative, we began…analyzing the eye…exploring its complexities and having some fun along the way.  Newsprint sketches began as small detailed miniatures and gradually grew to be confident explorations of the subject.  More fun!  More laughs!  Quiet concentration!

At create! we modify our projects and expectations as need be…some artists are still dabbling in landscapes of our last sessions…some require assistance due to special needs.  We can adjust!  We want everyone to be in full participation to the degree that they are able!

I had a wonderful time and as we offered as our intention at the beginning of class…building…building nests…building community…I am pleased to say that the resulting experience was a warm and loving experience.  We really looked into one anothers’ eyes!

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Professor Plum Takes on a New Look!

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The Kelly Richey Band at the Blue’s Can

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Here’s my little piece of film…I hope it captures the essence of how this music reached into my soul.

I bought my twenty dollar CD at the break.  I hadn’t heard of her…hadn’t heard her…and told Kelly just that.  And yet, at the deepest level, she connected with me and was fully present in that moment, although she was on a very short break after a very long set.  I can not tell you how her guitar playing impacted me…in fact, I sat through one song and found tears slipping down my cheeks. I had rolled into the Blue’s Can to meet my cousin…listen to a few songs…and then drive home.  I ended up staying until one in the morning and was shocked at this when the clock in my van lit up.

Kelley Richey, Blues Can, April 2013

Kelley Richey, Blues Can, April 2013

I think that Kelly Richey’s passion and her dedication to music and well-being was so apparent that I felt a glue take hold.  I felt a lifetime of investment and a focus that I hadn’t experienced first-hand in an individual for a very long time.  This, during that one song, spoke to my life as an artist and caused me to squirm a little in my seat.

I’ve taken a sabbatical from painting that now has to come to an end.  I need to re-dedicate myself to the process and practice of painting beyond my evenings at the Gorilla House and the dabbling I’ve been doing.  I have four bodies of work painted in my head, but not on the easel.  It is time to manifest.

For those of you who, like me, didn’t know Kelly Richey’s music up until now, here is a link to her comprehensive website.  I’m ripping off a photograph…hope that’s ok…to illustrate my post here.  Freekbass endorses Grove Guitars and the image comes from there.  Freekbass played a couple of bass solos that caused the chills in me!  Read his biography material here!  Superb bass player.

Kelly Richey

Dream Retreat

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My Daughters: One Whizzin' By and the Other Standing Still

 

The three of us went down to the Retreat Center of the Faithful Companions of Jesus on the weekend…an exploration of Dreams and a good foundation to the work of Carl Jung.  It was interesting that I was just at the completion of my novel, Pilgrim by Timothy Findley.  Apparently, the novel Pilgrim is the inspiration for a contemporary opera, The Dream Healer, composed by Lloyd Burritt, with libretto by Christopher Allan and Don Mowatt.

I really treasured the experience of getting away with my girls and sharing in a learning experience with them. 

Cuddles

Dreams 

Now here you go again
You say you want your freedom
Well who am I to keep you down
It’s only right that you should
Play the way you feel it
But listen carefully to the sound
Of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat… drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost…
And what you had…
And what you lost

Thunder only happens when it’s raining
Players only love you when they’re playing
Say… Women… they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean… you’ll know

Now here I go again, I see the crystal visions
I keep my visions to myself
It’s only me
Who wants to wrap around your dreams and…
Have you any dreams you’d like to sell?
Dreams of loneliness…
Like a heartbeat… drives you mad…
In the stillness of remembering what you had…
And what you lost
What you had…
And what you lost

Thunder only happens when it’s raining
Players only love you when they’re playing
Say… Women… they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean… you’ll know