Friday, December 30, 2011

"...trailing clouds of glory"

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
the Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
hath had elsewhere its setting
and cometh from afar;
not in entire forgetfulness,
and not in utter nakedness,
but trailing clouds of glory do we come
from God, who is our home...

-William Wordsworth (1770-1850),
from his poem: Ode on Intimations of Immortality

Thursday, December 22, 2011

winter...

the snow
has come early
this year,
and with it
the familiar longing
for solitude.
like the she-bear
who enters
her cave in fatness
to ride out
the lean time,
i, too, am ready
to hunker down.
winter...
makes me hungry
for god.

-stacy wills (12/22/2011)

Saturday, December 17, 2011

embracing the learning curve

as i mentioned in a recent post, i have signed up for life book 2012. when i signed up, i was able to take one of tam's other online courses. this is the third painting i have completed for the M3 class, the style of which was inspired by one of my favorite artists, marc chagall. i love the little birds that showed up, wanting to be part of the picture.
a close-up of the face shows the hundreds of tiny beads that make up some of the strands of my mermaid's flowing tresses. did i ever mention that the little mermaid was a favorite fairy tale of mine growing up?
and here she is in all her glory! when i began drawing mandalas back in december of 2005 i had no idea really what i was doing, but what i did know was that i had found the creative outlet i'd yearned for. i never imagined then that i would be able to draw or paint anything else - though i wished i could. when i came across tam's website and saw what life book was about, something in my soul said, "yes." so i'm diving in - i still don't know what i'm doing, or where this journey will take me, but i'm in...all in. there's a steep learning curve to be sure (and i have MUCH to learn), but it's a curve i'm embracing.