The Turn

 The sun is love. The lover,

a speck circling the sun.

A Spring wind moves to dance

any branch that isn't dead.

*

Something opens our wings. Something

makes boredom and hurt disappear.

Someone fills the cup in front of us.

We taste only sacredness.

*

Held like this, to draw in milk,

no will, tasting clouds of milk,

never so content.

-The Essential Rumi, translations by Coleman Barks

Whirling Dervishs in black walnut ink

Thou Wast Mild and Lovely

 

thou wast mild and lovely Appalachian Murder Ballad

Another version a hymnal:

New Bag

 

I just made this bag using a pattern from Lotta Jansdotter's book 'Everyday Style' that I checked out from the library. I've been looking for something to use these canvas remnants I bought a few years ago for. A year or so ago I took some of my mugwort leaves, laid them on the canvas, and sprayed them with bleach. I like the ghostly leaves that remain. I used the "Wilma" pattern. I ended up running out of fabric that fit the pattern pieces, so things got pieced together. I am happy with how it turned out. 

Large Charcoal Drawings and St. Augustine

 

Thinking about old drawings and my favorite old apartment in St. Augustine. Circa 2011. The height of my large charcoal and ink self portrait phase. Rare captures when I didn't have charcoal on me.  I still have the shorts. The walls of this room were covered with large drawings in this style. 

Apple Tree

 It's been one year since I met my one true love in the backcountry of the Cambrian Mountains. The Wise Old Wild Apple Tree of Bwlchystyllen. 

Hip Dips

 

Hip Dips (Coffee, Black Walnut, and Sumi Ink on paper)

This past fall I got into dyeing with black walnuts. I have stared at a black walnut tree out back for years and never picked up any of the fruits to dye with. Yet this year I did, and especially got into making black walnut ink. I found a great book in the library called "Make Ink: A Forager's Guide to Natural Inkmaking" by Jason Logan, and went off of his recipe. This painting of my hip dips is one of the results that sprung from one of my little ink batches.  

I made some short videos for the Baltimore County Public Library on how to forage and dye with black walnuts. The virtual services department edited them together and gifted me a squirrel. I made a little mistake when talking about ripeness of fruit-the more brown the fruit the more ripe they are. But super easy recipe and pretty results. Black Walnut Dye