Finds in the week: Artist Cai Guo-Qiang

In the April 2013 edition of Smithsonian Magazine, Ron Rosenbaum wrote about his interview with the artist Cai Guo-Qiang in his article entitled "Burning Man".

Born in China, Cai Guo-Qiang now lives in the US and displays his art around the world.  His medium: explosives.  Some of his art that may be familiar to most people is the display of explosions he created for the opening of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

The interview with Cai Guo-Qiang is fascinating as Rosenbaum discovers the deeper meaning for the artists  choice in medium and his art by learning about his childhood, his father's life, and his own hope for eyes, beyond just the Earth, to view his art.  Rosenbaum describes Cia Quo-Qiang's art as: "Violence transformed into ethereal beauty."

Visit Cai Guo-Qiang's website for photos of his fascinating projects and read the article "Burning Man" by clicking on the links.

Foto Friday: To be a kid again...

Words in the week: April Dreams #4

Sometimes it becomes difficult to keep following your dreams, goals, and aspirations in life... With this quote in mind, hopefully you will be inspired to keep going.

"It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are alive.  There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them."   ~George Eliot

Click here for more Words in the week: April Dreams, April Dreams #2, April Dreams #3.

Small Stone #20

I hear the song of the Sandhill Cranes in the distance
Look to the sky to see their flight, their song so distinct
A present, but all I get is to wonder
When will I see them?
Days later, along a waterway
I see them take to the sky
Song and sight synchronize

Recent Reads: Ted Kooser's poems, The Blizzard Voices

In the midst of the recent spring storms that have sent the landscape back to winter, I read TedKooser’s book of poems entitled The Blizzard Voices.

The poems portray what happened to the people who lived on the Great Plains when the blizzard of January 12, 1888 blew full force across the land.  Although the harrowing blizzard took place over one-hundred and twenty years ago, reading about their experiences in relation to the devastating storm made my own love/hate relationship with Wyoming springs seem quite trivial.  One man froze in between his horses, children were trapped in rural school houses with little food or heat bringing death to some, other people risked their own lives by going out in the storm to find food and blankets to keep others alive, and many froze to death within feet of their own homes.

Kooser reveals in his introduction that the voices of the poem are his, gathered over many years from conversations with family members, and listening to people when he was a boy as they remembered how they survived the 1888 blizzard.

Authentic and powerful in their telling, the poems express stories of individual lives and target the essence of human nature amongst a natural disaster: survival.  As I listen to the wind and watch the snow blow, I can almost hear the survivor’s voices- somewhat sad and reminiscent- but heard and remembered as their memory, once again, is stirred into the present.

Words in the Week: April Dreams #3

 These quotes are ones that help to keep the inspiration of following your dreams alive.

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.

~T.E. Lawrence

 If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

~Henry David Thoreau

More Words in the Week of the April themed month on following your dreams: Dreams; Dreams #2.

Foto Friday: Colors of Yellowstone

I enjoy being in Yellowstone Natonal Park for several reasons, the colors found there are at the top of the list.  This one I took while waiting for Old Faithful to go off.  It was worth the wait, perhaps the best part.

Words in the week: April Dreams #2

"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul.  Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal." 

                                       ~Pamela Vaull Starr
 

"I was not looking for my dreams to interpret my life, but rather for my life to interpret my dreams."
                                           ~ Susan Sontag

 

In my notebook: Feel of Spring

In the mornings at the bus stop the air now feels of spring.  There is a dampness to it, and the certain warmth that has not been present for quite some time.  When I step outside to send my daughter off, I wonder if the chill that is there comes from the wind as it blows over what's left of our snow and pushes it up into the air and onto my face.

We began to feel and see these changes in March, far too early in our part of the world.  But anyone who lives in Wyoming knows the spring storms can be just as cantankerous as a mid-winter storm and dump just as much snow to make one think they are right back to winter.

In many ways I'm glad to see the snow go- most years it doesn't leave until May- and I feel selfish because I'm happy I won't have to deal with the snow by keeping our road open so we can get out, or trudge through it to feed the horses.

The ranchers and the wildlife people see this as much more of a detrimental situation, and I know it is even though many of my own burdens are significantly less when the weather behaves.  Less snow means less grass and less water, and thus lots of hungry wildlife and domestic animals with little grass to feed them.

Our friend says he will be selling his steers, trying to hold onto his cows, and others will be doing much the same.  I can't imagine what hay prices will be.

So we wait for the spring rains and the springs snows, even me...

Foto Friday: Illusions

On a recent trip we launched our boat at Bullfrog Marina located on the tip of Lake Powell in Bullfrog, UT.

I had never been to Lake Powell before and was amazed, to say the very least. 

We set up our camp on the shore of the lake and then went exploring. Gorgeous canyons and landscapes were what we found, along with this section of quiet water and illusions of where the sky really began.

Words in the Week: April's theme is dreams...

For the month of April I'll post "Words in  the Week" that are focused on dreams.  Not necessarily the ones we find in our sleep, but the ones we hold in our hearts.  My dreams are what keep me going and cause me to strive to make them reality.  As I get older I sometimes think it might be easier for me to let some of my dreams slip away; I sometimes loose the innocence I once had of the simplicity it would take to make my innermost dreams for my life come true. Why not let that innocence back in?  Why not let inspiration take flight?  We are our dreams, I once believed.  Why not believe it again.

I hope these "Words in the Week" for April will help to keep you dreaming...

Make-believe colors the past with innocent distortion, and it swirls ahead of us in a thousand ways - in science, in politics, in every bold intention.  It is part of our collective lives, entwining our past and our future...a particularly rewarding aspect of life itself.  ~Shirley Temple Black
 

The dream was always running ahead of one.  To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.  ~Anais Nin 

Finds in the week: Innovative Gardeners

In another place, somewhere in my dreams, I can garden for longer than the 28 frost free days that time allows for plants to grow in our little haven located in Sublette County, Wyoming.  Yes, 28 days, that is all.  It is not impossible for certain plants and veggies to grow, starting inside is a big key, but there are many that just won’t survive in our USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 2-3. 

 

So I was very intrigued to read the article “The New Generation” in April/May 2013 issue of Organic Gardening, about four individuals whose passion is gardening and who have been identified as professionals who will likely make profound impacts on gardening in the future.  The reason for some attention to be shown their way is for their exploration of plants, the varieties they have collected, the propagation of plants, and the use of hybridization.

Here is a list of the four mentioned gardeners found in the print version of the article, on the web there are six, with links to most of their websites.  A glance at their photos provides a visual for their individual passions for gardening and the beauty of innovation in which they have created with plants. 

·         Joseph Tychonievich

·         Brienne Gluvna Arthur

·         Riz Reyes

·         Kelly Norris

 

 

Click here to read the full article at Organic Gardening.