LIGHT SHOW

Ice Patterns
Frost on windows glows in darkness and daylight.  The above painting represents a scene in full winter sun, primal light blazing through ice on a window.  The painting has many flat planed surfaces stroked on it with a palette knife.  When strong light shines downward on Ice Patterns, titanium white thick strokes light up with an energy all their own. 

Recently, I noticed how a faint white cat head "appeared' in Ice Patterns, an unplanned painted image.  Surprises are always happening with light and color.  There are other images hidden here, what do you see?

One night we saw fernlike silver ice and ancient kale, plant-like images, forged on our garage door windows and illuminated by a nearby streetlight.  I was dazzled by the such realistic patterns etched on glass. 

Notice art work in your home or office and how shifting light plays upon them, or even changes their color and mood.  Sunlight flickering over paintings causes constant delight, even three dimensional or vibrating effects may emerge:  living art. 


Silent Dance
One morning a contemplative fog coated the trees as I stared out into the depths.  I felt the phone ring, it rang.  I knew it was my friend Mary with the Prayer Line.  Her cheerful voice was a hug.  I wrote:  

*A Frosty Dawn

It's a white-out morning,

Veils of frost and fog cover grass.

Cloaking tree trunks, branches, remnants of leaves

of Autumn's past...

It looks like an eerie fairyland out there--

Ice sculptures in the mist.

The glistening trunk of the silver birch tree rises up
like a phoenix from the ashes.
Its ashen bark is ghostlike in the mist. 

It feels like a little touch of Heaven
brushing the landscape with fernlike silver ice.
I look out my window...
I hear Mary's voice say,
'It's like joining hands with God.'

Crystal Rainbows

One recent January morning, I stopped in my tracks as I passed the patio windows.  Sprinkled across the snow were tiny prisms, snow crystals catching the sun at just the precise angle for viewing.  Sparkles for Earth friends appeared.  I absorbed prism color into every cell of me.  Some glowed blue or green, orange or purple as they changed every moment with the glowing sun.  The glitters were like strings of tiny multicolored Christmas lights dusted into the snow.    

Fastforward/Rewind
I was transported back to my little girl self sitting under the Christmas tree and feeling the soft white cotton blanket.  It had colored sequins attached.  I felt cotton and sequins again with my hands.


Weather or Not?
Shifting seasons and colors, dark and light, blend in harmony and balance into a cosmic dance. 

**On windy days and moonless nights,

Blake wears a suit of shifting lights.

The tailor now has grown so clever,

he stitches light and dark together.  

* Ice Patterns, poem by Dahlis Roy

**A Visit to William Blake's Inn, Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travellers by Nancy Willard, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen.  A colorful romp for children of all ages.


Dahlis Roy, Visionary Artist, Author, and Tai Chi Instructor

Ice Patterns, oil painting by Dahlis