Recently our frozen winter dawn sported coats of many colors: oranges, ice blues, pinks, purples and lavenders similar to a parade of images from many years ago. Claude Monet came into view, a Monet Moment! I viewed in my imagination scenes from the Art Institute of Chicago's traveling display of Monet's paintings. I pictured light dancing over thickly painted pure colors, blended by the eye and imagination in flickers of ever changing vibrations. I saw!
Haystacks!
I thought about my story Champaign Dawn, where was it? I knew it was buried in huge notebooks of long ago hard copies way before computers or devices came to our home. How will I find it? Will I find it?
Several days later, I joyfully excavated this page while looking for something else! I also found the "something else" I was searching for. I had written this piece long before my "organized" writing. Tai Chi and Qigong practice were far way into the future.
Writing and typing (yes typing) at random, then and now, in short disconnected entries I read and relive again:
Jan 5:
Riding up to Champaign Illinois in the winter dawn is a breathtaking experience! The fields of gold and blue, snow bumps, spikes, angular as it were, stood up and appeared as chunks of bright cerulean blue spattered over frozen turf. The ground itself was the color and texture of chocolate brownies frosted lightly with a dust of snow, giving the effect of sprinkles of powdered sugar. The overall view was like a feast of glittering multicolored gems, like thin slides of rocks and minerals I'd seen long ago under microscopes. I thought about my painting called Feldspar.
I absorbed the colors and light soul deep.
Steam billowed from chimneys and smokestacks, backlit with a golden frozen sunrise. I saw Monet's colors jump alive again in the smoke plumes. Hues and words melted together: purple orange gold pink blue Payne's gray titanium white silver and sunny yellow. I thought about Monet's La Garre Saint Lazarre series of the French train station. Shifting colors of the station, trains, and smoke were so alive you could hear the lonesome whistle blow. Monet did not imagine "Monet Blue," he lived it! My eyes enjoy the feast as we drive. Smile.
Dear God what am I supposed to be doing? [I actually wrote that interjection.]
Art, words, and music are prayers in color, line, and sound Take a li-on (line) for a walk. I drew some mom lions and cubs yesterday with pencil. Explore the line and let it teach you, going where it will, down a path of heightened awareness. * A good exercise, draw five quick small spontaneous drawings or paintings per week, one each day from Monday through Friday, a creative stimulus. I found this simple relaxation not only brought great joy and discovery, but I was exploring new techniques with paint and pencil. Of course subjects were mostly animals, no surprise!
"Science and Art Are One," Henry Adams, Mont-Saint-Michele and Chartres (1906)
"The Only Gift is a Gift of Thyself," Henry David Thoreau, Song of Myself
This morning, as late winter light melts into early spring, I saw again Champaign Dawn out my window accompanied by zero temperatures outside. I felt blue purples brushing into pale pinks and lavenders, I saw orange sunlight shifting up in the Ease, igniting the sky with a bright promise of the day to come. Early birds were already singing....Awaken!
Then I reflected back to this past autumn as watched a small pear tree, backlit by the shifting sun, change color and light throughout the days and twilights. I saw leaves shot with silver, greens, and purples shifting from dawn to dusk. I thought of Claude Monet then too, lining up his canvases and switching from painting to painting, following the vision of ever changing light and vibrations of color.
Related Posts:
Zero, poem
Ghosts of Myself, poem
Resources:
Claude Monet, French Impressionist Painter, series of paintings include Haystacks, Rouen Cathedral, The Garre Saint Lazarre, Poplars, and more
Monet's Palette on Facebook
* The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, a Course for Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self.
The Art Institute of Chicago, USA, school of art and public exhibits
Dahlis Roy: Visionary Artist, Author and Tai Chi Instructor
Images:
Haystacks Claude Monet, from a Monet Calender years ago
Golden Beach, oil painting by Dahlis Roy, illustration for the poem, Ghosts of Myself
Medieval Tower, fun with crayons and ink by Dahlis Roy
