Posted in Favorite Things, tagged A.A. Milne, Thanksgiving, Winnie the Pooh on November 28, 2019| 3 Comments »
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“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
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Remember that every tiny heart has an infinite amount of room for gratitude.
And love.
And compassion.
Wishing you all a peaceful and quiet Thanksgiving Day…
Posted in Current Events, tagged A.A. Milne, Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh on March 25, 2019| 1 Comment »
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“It’s snowing still,” said Eeyore gloomily.
“So it is.”
“And freezing.”
“Is it?”
“Yes,” said Eeyore. “However,” he said, brightening up a little, “we haven’t had an earthquake lately.”
― A.A. Milne
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The reactionary part of me has me feeling a bit like Eeyore this morning.
It’s a morning filled with way too much reactionary behavior from both sides for something of which almost everybody still has little, if any, knowledge. The facts are still unclear and there are many,many questions to be answered and loose ends still to be tied up before any of us should be too optimistic or pessimistic. For now, refrain from gleefully high-fiving or angrily punching holes in the wall.
So, while I am feeling a bit gloomy like my friend Eeyore this morning and feel that it can only get worse, I also know this is only a short summary by a biased reader at the end of one chapter in a long story still waiting to be told. We can’t close the book now thinking we know how it will all end when there are so many pages and chapters ahead.
We must be patient and wait, hard as that is, for the story to unfold.
Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Favorite Things, Painting, Poetry, tagged A.A. Milne, Early Painting, GC Myers on March 8, 2019| 3 Comments »
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
“Winter is dead.”
― A.A. Milne,
When We Were Very Young
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It’s just another reminder of who’s in charge from Mother Nature this morning as the temps here again sit at zero. There’s bright sunshine out there with the angle of the light making your mind believe that Spring is at hand and that, like the words of A.A. Milne in the bit of verse above, Winter is dead.
Stepping out into it, you realize that it was just another cruel trick. The air is sharp like a fresh razor blade. More so because your mind was telling you it would be warmly caressing your skin instead of biting at it.
Well played, Mother Nature. You got me again.
But Spring is coming and the seemingly endless wait will make the arrival of green grass and the first peeks of bulbs breaking the ground all the more special. The beauty of contrast.
The painting above is an old piece from about 1994 or 1995. It was among a small group painted at that time that was meant to have an object serve as a pole bisecting the picture plane with the light seeming emanating from it. Kind of in a Georgia O’Keeffe manner. I did a few of these pieces with imagined flowers or tree trunks.
Don’t know why I didn’t continue following this path because I am generally very pleased with them when I come across them. They have the sense of completeness and color interest that I still seek in my work. But at that point, every day of painting brought so many new discoveries and ideas that it was sometimes hard to decide which way to turn next. I had so many sparks being generated in my head that it would not have been possible to follow them all.
That changes over time, of course. New discoveries are fewer and farther apart. Sparks still come, many with the same intensity, but they create a low banked fire now instead of the roaring blaze that it seemed like when everything was new.
When everything was new…
And that brings us back to Spring. Maybe that’s the attraction, trying to tie one’s own personal renewal to that of the Earth. If so, I will be green again soon.
And that is a good thing.
Posted in Favorite Things, tagged A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh on October 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Original Drawing by E.H. Shepherd
It was on this day back in 1926 that the first of A.A. Milne’s classic children’s books, Winnie-the-Pooh, was published. In the 85 years since, the beloved Pooh and Christopher Robin, along with his close group of friends who inhabit the Hundred Acre Wood, have engrained themselves into the fabric of childhoods around the globe. So great is this gentle bear’s influence that he has garnered streets name after him in Warsaw, Poland and Budapest. There was even a Latin translation of the original book that became a NY Times Bestseller– the only book in Latin to ever do so. Not to mention the countless trinkets and films the series has spawned from the Disney Co.
But while there may have been product overkill over the years, the basic gentleness of Winnie the Pooh remains intact after all these years. His openly good nature and sweet simplicity still lives on. And that, I think, is a good thing. We could all learn a thing or two from this little honey loving bear and his friends.
Map of Hundred Acre Wood from EH Shepherd 1959
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Redtree Times 