inclining toward beauty

I had lunch with a friend on Sunday and our talk turned toward beauty. It is too easy to speak of what is wrong and what is frightening.
It takes courage to allow ourselves to lean toward what is beautiful. To remind ourselves, as I do a thousand times a day, of beauty.

This inclining or leaning is subtle. Yesterday I felt the roar of the world pulling at me, pulling me away from beauty.

What helped me let go into an inclination toward beauty was a line from a poem by Barbara Crooker read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer's Almanac. The line was about tumbling roses. This poem realigned my heart toward beauty,

These June mornings of tumbling roses are giving way to July. I have been so in love with them and with the world.

From today's morning bike ride on this last lovely day in June . . .

Green Tara emerges

In late April I finished a large egg tempera painting of the Bodhisattva of compassion in the form of Kuan Yin. The painting is called "The Insouciance of Kuan Yin." She is receiving interesting responses. I'm enjoying this!


Since then I've learned a lot more about Kuan Yin. In my limited understanding of the complex Buddhist matrix this female deity first appeared in male form as Avalokitesvara.



With the spread of Buddhism across Asia to Tibet Avalokitesvara became Tara or Tara sprang from Avalokitesvara and became the Boddhisattva of compassion and action.

There are, as I understand, twenty one aspects of Tara. My favorite is Green Tara who is about fierce compassion - meaning strong, unyielding compassion.


Back to Kuan Yin . . . Kuan Yin arrived with the spread of Buddhism into China. My personal belief is that the Chinese sentiment and need at that time created a less fierce and more motherly female deity, Kuan Yin.



So Green Tara emerges onto a panel I poured last year. The panel's ground I made from beautiful white marble dust from Italy with some mica and Japanese gofun (ground oyster shells.) I poured to warmed liquid ground across the panel. Here is a detail of the panel.


And here is a rare peak of me working on the panel which is two by four feet, another large painting! I expect the lush greens of June have summoned her. I love beginning a new large tempera painting, it offers me a depth and discipline which balances the playfulness of the River Scroll drawings.



Here's a detail of River Scroll Spring Two:

River Scroll One Spring 2009

. . . here is the first of the spring series.






Tomorrow I head to the cape to shoot the summer series . . . as the light returns, figuratively and literally!

om shanti, shanti, shanti . . . let there be peace

Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, 26

drawings, dogs and solstice . . .

First, Happy Solstice! The light of summer is here and, it seems, a new world is forming.

I've been working like a dog? No that's not the dog part. I've been working like the beaver I see swimming beside me as I run my favorite trail.



I've switched my work out to long bike rides though the hills of western MA. I love the rhythm of biking.

The only downside is dogs. On one of my first rides a snarling dog came running at me with it's hackles raised and teeth bared. I found words coming from my mouth which surprised and shocked me. Although I can let loose with some pretty angry words I prefer not to because it seems we've more than enough of that in the world without my adding to it.

I was reminded of a saying from Thoreau that if a mean dog ran at you you should whistle to it. I knew what he meant intellectually but not practically. Well yesterday I got to try it on that same dog. Although I wasn't able to whistle because I'd just climbed a steep hill. I simply gave him a cheerful "here sweetie, come on!"

And you know what? It worked. He lost interest and immediately turned around. Pretty cool! It was a practical lesson for me in understanding that dog's world. He was doing what he does, guarding his turf. That's his job. Once I responded as a friend rather than a foe he eased up. Imagine that! Now I'm sure this won't work on every dog but I had fun playing with it on my ride. I expect I'll try remember this with people. I love this saying from Yoda: "Fear leads to anger and anger leads to hatred."

I am onto the spring River Scroll drawings! Blues and greens and lot's of water! Here are the last four winter scroll drawings:

Are you willing?

Lead

Here is a story
to break your heart.
Are you willing?
This winter
the loons came to our harbor
and died, one by one,
of nothing we could see.
A friend told me
of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where
they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one
just where that is.
The next morning
this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home
to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.

~ Mary Oliver ~

water