We had 22 days of rain in June, 27 days of rain in July, and I think...what are we today the 16th of August? We might have had 1 day without rain so far this month.
Yes, we are feeling cheated at this point...after having survived the second biggest snowfall in recorded history, I suppose Mother Nature thought it only fitting that we endure the second wettest summer in recorded history?
One can only hope that we will continue marking our record-breaking year with say perhaps... the second longest Autumn in recorded history? or how about the second shortest/ warmest winter in recorded history?
Well I top it off with a record of my own. This has been my second most scattered, least directional year in recorded history...dunno if I'm coming or going most of the time....ooops, there I go again...
While I could plan to get my shite together once school starts for the boy: want to find a job that I actually want to keep doing till I retire, want to start working out/going to the gym again, want to draw/paint/write more, etc, etc...I've learnt that planning most always goes astray, no matter how you try to stay the path.
So....I guess I'll just 'wing it', seems I’m pretty good at that these days ;)
~~~~~
I'm reading this interesting book The Poetic Landscape-A Contemporary Visual and Psychological Exploration, by Elizabeth Mowry, and decided to share some of the quotes from the book with you. Isn't that awfully nice of me? ;)
You cannot find what
the poets find in the woods
until you take the poet's heart
to the woods.
John Burroughs, Harvest Of A Quiet Eye
Every artist who...aims truly
to represent the ideas and emotions
which comes to him when he
is in the presence of nature
is a benefactor to his race.
George Inness
The aim of art is to represent
not the outward appearance of things,
but their inward significance.
Aristotle
Color creates form.
The eye and soul are caressed
in the contemplation of form and color.
The subtle changes of color over a surface…
transitions that are like music…
are intangible in their reaction upon us.
There is an immediate sensuous appeal.
John F. Carlson, N.A., Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting 1929
It’s morning and all is well.
I am…in the home of poets,
that is to say, in nature.
All the dewdrops of dawn
glisten through the delicate veil of mists
gently lit by the sun.
A Beholder Before A Painting By Corot
That landscape painter
who does not make his skies
a very material part of his compositions
neglects to avail himself of one of his greatest aids.
John Constable, 1921
The artist as a poet
will have seen more
than the mere matter of fact,
but no more than is there
and that another may see
if it is pointed out to him.
Asher Durand
The true purpose of the painter
is simply to reproduce in other minds
the impression which a scene has made on him.
George Innes
Nature matters to people.
Big trees and small trees,
glistening water,
chirping birds,
budding bushes,
colourful flowers…
these are important ingredients
in a good life.
The Biophilia Hypothesis
To read the landscape like a book
as well as to enjoy it as a picture,
opens the way
to a new relationship
between men and their environment.
The health of the landscape,
its appearance and men’s response to it,
are interdependent.
Sylvia Crowe, The Pattern of Landscape
Some special places have
the extraordinary power
to serve as a metaphor
for the whole world.
The power often comes
from a concentration,
a reduction to essentials,
and its effect is altogether to absorb us,
to hold us in the spell of the place.
The Poetic of Gardens
Now I know
that great men
have no other function in life
than to help us to see beyond appearances.
Jean Renoir, Renoir, My Father
~~~~~
Hurray, now it’s basement-cleaning time! :-/
Updated: Saturday, 16 August 2008 12:35 PM EDT
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