Three Waterfalls. Ausable Valley.

From the Files.

Kioshkokwi Lake, 'lake of many gulls.'

Ode To My Daughter.

by Shirley 'Dee' Neal
c2010
All Rights Reserved

You are a dream that I hold dear
So exquisitely full of joy
Your energy making others envious
And leaving us all behind
My daughter, I am so proud when others
Compare us favourably now

When you smile, you light up the world
A spirit so sublime, it shines
You care so much for others
Sometimes there’s not enough of you
To share all that you are, all that you can be
You want a perfect world for those you love

The reality of the world is not
Only what you want it to be
Shabby roads, garbage piled high by the side
When no one bothers to clean it up
But you put it in the recycle bin
Composting rules the household

You are the light of my life
So elegant, no naïve
Like a colt gamboling
Across the undulating meadow
To catch up short, and stare
When the fence arises from nowhere

How will your days fulfill
From now until there is time no more?
What challenges may you conquer
With your insurmountable spirit so young?
I know not the end, but one thing for sure
The magnificence that is yours, is truly my joy.

Editor's Note:

The painting shown above is by Carol Shaw, who lives in Momence, Illinois. She is married and has three children. Carol is interested in criminal psychology and her musical taste includes 'anything but rap.'

Bad Guitar Practice

8b 006 Untitled and Incomplete.

18" X 30"


by Louis B. Shalako

c2010

All Rights Reserved



(NFS)

This painting is acrylic on a panel that had a bad painting already on it. The daffodils don't look too good, and the thing could use a fair amount of work. Other than that, I'm pretty pleased after not painting at all for seventeen years. In that sense, it is worth pursuing for its own sake.

Badly painted as the daffodils are, it is that fine sensibility that put them there--not too many painters could make this work, after all. So there is hope. (Where there is tea, there is hope. -ed.)

The thing uses classic colour theory but neatly bypasses the need for scientific perspective by presenting a flat plane for the entire background. It uses the original composition, which I didn't like much at first. The original painting was so soft and indistinct, all pastels with no hard edges. Yet my version hardly qualifies as 'magic realism.'

It is anything but modern; in fact it is a kind of folk art more than anything else.

The danger of taking a few art courses is that we think we know something. That's not always a good thing. But if I had to put a finger on any particular influence, I would first say 'impressionist,' and perhaps even 'Fauvist.'

As still lifes go, it seems to have a lot of life and motion. I was just telling someone that Vincent van Goght's work appears as if every brushstroke was 'a mad impulse of sheer emotion,' or something. But this painting is perhaps more finely calculated than that.

I suppose I should take the thing back out in the garage and do some more work on it, rather than just sitting around talking about it.

When I get around to it, I've been thinking of painting a man in silhouette--rimmed in moonlight, and with some kind of Rousseau-like magical garden for a setting. I need some kind of art for my blogs, etc.

-louis

Kiss the Earth, by Shirley 'Dee' Neal

c2010

All Rights Reserved


I watched as the sun uncovered the Earth
It touched the highest mountain peaks
Slyly painted oranges, pink with streaks
Tentatively, at first shy and trembling

Then bravely the darkly-frosted thin air
Was banished and dispelled
Longer shadows fell to pale, discordant light
Quivering, dancing, glowing, like candles
Just ships passing in the night

I watched the sun kiss the Earth again
That golden fire, with power to transform
And the world is suddenly visible to all
This simple feat, unspoken miracle
Happens to everyone, every day, every where.

What of us so insignificant?
Comparing a force from without and within
Is it not the same?
Touching another’s life and giving a smile
Warming a heart, sharing in our joy –

Dawn’s transcendental joy is magnificent
Our Earthly boundaries insignificant
To others when we give, to ourselves when we share
The insights and the wealth held within
Of life, and of love, and of experience
I watched the sun kiss the Earth today.

Don't fall down there.