Eyes look up skyward
Then down to the ground, digging.
Soft, thoughtful moment.
He shaded by large tree trunk
I paint him. All becomes still.
Oil painting and poem by MJC
Archive for the ‘Art’ Category
Tanka #1: Hiding
Posted in Art, Poetry on June 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Disappointed
Posted in Art, Poetry on March 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Holy Crap
He said about the limits to growth,
Or was it the sustainability of resoures
Or lack of good governance
It might have been about
Weapons of mass destruction
Was it about the solution to the Palestinian problem?
I don’t remember now, but it
Ended in a sigh.
But not of relief.
But of disapointment,
Staggering disappointment
Is this the best that we can do with this great country?
From the oceans, to the prairies,
With highways, and the byways,
electric lines, telecommunications intact, good plumbing
Feely available food supplies, unlimited gasoline, volumes of natural gas,
Apples on trees, peaches on the ground, tomatoes drifting through the gardens,
Wading through aisles of dog food, cat food, bird food, guppy food, hamster food, Cocatoo cages,
Sleeping pills, plastic aluminum, folded wrapped artificial food for babies.
Deeply disappointed,
Sorry to see it go,
Watching it fade away,
Tormented by silly commentary,
upright slick characters.
Poem by Mary Chamie.
Scarcely A Day Has Gone By
Posted in Art, Poetry on March 12, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Scarcely a day has gone by
That
I do not think of you.
You are my rock of ages, my story, my history,
my undocumented past,
my undocumented past,
My imagined future.
My one and only
There will never be another one of you, or us.
I know that we are once upon a time and not forever.
We wonder who will leave first, who will be left behind.
Just in case it is I who goes first, I leave you this celebratory not-so-specific
funny sad happy wistful loving
note of times past and present, contemplating
lost dreams of the future.
The future will celebrate itself without me.
Just in case it is I who remain, I leave this note of times past and present, future
To remember that scarcely a day has gone by that
I do not think of you.
Poem and painting by Mary Chamie.
Coincidental
Posted in Art, Poetry on March 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »
It is not coincidental that I find you in my living room.
I invited you in, just this once.
It is not a mistake that we do not argue.
It is a fact
because we do not speak.
It is not a terrible thing to be bothered by you.
It is simply inconvenient,
this morning, tomorrow, yesterday.
I forgot why you are here.
Who said you could enter?
It is time for you to go away
today, tomorrow, forever.
Find somewhere else to peddle your wares.
This silence is not coincidental.
I respect that
you are gone and
tell no one that you left.
We lost each other long ago.
Poem and painting by Mary Chamie.
Winter Wonderland – The Abacos
Posted in Art, tagged Abacos on February 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »
We stay for the winter months in the Abacos, one of the northernmost islands of the Bahamas. It is a place often nicknamed Paradise by those who visit and by those who live here, when describing its natural beauty. The extent of its unending changing beauty is hard to describe. Much of it is the subtle colors, the shifting of the light, the way the breeze runs across the beach.
Recently, I have tried to depict my feelings about this place using watercolors.
The more I paint, the more I see the wonder of this place. The more I see, the more I paint the wonder of this place. It is becoming quite an obsession.
The first painting is of early morning, what we see when we look toward the ocean. It is followed by paintings at various times of day.
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| Early morning. |
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| Late afternoon |
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| Mid-day |
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| Before a Rain |
These paintings were from our front yard. The stillness and motion of the ocean is what makes for much of the beauty.
The natural island settings of the low trees and bushes along the beach edge, facing the backyard are also very beautiful, however quite different from our front yard.
More to follow, next time.
Turning Wood into Art – Through Woodturning
Posted in Art, tagged Abacos, Crafts on February 20, 2017| 2 Comments »
Our neighbor, Steve Knowles is a wood turner who makes beautiful wooden bowls and other wood products that are all hand crafted in his workshop at his home in the Abacos at Bahama Palm Shores. He has taken on woodturning as a hobby. Every year his work becomes more popular and he now shows his pieces at art fairs around the country.
He currently works at Abaco Hardware where he services home appliances. He is also the Assistant Fire Chief for the High Banks Volunteer Fire Services. He and his wife Anita live in a natural and woodsy part of the Abacos called Bahama Palm Shores, an area surrounded by beautiful trees and bushes, with many different kinds birds settled in the greenery.
Bahama Palm Shores is well-known for its parrots and for its natural beauty, and is also well known for being a vibrant, active little ocean-side community. It is a great place for Steve to find wood for his many craft projects. Neighbors call him to tell him that a tree or branch has fallen in a storm and he comes over and retrieves some of the wood.
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| Poison wood tree |
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| Picking up wood from a neighbor. |
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| Wood piled up ready to take to his wood shop. |
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| Cutting wood into blocks. |
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| Palm tree downed by neighbor. |
Steve stacks the wood that he has collected and prepares it for woodturning through a process of cutting and seasoning.
He works with a variety of different kinds of wood, highlighting their grains in his designs.
Bowls emerge along with candleholders, bread boards, hot plates, billy clubs and spinning toys.
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| Candleholder, prepared years ago. |
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| Ready to go to an art show. |
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| Fish hot plate and bowls. |
While he works, he thinks and dreams up new ideas for future projects, sketching them out as he goes along.
Interested people stop by his wood shop to see what he is working on or to ask him to make them something out of wood. When tourists and birdwatchers visit the neighborhood, many stop in to see his work, some purchasing items to take home with them.
Neighbors drop by to purchase gifts for weddings, birthdays and other occasions and often bring their guests to see Steve’s work. Steve has also taught some people how to wood turn.
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| Early shaping of a bowl. |
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| Initial wood cuttings |
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| Sawdust on the floor. |
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| Turning the wood. |
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| Bowl, ready to go. |
Selected finished pieces of Steve’s work were recently displayed at The Bahamas National Trust, Art for the Parks held at Abaco Beach Resort in Marsh Harbor.
Steve will soon be retiring, and when he does, he is going to be very busy just keeping up with all the demand for his beautiful bowls and other wooden items.
Steve Knowles’ wood turning is a good example of how one might ease out of the work force while adding a very interesting project to ones life.
Here is a short video showing his recent work.
A Scattered Approach to Dying
Posted in Art, tagged Writing on November 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »
“When someone is cremated, can their ashes be strewn around?” I ask.
“You can place them anywhere you want” she replied, “after the death is registered.”
“Then in that case,” I said, “Scatter some of my ashes into the winds. Throw some under that apple tree in front of our cottage and drop the rest into the ocean. Don’t bury me anywhere. I’m too claustrophobic.”
Unfinished Official Business
Posted in Art, tagged Writing on November 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »
I imagine the work left behind in my old office is still there, some of it piled in the corners, papers spilling over onto the floor, reports clogging up the bookshelves and stacked up in the hall closets, very little of it filed properly, but for some registered items.
Someone picked up the baton where I left off. Like workers before me finding it always there, never ending, forever needing attention, filling up the desk, spilling onto the floors, clogging up the bookshelves.
The best part of the work day was that early moment in the morning when I took off my coat , sat down at my desk or my workbench and pondered what needed to be done, appreciating the morning quiet before the storm, the steady beat of rain drops on a metal roof, thunder rolling across the sky, silent slushy winter snowstorm filling up the streets, causing much churning of ice water through guttered curbs, hurried runs for fresh cups of coffee and a sweet roll before the first early meeting. Quick notes drawn up of ideas to be fleshed out in the coming months. Dreams sketched on chalkboards and paper, typed up in our computers, discussions with a colleague during an early phone call, commitments made, promises offered.
The worst part of the work day was the begrudging moments of administrative matters, pushing for decisions to be unreasonably made by 10am without exception, promptly reporting the irrational results on single sheets of paper and filing them endlessly in alphabetized folders, costing monies that might be better used on people needing real services, rather than to things mattering not at all, but to administration. I’m not sure they even remember why they asked it to be done anymore, once it is properly filed.
I see our results, those steel shards of war, crushed peoples, green phosphorous clogged waters, murderous politics, plague outbreaks, journalistic lies, top heavy unearned wealth.
Work everywhere lies strewn around in offices and on floors, stuck in files, cut into small strips to keep it secret.
It is unfinished. I am not sure that it is yet begun.
How Long Must We Be Losers?
Posted in Art, tagged Writing on November 15, 2016| 4 Comments »
My vote won the popular vote, but lost the electoral vote. Perhaps your vote won the electoral vote and lost the popular vote. In any case, we have a new president-elect.
It is neither simple nor easy for many of us to accept the results, especially since in this instance, the winner forcefully declared that the election was rigged and said he would decide after the election whether or not to accept the results. Now that he is sure that he has won, he accepts the results and no longer declares the election rigged.
Upon what should our own acceptances of these election results depend?
In two previous presidential elections losers of the election declared that they intended to reject every proposal our newly elected President Obama would make. They told the press that no matter what he proposed to Congress, they would reject it. This was not just any one casually saying no to an acquaintance. It was our elected officials of Congress saying no to our newly elected President, not based on evaluation of the proposals, but instead, upon sore losing.
What a shameful response to our democratic system and its process of checks and balances.
In this most recent election, Trump lost the popular vote. But he won the electoral vote.
He won, but not overwhelmingly.
It seemed that he won by a lot, because so many pundits were wrong and had predicted his demise.
I have been listening to the barrage of explanations for the results of this election by pollsters, economist, journalists, comedians, congressmen, psychologists, psychiatrists, fortune tellers, winners, losers and bloggers. I am neither pleased nor satisfied with any of the explanations.
I find them all wanting.
But most of all, I find arguments by the winners telling us to accept the results, wanting. They are asking us to do what they did not. They did not embrace the man we previously elected, they refused his proposals, they ridiculed him, called him names, they lied about his citizenship and religious affiliation, they ridiculed his background his family, his ideas. They did all that they could to make our elected president seem fraudulent and illegitimate.
It is most unfortunate that our newly elected president Trump participated in all this lying and negativity.
How does one stop a vicious back and forth response to previous sore losing?
There are ways and means that we have worked out to control hatred and violence when it brews in weak political systems. We know how to manage it, to reduce its terrible force and damage. There are alternatives to racism and sexism and brute force responses to ethnic rivalries that have been tried and worked. There are ways and means to stop the poor from being further shafted, to rein in the rich and powerful, to further develop and share infrastructure and services, to stop brutalizing our natural environment, to control outrageous behavior of banks and corporations. There are ways and means to manage corruption and crime, to flag liars.
We know how to do better.
This leaves me believing that this is not the time to capitulate.
It is now the time to clearly state our intentions to keep going, to be part of this great system we share, whether it is through peaceful demonstration or actively monitoring the actions of our newly elected officials. We must continue to be part of the debate.
Now is the time to work even harder to prevent our leaders from declaring war and bombing and attacking other countries with fake excuses, such as weapons of mass destruction that do not exist. Because we already know that this could happen.
Let us not allow our leaders to weakly stand by when a huge natural calamity such as floods, fires, earthquakes, or dangerous infectious diseases erupt and threaten our very existence. Because we already know that this could happen.
Let’s be prepared with a good government plan and program to respond to it, to prevent it from becoming yet another highlight of our disaffection with each other. Because we already know that this could happen.
If a good idea is proposed, let’s get behind it and support it, regardless of who proposed it. And if it is a bad proposal, let’s argue against it.
This is not the time to allow our people to become ravaged by conquerers who may argue that winners take all. After all, parties win our elections. They do not win our country.
Our country is something we all share. And we also share responsibility for monitoring our newly elected officials and ensuring that they implement government programs as we intend, through negotiations, compromise, using objective and fair implementation practices.
Let’s get serious about serving a democratic government by learning more about what it takes to be one, and acting accordingly.
I Did Not Forget to Vote
Posted in Art, tagged Writing on November 8, 2016| Leave a Comment »
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Once upon a time there was a little girl. And a little boy. They heard about voting and wondered what it was.
So they asked their moms and dads,
“Mom, Dad, What does voting mean? Why do you vote?”
Mom said, “It means to declare who you want to leaders of our country.”
Dad said, “Voting is an activity where you boil your opinion down to ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ about every four years or so. It simplifies things. It balances power.”
The other Mom said, “Voting is part of our constitution, it is an obligation. It is like when I say, ‘Eat your vegetables, it is good for you.’ Just trust me. You need to vote. It is good for you.
The other Dad said, “Ahh, just fagettt about it. It doesn’t make a twit of difference if you vote or not. The system is rigged. “
The little girl decided to vote. The little boy did not. Guess who won the election?
marysgardens 