Snowy Christmas

Well, it's been an unusual white Christmas here in northeast Georgia. It made for a really special holiday, along with time spent with good friends and good food, too. I hope everyone's holiday has been special in some essential way/s. Here are a few snapshots of mine. Now on to the next and last holiday of the year. What will the next year, the next decade bring...?

Happy Holidays

From a quiet wintery wonderland...



As I sit watching this, I am reminded of some dear friends I would to send it to, but they have moved on this year. I would like to dedicate this to James R. Olson and Linda Keller - two bright lights watching over now. I carry them in my heart.

Dreams and Distillations

I have updated my book on blurb so that it contains the information that was on the dust flaps. Now if you order a soft cover copy, it will have all this on the inside. If you order now and use the code FESTIVE, you can get free shipping on up to 3 books. I hear the book makes a great gift, so share art for the holidays if you are so inspired. I hope the holidays are treating you well. Down here in Georgia, we're certainly having some holiday appropriate COLD weather...

Dreams and Distillations by Honor Woodard | Make Your Own Book

Sending Forth...

I had a dream yesterday morning - Thanksgiving morning - in which a woman approached me seeking wisdom. Here is what I shared with her. I am happy that I remembered this dream, as it is obviously information that is beneficial to me, and maybe you will find it useful as well. I hope so...

November 25, 2010 Thanksgiving
...I tell her about projecting love forward. That if we project our love out in front of us - forward - that there can be no failure, no disappointment, nothing other than joy or success or satisfaction and connection. No matter what happens, if what we project is love, is our essence, our soul in its divine radiant purity, there is nothing but good that can come from this. There can then be no fear, no scarcity, no lack, no loss. There will always be love, no matter what, because it is what we are putting out in front of ourselves. While I am explaining this, I am seeing a bright white light with indigo edges, projecting forth from my heart, extending several feet in front of me. Sort of like a small lightning burst that is continuous in flow...

A River of Words & Images

Please join us this Friday, if you're in the neighborhood..
You'll still be full from Thanksgiving leftovers, and some lively poetry and a float down our "River of Words & Images" will be just the thing to keep you inspired through the weekend!

Change of scenery...

I'm not sure why, but it seems that each time I come down to St. Augustine, I somehow bring the cool air of the mountains with me. I am told it was very warm right up until the evening I arrived, and that it will get back up to 80 degrees, oh, on Wednesday, which is the day I had scheduled to drive home. The drive down was really nice this time, with dramatic skies just about all the way, a beautiful sunset over rivers and marshes as I was between Savannah and Jacksonville and some rain on the last stretch with some good thunder and lightning.

Anyway - good thing I'm really here to help with the restaurant some, rather than to get a tan. Cool or not, it's been sunny and beautiful and a bit breezy. It's been nice to spend some time with family and niece and nephews continue to grow and grow interesting. I loved going to Mauro's soccer game and watching all the kids cluster on the field and kick the ball at each other and sometimes into the goals.

Last night was an oyster roast at Genung's Fish Camp, and today Stephen is participating in the "Chowder Debate," where St. Augustinians will see how good his Minorcan Chowder really is!

Progress...

I drove up to Sylva today to collect my work from the show - this Summer's work - and bring some of it home. Sometimes when I take a show down I get a heavy heart. It's sometimes hard to make new work when recent work is still around. And then there is the period of gestation that is a necessary part of this artist's process. So much of the process is internal and interactive with the world. Taking in ideas, images, places, people, silence, ocean, river, rock... and then having something inside that pushes to be embodied in object or word. Today, while driving, I was inspired by the late fall color as I drove over the hills and mountains. Even the kudzu had turned to a splotchy gold and green. Some words came out of this...

COLLECTING THE WORK OF THE SUMMER

Rolling over the hills from Franklin
up toward Dillsboro and on to Sylva,
rusty golden Tulip Poplar, fading yellow American Sycamore
cadmium yellow Hickory, burnt at the edges -
all glowing like short flames
dancing their last breath
over dying embers.
Smoldering ruddy reds
gather above muted green laurels,
and down below, scraggly
ghosts of Hemlock strain to stand,
trunks and limbs giving last life
to moss and lichen.
All go to rest now -
some to wake in Spring,
some to sink to the floor,
soak in next season’s snowfall,
melt into dark soil and forget
only to remember what it’s like
to be a wildflower,
see things from a different vantage
point upwards, facing their grandchildren.

Patterns...

Patterns in nature always intrigue me - from the bark on a tree to the strange synchronicities we experience in our dreaming and waking lives. Lately I have been having a recurring theme in my dreams about clothes - needing to wear certain clothes for certain situations. Now I am looking at these photographs of magnolia, rhododendron and sassafrass leaves I took a couple weeks ago - their patterns seem to mimic, among other things, highways and byways and the subdivisions between them. And at the same time they are the garments the trees are shedding as we pass from warmer to cooler, from active to more subdued time of year. Looking closely at the patterns within the sassafrass leaves, I am drawn into their spaces and shapes and am inclined to blow them up and print them out and put them around me. There is fluidity in the pattern here, as if there is a progression and order within it, and as if I might see movement in here if I continue looking - one of the white dots in a green area might march into the next quadrant and talk to another white dot in a red or yellow area, maybe tell it that the time has come to shift to the next hue...

In the flow...

It's been too long since I've posted here. Sorry for the gap, or mind the gap as they say... So much has been going on. The show up in Sylva, which was so very lovely with the nicest group of folks... the reading/show and tell down in Atlanta with Laurence, also really special... then a couple of unexpected trips back down to Atl to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama... and then some out of town company at home for a minute... then it was off toward Highlands, NC for a workshop with Janisse Ray incorporating a wonderful event at the Bascom Center, to unveil a painting the Wilderness Society commissioned from artist, Robert Johnson, where Janisse and Brent and Thomas presented also. And of course my wheels haven't stopped even after all that with other points along the road I had to get to this week.

WHEW.......

I am ready to be still and absorb the good vibrations of all these glorious fall colors, though the wind last night moved a bunch of it around and it's getting cooler as I type.

I am still processing the experiences of last week, and so won't write about it here for now, except to say that I feel really lucky to have been able to do all that, and I send gratitude to Doug and Pat and Cyndi and Marcella and Adam for helping me get to a couple of these things. The mysterious void continues to support me in the directions that feel right, and this is golden.

In the meantime, here are a few images from last week that I took closer to home in one of my favorite swimming spots (no, not this time of year...). Enjoy!

Holden and Woodard Art & Poetry Show and Tell

Those of you in Atlanta, please come out to Sycamore Place Gallery in Decatur this Friday night from 7-9pm for some wonderful poetry and art with Laurence and me. Laurence's poems just get richer and deeper and we'd like to take you into our landscapes and down our rivers.

Here is a sample of Laurence's poetry and art:

LESSON #1: HOW TO LISTEN TO A BIRD SING

Take off all
your clothed and
clammy thoughts.

Sit awhile.

Make nothing up
between the intervals of silence,
but listen to them.

Between each breath
is a song you’ve forgotten,
is always calling us
to gather to this wild
and shocking world.

This music happens to us
before we can ever think about it

this song happens in us
before we can ever say it’s impossible

to listen before we speak
of nothing or everything.

-Laurence Holden, 3/09

Also, I will have some copies of the Les Aretes Editions Broadsides available at this event.

Please join us at Sycamore Place Gallery in Decatur, located at at 120 Sycamore Place, at the intersection of Commerce Drive, by Fellini's Restaurant. The gallery consists of gallery space, courtyard, children's work area, a kiln, and thirteen working artist studios. More info on the right side, under News and Events...

Published in France (and a (very) few copies available here)

This summer I enjoyed collaborating with poet and author Thomas Rain Crowe on a small broadside published by Les Aretes Editions in France. I used some of my new photography works as a backdrop for Thomas' poem, "May It Continue," which is a call to acknowledge many fragile elements of our world and a plea to their continued existence. Sandrine at Les Aretes Editions made a fine little broadside, complete with outer covering. Take a look at her blog. Thanks, Thomas, for inviting me to do this collaboration with you, and thanks Sandrine for making such a beautiful publication! When I have a little more time, I will snap a photo of the broadside and add it here.... I have a very limited number of collectible copies - let me know if you wish to purchase one.

Thank you to Brent, Thomas, Riverblaze and all who attended the show in Sylva

Last Friday's show in Sylva at The Wilderness Society was really lovely. There was a wonderful group of folks there, including some new fhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifriends and some I hadn't seen in quite a while. The goodies from Riverblaze were delicious (as always) and the poetry was special. Big thanks to Thomas and Brent for sharing their poems and stories. I look forward to seeing Thomas' upcoming book and also another book that will be a collaboration between Thomas, Brent and Barbara Duncan. Thanks also to Brooks for helping me get the work up to Sylva. Good friends are golden. I will try to figure out how to put a video on here of one of Brent's poems.

Please click on Thomas and Brent to see (and buy!) some of their published books, and go to tws.org to join The Wilderness Society! And check out Riverblaze Bakery in Franklin, NC for your baked goods or catering needs...

Brent, reading his poem "Vapor Light":

Weaving the web...

I was sitting in a sunny spot out in my yard the other day, leaning on a stump and doing a little reading, and I noticed a tiny spider weaving her tiny web. It was a circular web and she had a ways to go yet. She was working on the circular part - the spiral. Around she was going, in the counter clockwise motion, picking up the spokes as she went round the web.

She continued in this fashion until she made it to the center, where she rested in wait for some small thing to find its way into her spiral creation. It conjured for me the notion of winding something up - of building energy by using a spiral and then having it coiled and ready.

It also made me think of time and the clock - that maybe her spiral represented some backwards in time preparation that would allow the forward motion of time to play out in a certain way - as if winding the web backward in time like rewinding a tape, only the tape hasn’t been played yet, but starts when she is at center.

Then this made me think that being “centered” is here also a crucial aspect in the web of life, and that when we are centered, the whole web of mystery is open to us and ready for whatever is coming or we are creating for it.

Also, in relation to the time spiral thoughts, I recently heard someone talking about a spider who weaves a new web each day (or maybe all spiders do this?), and when I was thinking about the counter clockwise spiral as a time keeper, that it is wound back and throughout the day winds forward until it must be wound again for another day. The spider weaves each day anew, as if dreaming it forward...

Are we each dreamweaving our days anew, and are we ready and “centered” in our great web of mystery, to greet this new day?

Shifting...

Lately I have been clearing my place a bit, passing some things on and liberating some rocks back to the outdoors. It's been a slow process of lightening the load, so to speak, but it feels like the energy is shifting here.

It feels good this time of year to reorganize a bit and open the space up for the creative energies I feel in the fall as the air grows cooler and the leaves turn warmer as they spiral toward our mother to continue the cycle of life.

I haven't been making work every day for a little while now (although I did get started on a portrait of my mother the last couple of weeks - hopefully you'll see it soon), and this morning I set about making a couple of things to honor some of these rocks I brought home in recent years. It felt so good to sit quietly on the front porch and tie these stones together in harmony with each other to hang along the porch. I love the way the sun shines on them, and through the yellow one and the turtle shell (which is holding some crystals and such from around here). They slowly turn in the gentle breeze, as if thoughtfully looking around them, back and forth taking in the surroundings. The movement is so slow and subtle, it is just enough to give the sense that these stones are alive and maybe even listening as they turn. I think I will make some more...

October Show in Sylva at The Wilderness Society

I am looking foward to having another show hosted by Brent Martin at the Wilderness Society - this time in Sylva, NC. There's a real treat in store with both Laurence Holden and Thomas Rain Crowe on the slate to read some poetry for us. It's going to be a wonderful time. If you're in the area, I hope you'll be able to join us!

Slow down, and take stock...

STOP.
STOP THE WORLD FOR A MOMENT, AND TAKE STOCK.
ON WHAT ARE YOU PLACING YOUR ATTENTION?

I recently had an idea around attention. I had been thinking on the notion of how powerful our attention is. How our attention is what really enlivens our ideas, our pursuits, the fruits of our labors - and the world in general. I think about what people are paying attention to - on the internet, on television, in movies, in families and friends around us, on politics, on government, on fears, hopes, desires, dreams and on and on.

It occurred to me that it might an interesting exercise for us to stop and take stock of where our attention is placed. Take some time and stop the world, still the mind and then gently ask ourselves where our focus is on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and more importantly, moment to moment basis. One way to start would be to simply make a list of our daily focus of attention, from hour to hour.

Perhaps the moments in between chores, job and home, quiet moments at home or in the car between places are the gems. What are we thinking of when we don’t have to be engaged with an obligation - where are our daydreams taking us? (or are we busy on our blackberries, or compulsively checking our email or facebook as we walk past the computer, just out of habit?)

I am guessing that even just doing this exercise will enhance our conscious presence of mind and awareness of our thoughts in a constructive way. Perhaps we’ll notice the bird singing outside our window, or remember the dream we had last night that got covered over by busy-ness as soon as our feet hit the floor this morning.

I think it’s those thoughts that flit by when we are in between that sometimes have the most to offer. And that it is important to create or allow for these spaces in the between, where we can wake up to our true voice underneath it all. And remind ourselves to come back to center and pay attention. Real attention, with presence.

This morning, I have been paying attention to the much cooler air (ah, screened porch sleeping), the sound of fall in the air - have you ever noticed how the way things sound changes from season to season? I have paid attention to the sounds of the pileated woodpeckers chatting more than usual, the golden sunlight filtering through the trees, brightening slowly through the early morning hours, the stillness in the air, the fresh energy that the cool air inspires and how that makes me feel about the things I need to get moving on, like getting some kind of fall/winter garden into the earth. On that note, I discovered a nice blog this morning: www.calloftheland.com, which offers some nice musings and ideas for more sustainable living on the planet and a book, The Call of the Land, which promises some solutions in this vein. I do believe that we must all endeavor to pay more attention to the creative vision entailed in bringing our world back into more balance...

In reading over this post, I am struck by the way we use the term, to "pay attention." Imagine that our attention is actually a currency (current=energy) much like money, but in reality more dear. If we think about our attention as valuable as (really more than) money - how does this affect how we "spend" or "pay" our attention?

What are you paying attention to today?

Radio...

I was recently interviewed by GPB's Candice Felice. Candice is quite an amazing interviewer and I am most honored to have been able to talk with her. Fellow local artist and poet, Laurence Holden will also be on this segment of the show, talking and reading some wonderful poems - what a treat! I am thrilled to have shared air time with both of these phenomenal people. Take a listen...

WPPR - 88.3 FM

To listen online, you will need to click the "Community Life - August 20" link, rather than the one that says "Honor Woodard." And there is a short local program item up front that you can listen or fast forward through. My segment starts at the 16 minute mark.

My new book is here!!!

I just received my first copy of Dreams and Distillations: Skirting the Waters. I am excited to see it in person. You can preview it online, but it is so much more satisfying to have the real thing. Take a look and see what you think. I am looking forward to producing the next book in conjunction with an upcoming show of photographic works up in Sylva, NC at The Wilderness Society this October.

Dreams and Distillations by Honor Woodard | Make Your Own Book

This morning...

This morning I was lured outside by the gentle warm light coming through the trees. There were subtle shadows on trunks and sideways light on maple leaves.



A little later, I was called by the water lily on my pond, as it was slowly opening to greet the day. I spent some time, standing quietly rooted, watching its occasional movements, as yellowjackets danced around my feet, ants explored my legs, flies raced past brushing my ears with their chorus. In the distance, a family of crows shared their strange language of sounds - clicking at each other with gravelly voices or making some of their other un-birdlike sounds that at times seem like a language more complex (and direct) than ours. It sounds like a good sized community down there around the nest. Every now and then, a petal would move or a stamen unfurl. Imagine my surprise when, at the end of its opening, the lily raised up a little higher out of the water and shifted a bit, as if rising to the occasion of the day.


I am humbled and inspired by the slow, quiet grace and beauty of such a being that opens and closes each day during its short life on the pond - opening to share its beauty and nourishment, and closing each evening perchance to dream and re-create the world anew each morning.

Living Web...

I have been mostly busy lately working on a small book of paintings, and a collaboration with Thomas Crowe - a poetry and art broadside publication for a French publisher. I shipped both projects this week and look forward to seeing them in person soon. I will link to my book once I have a copy of it.

This painting emerged one afternoon this past week. It was inspired, in part, by a most perfect web I saw that morning by my front porch. Spiders are amazing weavers. The web in this image by no means repeats the order that I witnessed, but there are aspects that inspired me, such as the long runs between the circular bits that go to attach the web to something structural or terrestrial. There are surprising curves and open stretches. I wonder if the spider dreams the web and what it looks like. I don't imagine the spider ever sees the whole web, do you? Where would the spider go to get a look at the whole thing? I imagine that the dreamtime would afford the best view...

Dreaming...

We are in a time of dreaming now - dreaming the now, dreaming the future, dreaming the past anew. What are you dreaming into being now?


"Lake Dreaming"

by Honor Woodard Oil on Birch 2006

I duplicated part of this post on a new blog I have been working on. It's been a while since I made this painting, but for some reason it feels timely right now, as we are on the cusp, or perhaps more aptly in the midst, of such change in the world.

It feels so important to me right now to dream and to pay attention to dreams, and to share them. Also to be extra mindful of the waking dreams we nurture.

The other blog is: Awake and Dreaming the World

Please feel free to share it widely and even better, to contribute to it in some way!

And some paint...

I did these over the last few weeks. I don't know what I think of them. Just was getting back to the paint a bit. There are some more of the mandala-like drawings from late June and more recent, but the scanner is not cooperating, so later...


This one is like two totally different paintings depending on orientation, so you decide...



And I think these were on some level a response to the oil that is spilling out of the earth...

Exploring

Just taking a look at other ways to combine recent images, thinking about how they relate to each other on various levels...
(Again - they are simply juxtaposed images - there is no photoshop mumbojumbo going on...)

A few more...

Thanks, all, for the helpful feedback and questions. I actually like these more and more and it's been interesting going through recent images and discovering which ones will open up through this process in surprising ways... It's definitely not a "choose any ol' photo" kind of thing. Also, it's interesting to me just how different the images are that come from using one and the same photo in various arrangements...








Prescribed Burn Unit at Watergauge

New...

Well, I need to update more recent drawings, but I haven't scanned them yet. In the meantime, I have just created some photo things. The images are uncropped and unchanged, but they are repeated 4 times in each piece. Would love any feedback...