My Dandelion

When I was a boy of about seven, before I learned such things were not possible - I had a conversation with a dandelion. It was on the edge of our property - the little swatch of land neither my father nor the farmer cared to fertilize. I was running on a warm summer day, as I always liked to do, and tumbling. Then I lay in the grass right there on the edge of the great sod field. I looked to my left and there was a dandelion, and I smiled as dandelions would always make me do. I noticed, though, that this one was very sad - its face was down and it was pouting a bit. 'What's the matter?', I asked. 'Oh, nothing,' said the dandelion, 'It's just that I see those roses over there, in your mother's garden and I am so sad I wish I was one of those.' And then I started to cry a bit - a little tear rolled down my cheek.
'Now why are you so sad?', asked the dandelion.
'Why, you're the most beautiful flower I know.' I whispered, 'And if you're sad, that makes me sad.'
'What!!, How can that be!!' exclaimed the dandelion.
'Why wouldn't it?' I asked shocked. 'Your face is like the sun - when I see you shine it brings a smile to my face. There are so many of you as well - and no one minds when I run through the dandelions, and roll in the sweet high grass and then rest a while and smell your sweet fragrance. When you are cut down by the mower, I wait and watch, and you never keep me waiting too long. My heart soars when I see that beautiful field of yellow again!  And when you are tired of being yellow, you turn to beautiful wisps of clouds and float and fly away.  I love you little dandelion.'
My dandelion smiled, and lifted her head and said, 'I never thought of it that way. I'll never want to be a rose again.'

Gold Dust

Life is but a series of vanishing moments.
Each one is beautiful by itself when fully absorbed.
No one would argue that a bowl of rice isn't a feast for he who went a week without food.
Or that a single kiss on the cheek would bring rapture to the one with no love.
That a sound, a single momentary chuckle of a son would be a symphony.

Why is it we know abundance only when compared to absence?

I remember when my young son first learned to tell a 'joke' and whatever I said would make him laugh. I thought to myself, 'this is gold dust.'

This is the treasure of life that is so very fleeting.

We become poor, not when markets crash and we lose the things of this world we are only borrowing anyway.

We become poor the moment we don't realize the moment for all the abundance it is.


This post is dedicated to my beautiful son - and my beautiful wife who lent him to me.

7 Ideas That Drive Me

1.  We live in a benevolent universe designed in such a way that anyone who wants to can succeed regardless of perceived conditions.

2.  The greater the obstacle, the greater the joy of overcoming - and therefore; there is joy inherent in obstacles.

3.  Everything that happens in our life is designed to purify our soul - every event carries with it the seed of opportunity but we must accept each new challenge and become greater than we were before the event. 

4.  Continuous, sustained happiness and joy is possible once one, two and three is fully internalized. 

5.  Happiness and joy can be broken down into several finer gradations of emotion which currently have no words to adequately express.

6.  Every person on the planet is capable of achieving greatness - if they learn to endure their fear and refuse to act on it.

7.  We live in an abundant universe which has more than enough resources to provide every person on the planet with enough of anything a person could imagine would make them 'happy' - but they only 'need' one, two and three for that. 

Quick Week

Wow this week flew - and now it's Sunday.  I'm really looking forward to next week.  I've got a lot of projects in the works - and one of the most exciting things that happened is my first work of 2009, 'Ogallala' was snapped up by a collector in just five minutes after being posted  on Twitter.  Gotta love that.  So much happened this week, it's hard to think back and realize it was just seven days.  Ogallala was finished, Corralled was started and I started in with plaster on Dream Structure.  With Corralled,  I started sculpting the sheep heads out of clay - as these dry, I will paint and secure them to the panel.   I'm going to use synthetic cotton fiber in this piece for the sheep body, and cover parts with fifty coat.  I think it will look like a cloud captured in resin if I'm not mistaken.  I'm still working on the oil painting 'Pig Farm'.  My field and farm related theme is starting to get quite filled out - the next one in my mind is Wheat Field Bound - and that is going to be really special.  What's with the fields, the farms?  These metaphors just seem to tumble out - I grew up on a farm and the great sod field is a constant image in my mind.  These take on political and economic metaphors for me.   

I was in the Princeton University bookstore this week and I saw a whole bookshelf devoted to Karl Marx - I mean literally, one book placed in perfect position in the center and then the entire rest of the shelf empty  - hmm, that doesn't seem very 'comrade' like, but I digress.  Why Marx isn't literally laughed out of any serious college these days I don't understand.  At some point I might blog about it and dissect it but I was in the Soviet Union and I can tell you, when it comes to deciding if a philosopher is correct, it's a great idea to skip to the end - if it ends with you giving up your right to pursue your own dreams and be compensated how you feel you are worth, throw the book out - no matter how clever and bearded the author looks.   Wheat Field Bound, like Ogallala, harkens back to the early 1900's - so much similar has gone on already!!  The great depression, the Soviet created wheat crisis - as fear descends it seems the tendency is to give government more and more power - the very same institutions that to a large degree created the problem to begin with.  This is not a necessary condition of human existence.   Have a great week - and remember, fear is the enemy.  

Ogallala

This piece is constructed from concrete, rock, pete moss and semi-precious crystals including amethyst and rose quartz embedded in an expoxy resin which covers the entire work from top to bottom. I estimate it to weigh about thirty pounds. In real life, the concrete area on the top of the piece looks like water at certain angles. The blue area in the center bottom is about two inches thick and simulates the water of Ogallala. This piece was inspired by studying the last great depression which was combined with a tragic dust bowl. After years of struggle and suffering, it occurred to someone to search, and what was found was one of the greatest natural water reserves ever discovered, just beneath their feet. The symbolism of this could not be more powerful to me - in the words of Wattles, that I quoted in an earlier blog post, 'never look at the visible supply. Look always at the limitless riches in formless substance and KNOW...' This piece is meant as a visual reminder that there is ALWAYS a solution - and further, the solution really lies deep within each one of us. If we learn the process of shedding fear and begin to trust a world, a universe really, of unlimited potential - there will always be another Ogallala.

Ogallala

So I have just about completed my first piece of 2009 - Ogallala. I've written about it earlier. It is made from concrete, rocks, pete moss and fifty coat. I used poplar wood around the edges - oh, and there are also raw crystals of amethyst and rose quartz in it. I'm very excited to see it hanging - right now that last coat of fifty coat is setting up. I also picked up material today for my new piece 'Corralled' - and started doing the sculptural part of it. It's very interesting to me because this kind of relates to last week's post where I discuss being an artist who believes in free market capitalism. I blogged a little about the piece 'Corralled' earlier, I was very inspired by an interview I saw of Richard Dryfuss before the election. I thought it was really interesting how he said we have a tendency to be pushed into one group or the other - we are in a sense 'Corralled'. This idea makes so much sense to me when I think about red states and blue states. Or, when I think about an overly aggressive military spreading out to fight all over the world, or versus an overly aggressive government looking to tax and spend. Why is it that we have to feel 'compelled' to be so called 'liberal' or 'conservative' - especially when in a sense, both represent in my opinion such a strange way of thinking about government. One party striking 'fear' into the hearts of people about all the dangers all around the world that must be stopped at any cost - another striking 'fear' into the hearts of people about how big government is the only solution to the growing economic crisis. It strikes me that one party pits itself against another but both, at the end of the day, are on a trajectory to expand government and limit freedom at a rate of dizzying proportions. I am a great believer in an individuals ability to overcome any obstacle - provided they start to realize their own innate power. This 'power' in my opinion is blocked by feelings of fear or the constant drum beat that people can't stand on their own two feet and create the world of their dreams.