Tea bags

my first painted teabag

This will just be a quick post today, since I've got my annual monster of a chest cold and I can't stop coughing. Thanks to my cold, though, I've been drinking lots and lots of tea, and I've been saving the used tea bags. Have you ever done this? The tea stains the tea bags in the most beautiful way, and each type of tea leaves a different shade of stain.

In South Africa, artisans use these tea bags to create the most beautiful art. The result has the look of ethnic textiles, don't you think?

Below are a few examples I found on-line, showing what beautiful things can be created by decorating a used tea bag.

from originaltbagdesigns.com

from fairtrademarketplace.com

found in the New York Times Blog

Aren't they fabulous?

I'll be back to more regular blogging and visits to your blogs soon. In the mean time, I hope you have a great weekend.

On eagle's wings

This post is dedicated to our darling Renee and her entire amazing family. They have just lost their beloved matriarch, Renee's dear mother. I know it is a devastating time for them all. Many of you know Renee already, through her honest, beautiful, and often heartbreaking blog, Circling My Head. She and her family have been through so much pain, sorrow and loss. . .

This post is also for anyone else who has suffered loss. That's all of us, really, isn't it? Though I am more spiritual than religious, this hymn never fails to touch my heart.

I hope it gives you some comfort.

And He will raise you up on eagle's wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of His Hand.

~ from the hymn "On Eagle's Wings"
by Michael Joncas

crop crop tree

Trees, trees. I love trees!

Those of you who noticed that the tree in the illustration on my last post looked a lot like the tree in an earlier photo of Lake Michigan were right!
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I like it so much, I thought I'd crop and re-post just the tree portion.

I'm still missing the 50+ year old Russian Olive tree we lost to the heavy, wet snow we had earlier this winter. What should we plant in its place? We won't be living here long enough to see a tree grow to maturity. Hmmmm. . .

Earth Mother

It felt so good to paint something again! Even though I want to try so many new things, I keep coming back to the familiar.

Maybe that's what January is for, up here in the colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere - returning to the warm comforts of the familiar.

This time of year always has me looking forward to the first tiny signs of Spring. On January 21, I actually saw three male robins in our back yard. I always thought this was too early, since it usually gets especially cold here in January and February. A few years ago, though, I saw an entire swarm of male robins in January. There were dozens of them. I've never seen anything like it before or since. They were more like a gang of unruly young men, making lots of noise and fluttering about. Apparently they come back earlier than the females, to hang out with the boys and look for likely nesting spots.

Who knew?

This last month I was thinking a great deal about Mother Nature, Mother Earth, and the many goddesses who were worshiped throughout time.

I ended up doing this little illustration, too. I called it "Erda Greeting the Midwinter Sun." This is the first tree I've done that I'm really happy with.

Have you noticed all the trees that bloggers have been posting about in the last few days? I love it!

Erda actually is one of the names for Mother Earth. It's especially closely related to the German word for earth, which is "Erde." Have I ever mentioned that German was the first language I spoke? I learned English from my playmates and kindergarten classmates in Canada. Only German was spoken in our home.

That's why I chose the name "Erda" for my Earth Mother painting. To honor my heritage and the lives and beliefs of those who came long before me.

Erda was the goddess of fertility, the hearth, home, and domestic life. Some other names for the Earth Mother are:

Astarte
Bertha
Cybele
Ceres
Earth
Gaea
Gaia
Hertha
Herta
Hretha
Hrethra
Ishtar
Mother Earth
Nerthus
Peace Bringer

Rheda
Rhede
Tellus Mater

I've always liked learning about what people thought about and considered important long ago. They often seemed to know mysterious and vital things that humanity has forgotten as we became more "civilized." It's interesting stuff.

Absorb

Black-eyed Susan in January

Life absorbed me for quite a while, but I think I'm back now. Although I feel completely out of the loop in Blogland, I plan to get back into everything again rather quickly.
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While I was away from blogging, I came across the following quote, which I thought fit my recent mood perfectly:

"Live neither in the past
nor in the future,
but let each day's work
absorb and satisfy
your wildest ambition."
~ William Osler
Canadian physician
(1849 - 1919)

While my daily activities didn't exactly satisfy my wildest ambition, I did feel quite content and fulfilled most days. And that's a pretty good way to end the day.

During the last month I've been absorbing everything I could regarding art, from the art and architecture of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, to outsider art, to the art of Sulamith Wülfing and Fidelma Massey, to art history and various art techniques.

And by trying to live in the moment (not an easy task for me!), I've noticed more details around me, too. Like this street sculpture in Milwaukee which I was delighted to notice when I was there for an appointment last week.

It is large, about 4 feet in diameter, and made up completely of washers. Isn't it wonderful!?

I plan to continue to notice and absorb and appreciate more of the little things in the world around me. Once you take the time to really see them, you realize they're not such little things.

And one of them might just change your life.