Spring Equinox 2016

March 20^th is the official date for Spring Equinox this year, but here in Hawai‘i the day/night hours were equal on the 15^th.

 

I started this season again with fireworks. The Honolulu Festival brings in a fantastic show – better than New Years for sure.

 

This is when the sun rises due east and sets due west.

 

And the afternoon Mānoa Rainbow always pleases me, even in the rain!

 

 

View from my front door.

 

 

Wishing all a lovely spring

 

 

 

New Year's Day 2016

On January 31st I went to visit Guanyin at the Honolulu Museum of Art. She has been sitting in "royal repose" for over 1,000 years, and I always feel like she is expecting me; I'm always welcome to drop by and talk story.

A perfect start to the new year: fire works at midnight in Waikiki; a blessing and good fortune from local Shinto Shrine that opens from midnight to 3AM on the first day of the year;

then couple hours sleep before heading out to view the sun rise at Makapu'u.

With the sounding of conch shells, traditional chants and the driving energy of a Taiko drum we (many thousands of us) watched as the sun rose over Molokai 40 miles across the channel, and Haleakala more than 100 miles away. Sunrise photo by my friend and professional photographer, Debra Casey. (You can't get a shot like this on a cell phone.)

There can be no doubt that these islands are sacred, entitled to reverence and respect. 

Then, to make it perfect, whales were swimming and spouting just past Makapu'u lighthouse.

Winter Solstice 2015

Greetings and Happy Winter Solstice 2015!

             Winter
     time to sort your seeds
     all things clearer in the spring
     chose for new harvest

Thank you for inquiries about my lack of posting to this blog. Everything is well. I have been channeling my writing energies into a couple of creative writing courses at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. I just finished my second chapbook and have extra copies. If you would like one please let me know and I’ll mail it to you.

It will be three years the end of next month since I landed in Honolulu from New Zealand. I seem to have adapted well. Come visit, enjoy paradise while we can. I keep exploring; this is the end of bus line "C", the Country Express.

There are wonderful museums and lots of events as Honolulu is a fairly large city. I read all the time – many favorites, but most memorable is Kill My Mother, graphic novel by Jules Feiffer. And of course I love film. There is one theater devoted to art film and one multiplex that brings in films other than Hollywood; but I have to be quick as they don’t stay long. Just saw “The Assassin” a Chinese film with next to no dialog. A gorgeous, visual poem set in 8^th century – every frame is a masterpiece.

On weekends I sell my art at the zoo fence; mainly pineapples and palm trees. http://www.artonthezoofence.com/

This has proved to be a nice little community of artists. Recently I've also joined up with Urban Sketchers; an active group that goes out and about to draw together. Most fun so far has been drawing with them in Chinatown on First Friday. 

 Life here is very much the same as it has been for me everywhere I’ve lived, EXCEPT the climate is fantastic; sunny, warm water to swim all year, trade winds to keep temperature mild. And we were very lucky that with all the hurricanes in the Pacific this year, none hit the islands.

I am very grateful to be here and in good health to enjoy it.

I hope you have a very happy holiday season and that the year 2016 is good to you!

 

 [this little whimsy was inspired by the peel of a clementine]

Summer Solstice 2015

Greetings from sunny Honolulu. I'm happily settled into the slow pace of life here. Still doing my art and doing more poetry. I managed to complete a chapbook in May which took many more hours than I expected. The following poem is from it.

The World on A Whim

Once upon a time long ago at the Oregon Country Fair where our neighbor, Ken Kesey shared his acid with us; I met a crone of many colors sitting beside the biker camp. She read my palm and foretold my travel around the world.

            I proceeded to forget.

Now I am that crone without the wonderful colors, nor the ability to see into the future. She was right, of course I go in circles small and worldly. Not planned, not even wished for; it all happened as a mere whim; surprising friends, worrying family. Once I had the sudden desire there was never another option. Within six weeks by letting go of job and apartment, giving away art, throwing out accumulated paper; I embarked from New York City alone, around the world, hop by hop, with only my small backpack.

            Later my friend, who was there, remembered the palm reader for me.

My route wound through the magic of Marrakech; skirted anger and yelling in the Cairo airport; welcomed by majestic people, land, animals between Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro; then the chaos of India's Golden Triangle; and ultimately the re-entry shock of Australia. There, beyond probability, I was in Cairnes experiencing my whimsy - viewing the total solar eclipse on the Great Barrier Reef.

-------------------------------------------------

Wishing you all a wonderful summer. A hui ho!

WINTER SOLSTICE 2014

Another turn of the season and another turn around the sun concludes. It is with gratitude that I can say it has been a most pleasant, peaceful year. With just a short trip to the mainland to visit family I have gone through all the seasons here in Honolulu and feel very much at home. I am looking forward to the new year, new art, and new friendships.

My major accomplishment this year was completing my "autobiography" in the form of an artists book. A one of a kind gathering of what is "me" that I have been working on for four or five years. Here is a description and text to go along with the photos:

Cover - 11" x 15" metalic silver board with Tibetian Buddhist prayer down both sides; a yin/yang symbol in the center with a quote from a Bob Dylan song - "she's got everything she needs, she's an artist she don't look back." Also the words: synchronicity, serendipity, coincidence, and what if? are interlaced.

Lifting the cover shows a spirial of words, thoughts, rememberances, major and minor occasions starting around the word "Oconomowoc" the town where I was born in Wisconsin, USA. Each corner of the top margin of the page has the infamous black ships of Commodor Perry with Japanese script taken from the box of a gift cake, and "what if?" repeated in the center. When you lift the bottom half of the spirial you find three shadow self portraits and another yin/yang simbol with automatic writing on the right half and the text "a tangle of circumstances brought me here."

When you 'pull down' as directed two more pages open showing double image of me swimming at Lanikai Beach. In the center is a "double happy" stamp. The photo was taken by my friend the photographer Debra Casey. This is bordered by a couple more of my shadow self portraits, topped by my haiku:

a long series of
what if and why not brings me
to this paradise

And below the photo is Edna St. Vincent Millay's
Second Fig

Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!

The page below has outline map of the eight islands of Hawai'i.

And when you flip up those pages I've put three infinity signs; my haiku:

what if
the endless
possibilities
can be explored
forever -

And my final thought "saving the best for last"

But then I came across this quote by John von Neuman just a couple of weeks ago and had to add it as it really spoke to me.
"If people do not believe that mathematics is simple,
it is because they do not realize how complicated life is."

Signed and dated December, 2014
[But I reserve the right to continue adding to it.]

Summer Solstice 2014

Happy Summer Solstice to everyone! The perfect holiday with no expectations. No one is disappointed or left out; everyone can enjoy the long hours of daylight. Even here a couple of degrees south of the tropic of cancer the days are longer althought the weather is the same. I am in a happy routine of doing my art, reading, swimming, walking, visiting beautiful spots to sketch the flora and fauna as well as people or even statues sometimes. Living on a budget promps me to find the good free/low cost things to do like parades and fireworks, parks and gardens, miles and miles of beaches. When protected sea creatures are up  on  the beach they are roped off and if information is know about them the volunteers who watch to protect them  will share what they know. Which is how I know the sea turtle I drew was named Buster. So small pleasures are bountiful.

Vernal Equinox 2014

A time of balance and harmony, day and night are equal, ambition and procrastination keep the season interesting. I want to post an update, but then its all the same. What needs reporting? I'm hearing "Hey Jude" from neighboring apartment and years disappear. Being here now, is all the same as ever was. So here is my attemp at communicating in a design, a yin-yang reflecting the abundance of Hawai'i, and my gratitude for being here. If you would like an actual hand-printed post card with this design please let me know.

Happy Springtime Everyone!