I grew up in a household where impulse and drama ruled the day. My parents hollered and swore with abandon and I rarely understood the reasons behind the hullaballoo. Mom had a BA in art and she venerated artists as the most superior humans on earth. By the time I got to college, I believed […]
Cherry trees taught me enormous life lessons. When I was eight years old, Mom gave me the job of selling cherries from our fifteen trees to earn money for all my personal expenses: Girl Scout activities and camp, school supplies and field trips, dance classes, private music instruction, comic books or candy from the mom-and-pop
In the painting, Spirit Tree, I pay homage to the invisible forces around us. In the foreground, three smaller trees blow in the breeze, green, full of life. They might be the offspring of the huge tree-shape above. Like a parent, the enormous gray tree looms over them. The larger tree’s absence of color implies
I grew up in Seattle, across the street from a lake. Because I spent most of my childhood swimming in that large basin of water, it became my second home. When I dove in, I went so deep I touched the bottom and felt the crawdads playing. Fish swam nearby. Lily pads grew around me.
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When I’m at the ocean, I stare at a long roll of water. It’s already built up to a swell, reached the apex of its rounded height, and now begins to break as it moves onto the shore. Often the beach is curved, so when I gaze at its entire length, the waves seem to
I don’t have to meditate to increase awareness; if I set my intention to do so, it can happen no matter what is going on. Traditionally, meditation is seen as the best way to enhance reflection on thinking patterns. When still, one naturally notices thoughts drifting through the mind and can observe them, rather than
In the drawing Music Meditation by artist Kaethe Kauffman, musical notes surround the meditating figure. She sits in repose, her hair in a casual ponytail. What is the importance of melodies to this meditator? In temples across the globe, one of the traditional offerings to buddha consciousness is music which can suffuse the performers and
In Kauffman’s painting, Autumn Trees, yellow and orange branches blow in the wind, arcing in obeyance to the earth’s raw power. The two trees seem related to each other. Perhaps they are older and younger sisters. It appears that the large tree shields the shorter one from tempestuous gusts. In between the two, an intriguing
Root Energy Turquoise is an ink drawing of a tree, including its underground roots that expand toward a water table at the bottom of the picture plane. The drawing employs an intense use of lines. Thousands of tiny ink lines comprise the trees’ leaves, trunk and root system as if all are bursting with visible
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The other day, someone I just met, a young woman named Sarah, told me, “I’m a deep person,” meaning that she considered herself to be insightful and intuitive. I responded with a muffled, “Oh,” and swallowed a laugh. It seemed to me that only a shallow person would proclaim herself to be “deep.” I met
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