Hum of the Cicada

memories coming alive in the spiralling shades of life.
I adore the sweet sound of you humming, the mix of
lilac & green & the spirals looking like fingerprints
thank you for this one Doug
love & joy tara

My absolute, all time favorite until you paint another one, Douglass! Do you ever part with these? I don’t see how you could, there’s so much in them. I just purchased two pillow cases from Italy with that exact shade of green/gold. I don’t know what enamors me of such a strange pistachio color. I’m drawn to it like a magpie to a piece of tin foil!

I love the poetry you wove to tell the story of the painting. The air around here lately has been a warm, humid, swamp land kind of feel with the threat of a thunderstorm on the breezes. I can lay on the bank of the swamp and watch the lilies move closer to each other and then farther away. Peaceful.

I love this latest painting!  Here's why….

–The colors, the swirls, the images, the two sides of it really resonate with my current state of mind. Even though it's about several things, including the hum of the cicada, I see and feel some chaos (my own) in it, but I also see an OKness within the chaos, if that makes any sense. Chaos on the right…OKness on the left….with each one part of the other…

–It's so familiar and real, yet dreamy and kind of surreal…. I see NJ in it, your visit, your connections–all of which are familiar.  And I remember you saying that you heard a hum  during one of your hikes or walks when you were here. At the same time, it's all kind of surreal and astral… Like that combo a lot.

–The ending…I love how you tied it all together.

This is definitely one of my all-time favorites–painting and poetry. I think the biggest reason is that I had the opportunity to meet you in person. Now your art/writing, etc. are even more real than before. So cool to travel back in time with you here, to recent NJ, distant NJ and all the way back to Eden…..

The magic carpet is really flying now!

We know you will keep opening doors, Doug, through the Art of your lovely paintings and poetic words. I feel I was taken there and could feel the humidity, the stillness rife with life.
At first I thought I was reading a Mary Oliver poem and was delighted to see it was thee! And delighted to be new friends with you.

beautiful beautiful words and images Doug
I love the idea of these being fingerprints
which are soul patterns and so when you are touched by them
maybe it's like sensing braille. you feel the soul beyond.

i wish I was coming to meet all the rest of you next month
but alas, with be in africa with family and friends

Love it Doug, and the poem  Dying to know your method here, wax resist or laborious infilling?

I can hear the cicadas humming and vibrating from your painting, very synesthetic. I love the magical, mystical way you look at things- enraptured in the mystery, the sacredness of seemingly ordinary things, and the profound connectedness of all things. You have a gift of the expression of words, too, that paints itself in a magical way as if I, the reader were there participating. Lovely.

Is it a special art masking fluid Doug, or something like white opaque / tippex? I'm curius as I am thinkng of daubing a bit of paint about -  just for pleasure.

you conveyed sound in this painting and colors and images in your poetry.  bravo.
thank you for sharing doug.
samme

Both the painting and the poem are so sensual.  And, how I define “sensual” is something which enlivens the senses.  I love the use of colour and movement in the painting.  The lines in the poem which were particularly “enlivening” were:

Our legs were touching

And I didn't dare move and

I wondered if you noticed

I wanted to say something but

I couldn't

Lest the magic be lost

Like something alive

And buried in the Earth

Covered in the warm darkness

Covered in snow

Your work always reminds me how incredible we can be if we just let go and be a conduit for Divine Energy.

Hi!  treck treck treck well finally I arrived over here.  Saw this, then the usual response– “I don't DO poetry.  What else is here?”  Then I told myself, “Just read some of it, geez, why not?”  And then I said, “'Cause we don't got TYME!”  And then I said, “You're whining.”  So I read it.  It's interesting how the different areas of the mind take over, isnt it?  Your poem told me about the way a moment in time (not TYME) and our consciousness at that moment are inseperable, and maybe can't be found again.  Last night I dreamed that I was pregnant with the baby ( a beautiful daughter it will be) of my dearest friend who has passed away.  I kept looking for people who loved him, but nobody would speak of anything except how dangerous this person was.  That's not true at all!  There were also four mice growing in my stomach, and they burrowed out and ran away, leaving the baby safe in a different compartment.  This was supposed to be proof to me of how awful my friend was.  But the mice would never hurt me.  The thing is, we used to live together in Sonoma County, and your poem evoked for me the positive memories of this person.  And now my eyes are full of tears…  Oh, my goodness, those summer days!  Where do they go?

I believe we are already tied into it Doug.
The colors how they swirl and draw me in…
deeper and deeper.
I hear the explosions in the distance…over the hum of the Cicada

~lars

The tree I sat on had to be there then

Because I needed it to be there then

nice.  I'm laughing out loud.  and my legs are awake again this morning.  they think we should go dancing, but they want to get shaved and moisturized first.  instead I'm just going to dance around the house wearing slippers and finish editting photos from the wedding.  :-)

1st thing I thought was, wow good colour!
Then - it's a diptych
playing off with and from each other;
on the left its the thing/landscape
and on the right,
its like looking through
(…something as one does cloud, when flying over earth) - zooming out
the landscape/sense more complicated

thank you Doug - so much!
I have posted a blog now
biig love