Snowbirds and Bedstraw

Lithograph, hand-colored with watercolor and prismacolor, 5 x 5"


Illustration from MEADOW MINE.

The first time I saw snowbirds here was the year the lamb's quarters grew 10 feet tall and produced buckets of seed. The birds stayed all winter and have returned every year since. We let the grass grow the year after that and for two years had a meadow.

At Dawn

At dawn
the sky the color of mimosa blossoms.
Between the green with long legs
two soft deer barely brown
move along the fence
watching as I light the kiln.



This is a summer poem from an old poetry manuscript, DANCING THE TWO-STEP IN THE CRACKLE OF DAWN. Many of the poems were illustrated with sumi-e brush paintings, this one was not.

Mourning Dove

White-line relief, 5 1/2 x 7"



In the snow-covered dogwood
mourning dove sits alone
believing she is two

The Poplar's Song

This is where I go
This is where I come from.

I reach with arms given long ago.
I reach with arms brought out of myself.

I breathe the light of today.
I breathe the light of yesterday.

The fires in my leaves are me
The fires in my leaves are my children
The fires in my leaves are my fathers.

The air moves around me
The air moves into me
I am the air.

All my strength, all my sinews
Bind me to the water of the earth.

The earth gives me water
The sky gives me air
The sun fires my leaves.

The earth is home to my dream
The dream is the song of my life.

This is where I go
This is where I come from.



From CROW STORY: A TALE FROM THE OAK GROVE

'Possum and Poke Berries

Lithograph, hand-colored with watercolor and prismacolor, 5 x 5"



Illustration from MEADOW MINE.

Michael

Relief, 21 x 12"



The first time I saw Egyptian relief, or hollow relief, was at a museum in LA. There was a small carving of a dog by a master Egyptian sculptor. The ancient piece looked very modern to me and I was enchanted by it. I began using techniques of Egyptian relief and eventually incorporated techniques of bas relief in the same pieces. I met Michael at St. Stephens in DC. He was a chef for CCNV. I did several portraits of him and this is the only one that survives.

Girl in the Sun

Handmade paper collage with silver tea chest paper, 5 x 8"



This image was used as an illustration in a book of poetry I published under the imprint, Librado Press. The fibers used are gampi, mitsumata with a wild sedge, and Morea iris leaves.

Painting the Red Dragon

Lithograph, 5 x 5"



This is one of my students painting a block for a white-line woodcut.

With Catbird's Song (from the journal)

Redbird in the sharon,
redbird in the juniper,
redbird on the patio close enough
to see the sky’s blue reflection
on his iridescent feathers.
If you could touch him,
your fingers would come away blue. 5-26-11



The black crow overhead
makes a wave in the air so deep,
it touches my forehead. 6-1-11



On the low branch
the first crab apples redden,
grace white butterfly’s path. 6-2-11



Swallowtail is heavier than himself today.
Honeysuckle holds him up.
Yellow on yellow. 6-4-11



Small enough to be confused with wren,
baby redbird sits in the green holly,
counts the orange cats, waits
for her colors to come in. 6-7-11



On the grassy path
laid carefully on a napkin,
summer’s offering—
a dead chipmunk. 6-17-11



With catbird’s song for an umbrella,
I sit in the rain.
All the lovely sounds. 6-19-11

And I Will Dance

Sacrifice a whole people
Why?

The ones who loved you most
Who danced for your name.

For the sanctity of human consciousness.

Through the realization of their pain to give us
Awareness of the whole.

So we can walk in the
Body of God

Through all ages,
Past and future.

To be aware of all who came and went
To hold them with us here and now.

Our sacrifice: to see through their eyes
As well as our own.

To see the whole with the prism vision of
All the souls that have bound together for
This dance.




This poem was included in POPPYROSE. Later on I made a relief portrait of Carl Freedman to go with the poem. That was my first effort to put text into a sculpture.



Carl Freedman, bronze relief, 12 x 12 x 1"


Carl Freedman, bronze relief detail