Art, with some animals

 

by Andrea Kowch

An Invitation, 2019 by Andrea Kowch

By Andrea Kowth

Andrea says this:

"I do see myself as a storyteller on several levels," says Kowch. "Telling stories through my work is something that comes very natural to me. It’s one of the main reasons I chose to study Illustration in college.

"While I usually begin work on a painting with a particular thought and message in mind, there are times when I see an image in my mind’s eye first, without any sort of specific literal meaning attached at that moment.

"Sometimes the meaning comes to light upon its completion, when I sit down to figure out why I painted it. The concepts and imagery that often come about on their own tend to be ignited by the simplest thing: the way a curtain moves in a hot summer breeze, for instance, might create a scenario in my head. I may imagine myself in an old farmhouse, feeling that same breeze rolling in over the surrounding fields just beyond the window. The canvas is where I am able to bring all these personal, imaginative musings to life, and realise them.

"I loved fairy-tales as a girl, and still do. They were an escape into a romantic, mysterious, and magical world. The classic tales of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm were the first to charge my imagination as a child. I later discovered and fell in love with the art of Arthur Rackham and Howard Pyle, and Pyle’s written work, such as The Wonder Clock and Pepper and Salt.

"I’ve always been drawn to and intrigued by stories that are a bit twisted; the ones containing strange characters and a prevailing sense of impending danger. Perhaps that’s why my paintings often carry a similar feeling. There’s always an aspect of something unknown about to happen. The story is never fully revealed, it simply continues on, each painting serving as the next page or chapter."

In My Mind (2017)by Andreaa Kowth

Sharing with Saturday's Critters

We arrive on this planet empty handed and we will all soon leave empty handed. So then, how and in what spirit do we want to spend the time in between?

NIMO PATEL

What this says

Venus figure created about 25,000 years ago from the Kostenki-Borshevo region on the Don River, north of the Black Sea.

Kostenki / Kostienki is a very important Paleolithic site on the Don River in Russia. It was a settlement which contained goddess figures, dwellings made of mammoth bones, and many flint tools and bone implements. Actually it is not a single site but really an area on the right bank of the Don River in the region of the villages of Kostenki and Borshevo, consisting of more than twenty site locations, all dating to the Paleolithic.

Just think how someone spent hours creating this lovely figure.

And I look at the features of her body, and am aware that the artist was celebrating the woman/goddess who gave life and nurtured it. The model for the figure was well fed, quite capable, and yet her own facial features weren't considered important. 

Would a person of that era find this a turn-on sexually? Or would the figure represent the highest respect for women and perhaps even goddesses! At least this type of body was considered beautiful. Since there are so many similar small figures found in the same area, it's likely that many people made these for an unknown reason...maybe by women as well as men who crafted them. That they were numerous suggests that they had importance in that culture. Early archaeologists thought they were fertility icons. Now they are open to interpreting them as goddesses in a matriarchal society.

The pyramid of patriarchy had not yet taken over society. 

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Matriarchy isn’t women on top, it’s a circle with children and the vulnerable at the center.

It is not a mirror image of patriarchy, nor a reversal of domination. Matriarchy is rooted in care, responsibility, and collective survival. Power is not hoarded at the top—it flows outward, guided by the needs of those who require protection the most. Leadership is measured by nourishment, not control. Strength is shown through safeguarding life, honoring interdependence, and valuing empathy as intelligence. In this structure, women do not rule over others; they steward communities. It is not about supremacy, but balance—where dignity is preserved, harm is minimized, and humanity is sustained.

as posted by Claudia Frasca-Jones on Facebook in "She's of Love"

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And somehow our civilization discovered mechanical tool making, so craftsmanship moved more rapidly, and many people became specialized in their creativity. I'd guess that of all these men in the photo below, a few of them would be able to carve a venus to exemplify their own paragon of virtue and beauty.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday.

I don't know at this point what the 25,000 year old figure was made of, and am assuming a carved bone of some kind. 

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At the grand opening of the new Town Hardware last weekend, I saw a wood carver who used a completely industrial age tool. The chain-saw.

Though I totally support crafts...these aren't things that speak to me.

“The greatest revolution of our time is in the way we see the world. The mechanistic paradigm underlying the Industrial Growth Society gives way to the realization that we belong to a living, self-organizing cosmos.” ~Joanna Macy

It's not over till it's over

  Sharing some thoughts from the other day...

I posted on my Inner Workings blog from the newsletter "The Flowers are Speaking" in her article "At the Edge of the Woods," by Mary Porter Kerns.

This is what struck me first as I read through it. And I reread this paragraph several times. 

I am comforted in one way, with a strong sense that the Earth will be fine—our Great Mother Earth will always generate new life. Yet, my grief in knowing we are losing the worlds that generations of our ancestors knew and loved is overwhelming when I allow myself to think about it. It is scary to contemplate how all that we depend on for our food and shelter might be radically changing over the coming decades. And so, I usually don’t. I may even delude myself occasionally into thinking that since I am in the later years of my own life it won’t affect me. But of course, it will, because my life is bound to the lives of my children, all the descendants of those beings currently living, and the worlds we will all be born into again and again.

 The lifespan I'm currently experiencing had become so overwhelming, I forgot about the lifespans of other things and reincarnation.

Needed to get back to nature, eh?

Kerns said: "...as she dealt with the invasive species of Oriental bittersweet, she listened to its voice...

Oriental bittersweet and their beautiful orange berries shared this wisdom when I sat with them at the end of last season, but I had not fully digested their wisdom until now. They said, “Allow us to help you trust that a new balance will come. A new equilibrium often takes longer to achieve than the span of a single lifetime. Let us help you sit with your discomfort. Remember that new life always arises from the ruins of the old. For now, trust that each curve of our vines holds our desire to create new life from the dirt that holds us both.”

This made me copy the whole article, because it's so rich in its simplicity. Dealing with unwanted growth - anyone with cancer can identify with this probably.

Or just disease processes of any kind. Or discomfort from unexpected avenues.

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Sharing with Thankful Thursday, and Skywatch Friday

I did go back to nature...as best this ole body can do these days. Drove up to my favorite lookout (Tanbark Ridge, 3175') on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Breathed fresh clean air (with whatever pollen was still floating around). Set up my folding chair and settled in for a half hour of higher altitude breath work.

Besides occasional tourists stopping by to take their photos with the mountains, there were occasional jets overhead. A faint contrail can be spotted in the sky. But I mainly looked up with that sparkling little round cloud among all the mares' tails.

The slide above the fronds of the bush shows the roadway of the Parkway on the other side of the valley. And if you look very hard (and have a better screen than I do, maybe you can see the car which just is to the left of the mudslide. The next time I go I think I'll put fresh batteries in the old Nikon which at least has a zoom capacity. Where I can connect its photos is the question, since I no longer have the computer where that app worked. We shall see if the card reader works, and if I even have a card in the camera.

What fun things to do when I should be seriously taking care of more business-like parts of life. But today is rest.

Having a flexible mind makes navigating life much easier, as you are not thrown off course easily.

And I went back again on Tuesday for another half hour, catching some sun on toes and shins for a half hour. Breathing wonderful highly oxygenated air from all those woods. Hot for that half hour, but our weather is due to get wet again, so changes of plans.

“[In] all this inky black void, the Earth was there with this beautiful blue hue to it. The blue marble.”
—Frank Borman, astronaut

My sunrise photo from the Parkway, May 20, 6:52 am. This will be my next header...

Out of Africa and my doctor says ok

I got a clean bill of health last Monday from the Infectious Disease Doctor, who had treated me in the hospital for the various stuff that were giving me pneumonia last month. He says I've cleared out the molds that caused it, as well as strep. Yay for modern medicine.  

The recent CT Scan of my lungs says I still have Bronchiectasis.  I will see my primary care doc (the new one) next week for a annual wellness check. Then see my pulmonologist the next month.

Isn't this the cutest T-bird? It reminds me of that movie about young love.

I may be writing in more or less good English. And I'm driving within all the laws.

But my mental acuity is still sort of out to lunch.

I had seen this office for License Plates while searching for the doctor's office the first time I went. This time I thought I'd take some identification papers and see about updating my drivers license to the "Real ID" kind which is needed for flying.

Oops.  They don't do drivers licenses at the license plates office. License...that's where my brain stopped.

I could have figured that out, as the line was pretty short. I've heard it is very long to get drivers licenses. I'll try in Marion, a nearby smaller town than Asheville. 

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The other day I rewatched "Out of Africa" - which is still one of the best movies ever made.

I was so touched to see Karen packing all her belongings as she gave up her home to return to Denmark. She had lots of helpers, but there was this huge yard sale also. All her precious dishes and glassware were gone. I'm clearing  away  a lot of old treasures of my life. I don't need those sweet wine glasses since I don't drink any more. 

In the movie then there's the scene where she's eating dinner by one candle sitting on wood crates in the empty room. 

And she tells Denys that whenever it seems she can't possibly go on, she makes herself feel just a bit worse by remembering some of the best times she's had while living there.  She lists the sweetest most blissful memories.

So, I will continue packing to perhaps move on in my life. And I am not at all sure I'll try the technique that Karen Blixen came up with. But I do like looking for some sweet memories. Almost as much as I like making new ones!

Two local businesses

 Sitting by Flat Creek at Ole's Guacamole Sunday for lunch.

The soothing calm waters were interrupted by visiting begging Mallards...and some folks were throwing them pieces of chips. I was adamant that they didn't get any from us.

I even tried growling and saying firm NO to the ducks, while my friend said sweet things to him. Geese, Do Not Feed Wild Animals people food! The very first tenant learned in relating to natural animals!

 Why do so many people in Black Mountain have trouble with black bears getting in their garbage? The cans are available, sitting all over town, and the bears can get in at least half of them. So the bears have a good taste for people food. They grow well, have more cubs as a result, and the next year, they teach the cubs where rich food is available. Poor bears.

I had a lovely Pechuga Fundida - probably spelled wrong. The chicken had been grilled to a tough stage, but the spinach and mushroom sauce was just lovely on the rice. I asked for no onions to be added and so I was able to really enjoy it, and take half home for another meal.

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On Saturday I stopped to see the Grand Opening action of our local hardware store which opened a branch in Swannanoa, the next town down the highways.

It has a completely different flavor from the old building in Black Mountain, where actually 3 stores are linked together with their wood floors. In BM they sell lots of touristy needs...toys and gifts, kitchen things, everything to the kitchen sink I bet. Here the focus is on hardware!

Great parking, and now I want to go back and see what the ghost sign says on the wall.

And I gladly accepted the treat of a rootbeer float with which to go home.

Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences. -Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (1850-1894)

 Sharing with Tom's Tuesday Treasures

Continuing family updates

After the event...some more photos from Caroline's graduation last Sunday.

Her mom, Michelle, posted these on FB. I wouldn't see, experience many events were it not for FB. I am always checking and scrolling past the ads to see what's new with friends and relatives. My grandchildren say FB is for old people. OK, that's me!

"Congratulations Caroline for graduating with a double major in International Relations and Public Health with a minor in German from 3 colleges at George Washington University. It has been an honor and privilege to watch you grow over the past four years driven by your passion for international cultures and your desire to help others, particularly those disenfranchised. You challenged yourself in multiple ways we are so proud of and are delighted at the friends and relationships you’ve made. We could not be more thrilled for your future and the impact you will undoubtedly make in the world."

- Mom, Michelle.

Those who attended: my son Marty, GDaughter Kate, son Russ, GDaughter Caroline, D inL Michelle, GDaughter Audrey, Michelle's mom Joanne, and behind is her hubby, Gerry.

Mom Michelle, Kate and Audrey sisters of the grad

Caroline with her parents, Russ and Michelle

The celebration with a toast to Caroline. from front l. Marty (my son) Russ (son) Michelle (DIL) Audrey (my GDtr) Caroline (GDtr) Joanne (other grandmom) Gerry (Joanne's husband) and Kate (GDtr.)

I may not have been there in body, but I was in spirit. So sorry to have missed all the fun!

A wedding surprise

I was a bit upset that I learned about my grandson's surprise wedding via Facebook. What happened to family being involved, after all, aren't marriages a joining of families as well?

Not any more. 

I still feel surprised about my learning about my grandson's wedding in this way. After all, he'd called when they knew they were expecting. He was quite excited about sharing that several months ago. 

"You're going to be a Great-Grandma," he said.

They had already planned a big wedding on a cruise about this time, inviting all the family members. I declined due to health. Then they changed the date a year later to include the baby.

 They also had purchased a new house together about a year ago moving from Tampa to near Pensacola.

The new house is closer to his step family, who he grew up with. 

There's a step brother who's older than him, as well as his step-father who raised him after he was 9 months old.  

My son didn't marry my grandson's mother.  But that's probably his story to tell.

My first great-grandbaby. (We didn't have ultra sound photos when my children were expected in the 60s and 70s!)

The story of my grandson's birth and being raised by a step-father that he thought was his real father, that's his to tell, I guess. He did meet my son and start having a real relationship with his birth father in the last 15 years at least.

Sunday this week was the day my granddaughter, Caroline graduated from college. My blood line is sure busy these days!

Our family is just like any other family. We fall in love, we fall out of love. We have children, they grow up. We're all just doing the best we can with what we know and have at the time.

I wish the newlyweds much happiness!

For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is to let it rain.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The George Washington University graduation 5.17.26

 Of course it would have been nice to be with Caroline for her big day of graduation.

But actually it was much more comfortable for me to stay home and watch the commencement on line. So glad it was shown live. A very good and only 2 hour performance, good camera work, and even though my laptop doesn't do HP displays, I did clip some photos of the event.

Live stream started a minute or two before the event began.

My two oldest sons, mother of the grad, the other grandmother and her husband all attended...way over to the side of the huge crowd of graduates.

The graduates were already seated, not in any organized way, but with friends. So I never saw where Caroline was.

It was held on the Mall in Washington DC. That must have been really spectacular. No mention of the reflecting pools being painted, so the only thing that made the site obvious was the Washington Memorial behind the stage...quite a ways away.

Each college had a banner, and this is Caroline's college...the Elliot School of International Affairs.

Parents and families were allocated seats off to both sides (here the left side)

Russ (Caroline's dad, my son) said they were sitting on the right side...which I think would have been this crowd just past the barricades.

The program went quite smoothly, though I admit to washing dishes while some of the honorary doctorates were distributed.

The Elliot School of International Affairs asked all its grads to stand and receive their official act of recognition at graduation. (Each college did the same)

 Somewhere in the crowd is my granddaughter...

The photographer on a Segway didn't capture much in my opinion...then it was on to the next group.

The grads had received the medallions on the red ribbons on another ceremony on Friday.