Waters I Have Known

Two quotes

2011-09-19T17:04:00.003+12:00

The following quotes found their way into my mailbox today -

Anyone who can solve the problems of water, will be worthy of two Nobel prizes - one for peace and one for science.
John F. Kennedy

When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.
Benjamin Franklin.

One Day on Earth

2011-09-10T07:26:00.001+12:00

2011-09-02T15:11:00.000+12:00

What the Water Knows

What the mouth sings, the soul must learn to forgive.
A rat’s as moral as a monk in the eyes of the real world.
Still, the heart is a river
pouring from itself, a river that cannot be crossed.

It opens on a bay
and turns back upon itself as the tide comes in,
it carries the cry of the loon and the salts
of the unutterably human.

A distant eagle enters the mouth of a river
salmon no longer run and his wide wings glide
upstream until he disappears
into the nothing from which he came. Only the thought remains.

Lacking the eagle’s cunning or the wisdom of the sparrow,
where shall I turn, drowning in sorrow?
Who will know what the trees know, the spidery patience
of young maple or what the willows confess?

Let me be water. The heart pours out in waves.
Listen to what the water says.
Wind, be a friend.
There’s nothing I couldn’t forgive.

Sam Hamill

Fukushima

2011-06-17T12:23:00.001+12:00

Fukushima: 'Biggest Industrial Catastrophe In History'

By Dahr Jamail

16 June, 2011
Al-Jazeera-English

"Scientific experts believe Japan's nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public.

'Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera. . . '"

To continue reading this mightily sobering article, click on this link - - - http://www.countercurrents.org/jamail160611.htm

. . . to quote Masaru Emoto's 'heal the waters' mantra again - - - 'Waters of Fukushima Nuclear Plant, we are sorry we have brought you such suffering; please, forgive us. Thank you. We love you.'

Lynne McTaggart on Water

2011-06-15T09:32:00.002+12:00

Lynne McTaggart describes research which suggests that water is one medium of this coherent communication system especially in living plants and animals:

"This would mean that water is like a tape recorder, imprinting and carrying information whether the original molecule is still there or not. The shaking of the containers, as is done in homeopathy, appears to act as a method of speeding up this process. So vital is water to the transmission of energy and information that Benveniste's own studies actually demonstrate that molecular signals cannot be transmitted in the body unless you do so in the medium of water. In Japan, a physicist called Kunio Yasue of the Research Institute for Information and Science, Notre Dame Seishin University in Okayama, also found that water molecules have some role to play in organizing discordant energy into coherent photons - a process called 'superradiance'.This suggests that water, as the natural medium of all cells, acts as the essential conductor of a molecule's signature frequency in all biological processes and that water molecules organize themselves to form a pattern on which can be imprinted wave information. If Benveniste is right, water not only sends the signal but also amplifies it."

2011-06-06T04:58:00.000+12:00

Meditation for our times from Claire Beynon on Vimeo.

Beyond the oil spill

2011-04-23T08:04:00.003+12:00

The tragedy of an ailing Gulf - New York Times article

BP agrees to pay $1 Billion towards Gulf Restoration - NY Times

How easy it is to point fingers at the 'other' - we do this in so many ways and in so many areas of our life.

This particular Gulf-related situation begs the question. . . are we not all BPs; as responsible for the catastrophe as we are for the clean-up? The metaphorical implications implied in this question are many and plain. . .

gulf |gəlf|
noun
1. a deep inlet of the sea almost surrounded by land, with a narrow mouth.
2. a deep ravine, chasm, or abyss.
• figurative a large difference or division between two people or groups, or between viewpoints, concepts, or situations : a wide gulf between theory and practice.

2011-04-01T20:07:00.005+13:00

Take a small boat

down the river. Fish

in the rain, cherish

the green moss, love

the waters that offer up

their purity – love

the waters

What is soft is strong

2011-03-27T06:42:00.001+13:00

"Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong" ~ Lao-Tzu

Outline for May 2011 conference in Phoenix, Arizona

2011-03-17T07:38:00.008+13:00

WORDS ON WATER

‘It is all one water – a finger in a tide pool brings us all together’ – Marylinn Kelly

Towards the end of last year I issued an invitation to members of the blog community to participate in a studio project, Waters I Have Known.

Early paintings in the Waters I Have Known series were a response to the oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. A stream of lively debate around the power, wonder and fragility of our world’s oceans was already under way on Icelines. Over time, I suggested we consider the internet as an ocean of a different kind and was astounded by the range and richness of texts readers contributed in response. They generously gave me permission to incorporate these words and ideas in my Gulf paintings - amongst these, Group Dynamic, Twenty Days, Twenty Ways and a ‘communal breastplate’ titled Standing In The Heart.

One of the things that struck me during this web-based process was the generosity with which these men and women – most of whom have never met – responded to this invitation to participate. A community comprised of writers, artists, scientists, musicians, a police detective and a nun, we hail from places as far-flung as Ireland, Australia, USA, Germany, the UK, New Zealand, South Africa, Italy and Tasmania. Without exception, prose and poetry were offered up as gifts – no strings attached.

There is a potency and intimacy peculiar to web-based communities that overwrites conventionally- perceived limitations such as age, political bias, ethnicity, kronos time, measurable space. The web is a mighty equalizer – like the ocean, it wraps us around, drawing our continents together. We take our place around the virtual table and at the press of a key, enter worlds we might ordinarily not have access to, with people we might ordinarily never meet. Before we know it we’re engaging in a depth of communication that has all the elements of privileged encounter and sacred space. If water is the medium of the unconscious, might we consider the web its metaphorical equivalent?

To borrow words from a friend, ‘We have a choice to pick our way around the fringes where wonders can be found, sure enough, washed up out of their element, OR to throw ourselves in, half-naked, alarmed and gasping but soon elated, afloat, finding that 'it' — the ocean, the community of people — is holding us up. And 'it' is all shot through with wonders and toxins, nutrient-rich streams and currents bearing death, predators, prey and symbiotic arrangements . . . held together in the mare-mother-matrix of a common life.’ - Penelope Todd

During these times of accelerated awakening, I am drawn to ever more to poetry, music and the moving image as powerful communication tools within our global arena. It seems to me that as our world’s clamor and confusion increases, so listening and stillness are being recognized as vital agents for peace, advocacy and transformation. This mixed-media presentation will track across a range of real and imagined territories, from recent collaborative ArtScience projects in Antarctica to the daily rhythms of work in my Dunedin studio. I will share my creative processes, thoughts around ‘chaos and coherence’ and what I’ve come to call ‘the necessity for protest in the form of poetry and pause.’

Dunedin 2011

This is the outline of a paper I will be presenting at The Seven Ray Institute's conference in Mesa, Phoenix, ARIZONA (30 April - 8 May 2011) The title of the conference is Invoking a Spiritual Rennaisance: Let Peace Prevail Through Harmony, Beauty and Art.

ALL WELCOME!

New oil sketches

2011-02-21T18:19:00.005+13:00

I
Explorers Cove, Hjorth Hill, Antarctica

II
The Birthplace of Waterfalls - Western Fiordland

Update on the health of GULF forams - those in Florida Keys, especially

2010-12-16T06:46:00.003+13:00

http://foraminifer.blogspot.com/2010/11/gulf-oil-spill-recovery-measurable-by.html

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2010/09/15_foraminifera_monitor_oil_spills.shtml

Corexit

2010-10-29T13:15:00.009+13:00

Penelope sent me this link this afternoon - - - accounts of the health hazards associated with Corexit. This makes for depressing reading, but how can we not?

FLORIDA OIL SPILL LAW - Documenting the Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Breastplate_It is all one water - a finger in a tide pool brings our shores together

with text by Marylinn Kelly

2010

Oil & pencil on paper

560 x 380MM

Breastplate_And the sea on their right, how she murmurs

with text by Pamela Morrison

2010

Oil & pencil on paper

560 x 380MM (v x h)

Standing in the Heart

2010-10-16T16:41:00.004+13:00

As I was approaching 'a place of pause'*with this work, friends from the blogging community came on board with the project. . . I invited people who might like to, to contribute texts of any description or length for inclusion in the Waters I Have Known series, asking that their response be specifically on the themes of 'oceans and community'.

I was astounded by the generosity and attentiveness with which people engaged; moved by the open-handedness of their contributions. You can follow the threads of this conversation by clicking on the link below -

http://icelines.blogspot.com/2010/10/invitation-from-me-and-sea.html

BREASTPLATE III_Rebecca

2010-10-15T09:18:00.000+13:00

Breastplate III_And what did she see at the sea (text by Rebecca Loudon)

Oil & pencil on paper

2010

520 x 380MM

and what did she see at the sea

Dire Whelk

Dusky Tegula

Fingered Limpit

Hooded Puncturella

Veiled Chiton

Bat Star

By-the-Wind Sailor

Crumb-of-bread Sponge

Eye Fringed Worm

Sugar Wrack

Frilled Anemone

Bull Kelp

Ghost Shrimp

Sanderling

Walleye Surfperch

Volcano Barnacle

Stiff-footed Sea Cucumber

Leather Star

Innkeeper Worm

Lug Worm

REBECCA LOUDON

details

BREASTPLATES (process)

2010-10-11T22:55:00.023+13:00

These small paintings on heavy cotton paper have as their compositional 'template' the turtle shell,
a form that references the Gulf crisis and suggests to me the following -

breastplate
protective shield
sacred space
shelter
multi-chambered heart

each of which we do well to take care of

Breastplate I - Turtle Talk (detail/process)
G ULF series
Oil on paper
2010

Breastplate II_Let us not forget the silver-headed minnows - (detail/process)

Fini

Breastplate II_Battaglia ii_Let us not forget the silver-headed minnows

Oil & pencil on paper

2010

520 x 380MM

Twenty days, twenty ways

2010-10-11T00:47:00.013+13:00

process . . .

details

Fini

Twenty Days, Twenty Ways

Image portals for Waters I Have Known

The Diversion, Marlborough

2010

Oil on gessoed board

910 x 910MM

Group Dynamic

2010-10-10T23:31:00.007+13:00

Process. . .

I initially thought the painting was finished at this stage, but the longer I lived with it, the more lonesome these images seemed. I realized they were asking for company - a community to wrap around them, to give them purpose and meaning. . .

details

Fini

Group Dynamic

Image portals for Waters I Have Known

The Diversion, Marlborough

2010

Oil on board

910 x 910MM

Ice Lines

2010-09-24T23:11:00.003+12:00

from the series WATERS I HAVE KNOWN_Ice Lines i
Oil on paper
2010
760 x 1050 MM (v x h)
This work is available from The Diversion
THIS WORK HAS SOLD

AT HOME IN ANTARCTICA

In this place, silence has a voice

wide-ranging as the continent.

Some say it's on the cusp

of madness, the way it hums

and stutters, mutters to itself

in quietest tones.

In this place, the universe

brims. Inside absence,

presence. Inside distance,

dust and our sleeping earth

dreaming beneath her thin blue

mask of ice.

In this place, the necessity

of memory, recollections

of a loved one's face, shape

of laughter, weight of breath.

In this place, nostalgia

roams, patient as slow

hands on skin transparent

as melt-water. Nights are light

and long. Shadows settle

on the shoulders of air.

Time steps out of line

here stops to thaw

the frozen hearts of icebergs.

Sleep isn't always easy in this place

where the sun stays up all night

and silence has a voice.

CB - Explorers Cove, Taylor Dry Valleys, Antarctica 2005

detail i

G ULF_Oil and Water Do Not Mix

2010-09-22T23:22:00.015+12:00

G ULF_Oil and Water Do Not Mix
Oil & pencil on paper
2010
760 x 525 MM (v x h)
This work is available from The Diversion

OIL AND WATER DO NOT MIX

DO NOT MIX OIL AND WATER

OIL AND WATER DO NOT MIX

DO NOT MIX OIL AND WATER

OIL AND WATER DO NOT MIX

DO NOT MIX OIL AND WATER

OIL AND WATER DO NOT MIX

DO NOT MIX OIL AND WATER

OIL AND WATER DO NOT MIX

OIL AND WATER

DO NOT MIX

OIL AND WATER

NOT

MIX

OIL

AND

WATER

Detail i

Detail ii

G_ULF - Surely Some Revelation Is At Hand?

2010-09-19T00:05:00.008+12:00

G_ULF - Surely Some Revelation Is At Hand?

Oil and pencil on paper

2010

760 x 560MM (v x h)

". . . Turning and turning in the widening gyre,

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world;

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand. . . ?"

W. B Yeats

from The Second Coming

detail

G_ULF_Luminescing When Dusk Comes

2010-09-17T00:15:00.013+12:00

G_ULF_Luminescing When Dusk Comes

Oil & pencil on paper

2010

760 x 560MM (v x h)

". . .We and many other animals sleep and wake in cycles that repeat every twenty-four hours. Some ocean protists, dinomastigotes, luminesce when dusk comes, ceasing two hours later. So hooked are they into the cosmic rhythm of Earth that even back in the laboratory, away from the sea, they know the sun has set. Many similar examples abound because living matter is not an island but part of the cosmic matter around it, dancing to the beat of the universe.

Life is a material phenomenon so finely tuned and nuanced to its cosmic domicile that the relatively minor shift of angle and temperature change as the tilted Earth moves in its course around the sun is enough to alter life’s mood, to bring on or silence the song of bird, bullfrog, cricket and circada. But the steady background beat of Earth turning and orbiting in its cosmic environment provides more than a metronome for daily and seasonal lives. Larger rhythms, more difficult to discern, can also be heard. . ."

from What is Life? Lynn Margulis & Dorion Sagan (pg. 240 & 241)

detail

On the edge of the clearing weather

2010-09-02T10:04:00.021+12:00

On the edge of the clearing weather
Oil on paper
2010
760 x 1050MM (v x h)
This work is available from The Arthouse
THIS WORK HAS SOLD

SOTTO VOCE

(Italian term – usually used in a musical context, meaning ‘under the voice’ or ‘in a quiet tone’)

Striking, the ambiguity of language – sound

and sound, hold

and hold, birth

and berth.

Sotto voce. Sotto voce.

Our brave boat’s hull

is a dull silver arc

at odds, and at one

with the ocean’s shifting

meniscus, the sky infinite

yet Doubtful as a clenched fist,

a menace of wishful thinking.

Mariners without local knowledge

are advised to exercise caution.

I am no old man of the sea (my stomach

one of two that pitch and turn

in 4m swells), but Lance and the Breaksea Girl

are unperturbed; back and forth she rocks

back and forth, a metronome used, by now,

to holding her own in stormy waters.

Sotto voce. Sotto voce.

Ours is hardly the first voyage, neither will it be

the last. There are records aplenty

of this coastline, these steep, hard-nosed

mountains, the seductive tongues

of waterfalls.

I have scoured the record books,

wondered more about the lines not there

than the many written; nowhere

do we find Cook – or Orton –

writing of love or lust

or loneliness at sea; in the journals, no poetry

to soften the un-yielding years, the reek

of sour beer and unwashed skin,

the loud absence of women.

These men, too, must surely have known

the sudden singe of heat

on heart, the un-confided bruise?

But

who

make

such

assumptions?

On the edge of the clearing weather,

mountain, sky and ocean lean towards

each other with conspiratorial intention.

They are lifetimes ahead of us

the way they know how to sleep

together, dream together, lie awake

in the dark together, rarely - and always -

alone

with their separate thoughts.

Where are we to drop anchor?

I am reluctant to interrupt this silence.

CB - Western Fiordland, New Zealand 2007/2010

detail i

detail ii

G ULF_Battaglia

2010-09-01T14:33:00.031+12:00

G ULF_Battaglia
Oil on paper
2010
1050 x 760MM (v x h)
The Arthouse
THIS WORK HAS SOLD

BATTAGLIA

oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water
do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix
oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water
do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix
oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water

Let us not forget the silver-headed
minnows, their presto con brio flash
and exuberant, spear-shaped shimmer.

See them now?

Their fins are barely a-flicker, instinct
propels them but their once-vivid slice
through water is nothing but the faintest quiver.

See them?

Mouths shut tight and belly up, they might
easily be mistaken for cutlery clattering
in a rimless ocean sink.

See?

There's no more music in them, no sound
stirring in this orchestra of cartilage
and bone. This was no accidental storm;

?

the earth recoils in disbelief, her grief
is deep, our indifference to her, unfathomable.
'Tis a solemn and vicious tide

.

with power to turn salt water sour; a viscous bile
that dulls the scales of spawning fish
and rusts a sleeping turtle's shell.

CB - on the Deepwater Horizon environmental catastrophe
April, May, June, July, August, September 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017. . .

detail

G ULF_Elegy

2010-09-01T14:02:00.016+12:00

G ULF_Elegy for the Giant Turtles
from the poem by Margaret Atwood
Oil & pencil on paper
2010
760 x 525MM (vx h)
The work is available from The Arthouse

ELEGY FOR THE GIANT TORTOISES

Let others pray for the passenger pigeon

the dodo, the whooping crane, the eskimo:

everyone must specialize

I will confine myself to a meditation

upon the giant tortoises

withering finally on a remote island.

I concentrate in subway stations,

in parks, I can't quite see them,

they move to the peripheries of my eyes

but on the last day they will be there;

already the event

like a wave traveling shapes vision:

on the road where I stand they will materialize,

plodding past me in a straggling line

awkward without water

their small heads pondering

from side to side, their useless armour

sadder than tanks and history,

in their closed gaze ocean and sunlight paralyzed,

lumbering up the steps, under the archways

toward the square glass altars

where the brittle gods are kept,

the relics of what we have destroyed,

our holy and obsolete symbols.

Margaret Atwood

from Eating Fire: Selected Poetry 1965 - 1995

Margaret Atwood's website is a roomy place that, amongst its many treasures, offers generous resources for writers (ref. Negotiating with the Dead: A writer on writing). She has also included 'links of interest', photographs, media clips, podcasts of interviews, reviews, readings. . .

Remarkably, she wrote ELEGY FOR THE GIANT TORTOISES in 1968.

detail

In this place, silence has a voice

2010-08-31T23:07:00.000+12:00