Turning

As I climbed towards the mountain top,

I raised my eyes and looked above.

I could faintly see a majestic peak,

but the path to get there I could not see.

My heart grew faint and my soul did cry,

I cannot make it, I cannot try.

In anguish, I fell to my knees,

Lord, please send me thy light 

so that I might see

a little of the path for me.

I know I can make it to the end

if thou thine hope to me can send.

I will trust and I will follow,

and bring with me all those I know.

I know this mountain

thou hast climbed and

already faced these challenges I find.

O, stay with me and never depart,

for to thee I give my heart.

I See The Notes With My Toes

Music concerts are such a blending of contradictions in my heart.
 When I hear music I move... period. 

So while I adore the symphony and grands sweeping melodies,

I can feel slightly stifled with no room to fly at a crowded concert.

In happy news, I have found a remedy. 

If you see me grinning with my eyes closed and sitting motionless,
 it's because my soul is soaring on the inside.

The sky decided to paint with water and the earth was its canvas.

Fortunately, I heard the rushing water in time to bound outdoors,

twirl in puddles, and jete through streams.

Oh, it was so brilliant and even more so

when Deba, a friend that I truly admire, joined me.

Here is a picture of me as a drowned rat post rain dance soiree.

Following that is a video of some "dancing" to a song that 

I simply cannot  not move to.

Art:Life:Art

Today is a bit of reminiscing

One of my old roomates was the very talented

Stacia Svedi who was in the B.F.A. for Painting at BYU.

She had an assignment to recreate one of the

works of the masters in a new way.

She chose Jan Johan Vermeer's

"The Milkmaid."

I only have the picture she based her painting on but

I wanted to share because I really enjoyed the

commentary on society she was making.

In Vermeer's painting the lighting is soft and delicate

falling on the milkmaid as she pours the milk 

with an almost reverence. 

He has made the task and the setting a kind

of glorification of the everyday simplicity.

There is no clutter to be found in this scene.

Contrast this with the below, the cupboard is open to display

all the appliances that can be used to "save" time when

cooking and baking. On the counter is the bread machine,

and on the table the mixer and then she chose 

to have me opening a loaf of store bought bread. 

(Kind of love the irony that I posed for this, 

considering I haven't bought store bread

in 3 & 1/2 years now, mine tastes better:)

The scene is cluttered on purpose.

I just love the questions and thoughts she was trying to provoke.

I'm definitely not a "Tech" hater, quite the opposite

but I do think it is very easy to fill my life with clutter

and to forget to enjoy the small and simple things.

Sometimes, I just feel so overwhelmed with

how many people I love and want to

make sure they know that I love them.

In fact, I do wish sometimes I didn't work

so much so I could just spend time with all of them.

I treasure all the friendships I have,

even ones where we may not see each other

more than twice a year but it's as if only days have passed.

My friends and family ( I have to quote my sister Bridget here,

"we are sisters which automatically makes us best friends" )

and the relationships I have with them are

the joy of my life. It's not what activity I'm doing

it who I am doing it with.

Here is one memory of why it's who and not what. Stacia is the bomb dot com!

A few summers ago she and I decided to bike

 from our apartment to Vivian Park.

We set out on our bikes wearing helmets and

casual clothes. Pretty soon the sky started to

cloud over and immediately proceeded to pretend

that Utah has a Monsoon season.

There was inches of water on the road and the bike path.

What follows is just one reason why I love Stacia,

soon we were giggling

and laughing hysterically as we pedalled through the

deepest puddles and became thoroughly soaked.

I'm certain many a motorist thought we were insane but

it was one of the greatest times of my life.

It was slightly cold but we just didn't care

because we were too busy pretending to be jet skis on wheels.

We had gone on and would go on other bike rides

that Summer but this ride, where the weather

wasn't perfect, is the one I loved the most.

Reading is believing, or rather the first step.

In Relief Society on Sunday, our instructor asked us to name our favorite book.
I don't have a favorite book but I definitely have a few comfort ones.

The first is Antoine de Saint-Éxupery's "Le Petit Prince"
a wonderful philosophical book hidden within a children's tale.
Someone named that book as their favorite before I had a chance and 
so upon reflection I thought of this other book, 
"And There Was Light." by Jacques Lusseyran

It is an incredible tale of hope, perseverance and what it 

really means to see. The man who wrote it became blind at the age of 7

and continued to make a great difference in the world

almost because of his blindness and how it let him see.

He worked for the underground during WWII
and made a huge impact for the resistance.

I would dare this book has directly influenced parts of my life,

 most especially in the way I dance and my decision to become a dancer. 

 The way he describes seeing is touching and enlightening, truly.

Here is an excerpt,

"The seeing commit a strange error. 

They believe that we know the world only through our eyes. 

For my part, I discovered that the universe consists of pressure, 

that every object and every living being reveals itself to us

 at first by a kind of quiet yet unmistakable pressure 

that indicates its intention and its form. 

I even experienced the following wonderful fact: 

A voice, the voice of a person, permits him to appear in a picture. 

When the voice of a man reaches me, 

I immediately perceive his figure, his rhythm, and most of his intentions.

 Even stones are capable of weighing on us from a distance.

 So are the outlines of distant mountains, 

and the sudden depression of a lake at the bottom of a valley."

Peinture and News

For today I have a batik self portrait and two word designs that I made in photoshop. One of which cracks me up and the other describes how I feel as a super passionate person, (haha, I can't even just say passionate, I have to be super passionate.. oh dear).

Subsequently is one of my favorite words to say aloud.

It just feels eloquent and sounds smooth as glass.

Designing for Fun

 These designs are all just for fun and hopefully

will make a few people smile. 

Aaack ,the kerning...sighs...whelp, let's just pretend it 

was a conscious choice.

I'm not a realist, pessimist or an optimist; I am a dreamist.

Find on Loving

I came across this commencement speech and was quite taken with the 

last section "Love Someone". The longer I've lived the more I know that

Loving without conditions is true freedom and happiness.

Written by Adrian Tan, author of The Teenage Textbook (1988), was the guest-of-honour at a recent NTU convocation ceremony. This was his speech to the graduating class of 2008.

""The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.

I didn’t say “be loved”. That requires too much compromise. If one changes one’s looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.

Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We’ve taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work – the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.
You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.

You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it."

Thoughts on laughter

If I could fly and see

the stars from behind,

rather than from under;

would I better feel and comprehend 

the shaking of the thunder.

Could I hear the rhythm and

dance to its beat if I 

understood the lightning's heat.

I Wonder...

A tree is a friend that will not end

for comfort I always find,

in the twist and bends

of bark and branches,

roots and leaves become

a blanket.

Sailing on Sunlight

Up over Stars

My latest version of Musical musings

Watching

Acrylic on canvas board

St. Pat's Street Photography & Sound

You will want to just listen to the video instead of watching it.

I teach Irish Step Dance and in consequence I bleed rhythm. 

I apparently could not help bobbing and tapping in time to the beat of

the bodhran players from the great Irish band, "The Black Rogue".

Small world moment is when I realized that one of the drummers has two daughters

that take Irish Step lessons at the same school where I teach.

Moving through Music 1

Dancing to "How We Love" by Ingrid Michaelson.

I love pain, let me explain. I am someone who enjoys working out and

doing conditioning almost as much as I enjoy playing whatever sport I'm working on or dancing.

Pain means that I'm growing and that I will be stronger the next day. I don't fear it.

It's the same way with my heart. Although I don't seek pain, I am grateful

that I can be hurt and feel it because that means my heart is getting bigger and

that I can love that much more.  I'd rather care, get hurt, miss someone when they die
 and I don't mind experiencing heartache

 ... life would be colorless without love. 

I need the yellows AND the blues to make my lovely green.

I'm stealing this quote from my sister's blog,

 “The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. 

You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.” - Marjorie Pay Hinckley

What's in a name or a cover?

Come Up

I though I saw

the sky rain up,

a drip, a drizzle, and a drop

till melted pigments

peonies formed

upon the stems

of dreams that morn.

Water in Air and Sea

Acrylic on canvas...

Styled Shoot: In the Eyes, Part 2

Styled Shoot: In the Eyes, Part 1

I have had the idea for this shoot for a long time and finally made it happen.

Hair, Make Up, and Styling were all done by me and of course the Photography.
My beautiful elegant sister Saren was an amazing model.