Furthering a dream

Since arriving in France I have been fortunate to travel and experience many fascinating places--and I hope you've enjoyed the voyages I share here. Right now I'm longing to travel again for a deeper purpose, to teach workshops and perform as I have in the past, expanding my range of possibility to the United Kingdom and other European countries where I have many supportive internet friends and contacts. I would also like to take the first steps toward my ultimate goal of creating an itinerant troupe of nature-based artists and performers whose job would be to help people engage their creative imagination and find a place of energy and joy within themselves and the natural world.

I've always considered my art to be about other people and as such teaching and performing have major roles to play. It has been a great pleasure for me to work with age groups ranging from kindergarten through adults, in venues including museums and botanical garden workshops and teaching appointments at Steiner school and university. My guiding force has always been the joy and vibrant energy available when we look to our creative centers and our connection to the natural world. I believe we can also find a deep peace and sense of purpose there as well, something sorely needed in the world at large.

Now I'd like to ask for your help in getting the word out about a campaign I have created to raise funds for purchasing a reliable used van in which to travel, carry my materials and provide a shelter to support my nomadic arts/performance dream. Your participation doesn't have to involve money-- although any amount would be appreciated no matter the sum--- your help in sharing the campaign via Facebook, Twitter, your blogs, and other social media alone would be very valuable. My campaign page has a full explanation of the project and there are also original art gift perks available for those who do want to be involved financially, beginning with twenty-five dollar contributions and upwards. So here's the link to share and see for yourself: http://www.indiegogo.com/nomad-ness
Many thanks to all of you for reading this and for your support and friendship along the way. Love and creativity to all of you, Diana

Spring segues into Summer

Away from blogging for such a time that now spring is turning towards summer, I have plans to be away yet again in travel, in Paris and other parts of France and then on to do workshops and performances at festivals in the UK in August. Life is interesting and ever changing---my art is the creative thread that holds it all together, no matter how tenuously. I do hope to stay in touch better even during my coming time on the road! Let me share with you some of what I've seen and done of late...

One of my recent projects was a papier-mache pulp and fiber mask adorned with flattened, rusty bottle caps and sea glass, made for a dance performance in Paris. Here it is on my work table nearly complete...

So many fae furniture orders have been coming my way as well... Here are a few ready to ship...

 

I have been obsessed with recording the plethora of blooms and the lovely spiral beginnings of ferns in the Jardin des Plantes and most particularly the baby goats at the mini farm of the Jardin. I was there for the birth of one kid who is my special favourite. He is quite tame, content to climb into my lap and curl up like a cat even though he is a bit older now and sporting tiny nubbin horns. Here he is at a few days old...

There were so many varieties of fiddleheads in the Jardin, varying from around nine centimeters across to delicately minute lacy curls...

 

I played with fallen petals and listened to the frogs' mating songs... 

 
I am not long back from the beautiful countryside of Burgundy (Bourgogne) in the east of France, where I traveled by train to spend two and a half weeks. I walked at sunset along quiet roads...

And conversed with magical hoofed beings of great beauty...

 

 

There were roses in the gardens and hedgerows...

and vintage doorways with mandala like designs...



















And when I came back to the west, I spent a day in the countryside near the ocean. The light was so intense that the world became a high contrast composition in shadow and highlights...

 

And once again there were flowers everywhere...

Well... not quite everywhere...

A collection of random French photos--Spring and other things...

Lately I've been dogged by a strange mood that has kept me unable and unwilling to make art. I am trying to be gentle with myself but I don't enjoy creative inactivity. All I've been able to accomplish in recent days seems to be the digital equivalent of reams of photos--mostly subjects I would normally consider cliche but currently view as an antidote to my admittedly mild but unpleasant state of mind, be it caused by depression, boredom or what have you. Sometimes living within another country and culture can take its toll no matter how lovely the place. There is always a certain sense of being an outsider and alone. I'm also the caregiver for someone who is nearly six month's way into an eleven month long treatment for a serious illness. I know this responsibility alone could be enough to push down my normally optimistic state despite recognizing all I have to be grateful for in my life and the lovely commencement of Spring here.

I hope sharing this group of photos will provide a bit of interest for those who care to look a little closer at the world as I experience it visually. I view them as my mood elevators--- and I hope you will too.

 

 

 

 

 

And I'll leave you with a couple in a different mood...

The world of weekends and what I found there...

Since the beginning of 2012 life has been a bit different. I've been spending time closer to home, getting to know the city of Nantes, especially its medieval quarter where I officially live but have spent relatively little time until recently. Weekends have been devoted to travel among friends in the magical region of Brittany to the north or along the seacoast just south of Nantes. My obsession with ancient architecture and the beautiful countryside is always richly rewarded in this lovely region. And of course I adore sharing my walks with you...here are a few...

January found me in the medieval center of Dinan, Brittany, a town crowned on one of its hilltops with the beautiful Romanesque basilica of Saint Saviour. The church was commissioned in the early twelfth century by a crusader knight, Rivallon le Roux, in fulfillment of a battlefield vow to build a church if he survived to return home to Brittany. Its exterior is rich in stone carvings, some still fresh and lively, others eroded to mere suggestions of form.

 Later in the same day I walked along the windy cliffs high above a jewel tone ocean.

On another weekend I visited friends at the seacoast close to Nantes. Across the road and visible from their front room is a Romanesque chapel, St. Jean-Baptiste, nearly the polar opposite of Saint Saviour in its minimalistic simplicity and rough stone walls.

 

Prigny, France

On the beach in nearby Moutiers en Retz, a storm had dredged up the most plentiful variety of seaweeds I have ever encountered. I worked in the morning cold to make mandalas from sea treasures and left them for the rising tide to claim.

Yet another weekend in Brittany and another couple with an ancient chapel next door.

Their house is an old traditional stone and stucco country place made consciously green. They grow and preserve much of their own food and purchase most of the rest from local farms. There is wood heat, a natural grey water filtering system of small ponds and a composting toilet.

 

In the niche once reserved for a saint's figure a saxophone playing gnome now guards the house front.

The heart of the cozy kitchen/living area.

I visited the chapel both days and left a small offering of bracken and catkins at the foot of its ancient stone cross. 

 

chapel door and window with lichen

And when I was not traveling, I spent much of my weekend time in the charming Jardin des Plantes in Nantes, a nineteenth century botanical garden rich in lovely water features and a seemingly endless array of ducks.

 

 

 

 

Wishing you all a magical spring (or fall) wherever you may dwell.