Beverly Gordon
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PRAISE SONGS IN MANY GUISES

8/31/2019

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These are images of PRAISE SONG, the installation of nature-based art I created for the Earth Dance exhibit at the Farley Center (for Peace, Justice and Sustainability) in Verona, Wisconsin. It's installed in the Nature Path Sanctuary, a natural burial ground located in the woods. You can get some sense of scale from the photo of my grandson and I cavorting as we put it up.

This piece brings together different aspects of my connection with the natural world. The prayer sticks that send their songs (gratitudes) up to the spirit realm are made from cup plant stems, collected in previous seasons from nearby prairies. Their hollow stems are square and woody, and have long caught my imagination. They are wrapped in sheep’s wool that I spun into (rather uneven) yarn over 40 years ago, and dyed with natural materials such as bloodroot, goldenrod, calendula, parsley, thyme, iron, and fermented indigo. It is a pleasure to let these old dyeing experiments come see the light of day, and in such a praise-worthy setting.  I peeled the bark that contains the sticks from a just-cut tree, and as it dried, it curled itself into a heart shape. The purple stones are Baraboo quartzite, gathered one by one and treasured as reminders of our beautiful nearby hills.
 
The praises or prayers are held in the heart, and in the skin of the tree. The different colors, which come from different elements of the earth, call and bow to all forms of life.
 
 PRAISE SONG and the other installations that are part of Earth Dance will be on view until November, 2019.

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Another kind of praise song came through recently on a magical morning walk on the prairie. The cup plant thread shows up in this poem (only one of many!) that I wrote that day. You'll certainly note some repeating themes...

Picturecup plants against the sky
  

        Heart of August:  Prairie Poem


Stepping into the yellow fields
taking in the sun, taking in the yellow,
sea of yellow calling to the sun
the heart of august
the square-stemmed cup plants reaching skyward
cupping those stems, familiar friends
 
and the butterflies come, swallows swoop,
overhead trilling of sandhill cranes, always thrilling
and frogs in the pond, barely visible through the duckweed,
each popping off with a plippy sound as I make a motion,
dragonflies, of course, against the blue sky
and feathery little clouds
 
I am in the temple, here,
under the nut tree, the oak tree, the hanging vines, the cool shade
the birds singing
 
Yellow field, heart of august
blessed be
on the prairie
on the earth
in this moment
all reach upward
for the light


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another amazing piece of the prairie morning
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Other types of praise songs have come through in  other guises--in photo adventures, in work created by participants in some of my workshops, and in my own studio work.  I recently taught at the Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts, a really delightful place that seems out of another time (many of the buildings actually are) in Mineral Point. The gallery below includes images of some of creations that happened in my workshops, and photos (sometimes "enlightened") that I took in town. Remember that images will enlarge and captions will show up if you click on the image.
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RECONFIGUREDĀ  (watch the video!)

8/7/2019

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I recently screened the video I made to accompany my "Reconfigured" art exhibition in 2013, and even though it's six years old and I could add many more stories, it's still a wonderful exploration of my process (and love affair) of working with natural materials. It's available on YouTube and I was inspired to post the link here. It's just under half an hour long. Do tell me what you think.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2R4aw5Y4AI
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    Author:
    Beverly Gordon

    Explorations and unfolding adventures in art, nature and spirit. These are intertwined--my art helps me learn about nature and spirit, and experiences with the natural and spiritual dimensions come through in the art. It's also about being amazed and awestruck--awestruck by the ways nature works, how brilliant and unfathomably huge it all is, and awestruck by what happens when we open to inner guidance. I believe that increasing the sense of appreciation and awe is a way of helping to heal the world. Join me on the path of discovery!

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