An Artist Who Writes
Apple season is almost over with only our late bearers are still covered with fruit. It was an exceptionally sweet year for some varieties. Within their crisp bodies lie memories.
APPLE
I bit into the apple
A burst of spring rain
and an explosion of blossoms
filled my mouth
I tasted the footprints of honeybees
long summer days
and the brightness of the autumn sun
.
Deep in the Opal Creek Wilderness lies Jawbone Flat, a tiny mining community that operated in the 1930s and 1940s. It is currently the site of the Opal Creek Education Center, dedicated to the study of Old Growth Forests. Left behind is a treasure trove of old equipment from the heyday of the Shiny Rock Mining Company. I find beauty in their forms, nestled in the forest.
Gas molecules will fly all over the place unless held in a container. That’s what I’m like . Unless I am contained in a structure, I am all over the map. As a result, I can feel inefficient and anxious. Ironically it appears that in order for me to “think outside the box”, I need to be in one
For most, they have a structure imposed by a job, school, and/or family responsibilities. That used to be me but 2 years ago I retired from teaching and now it’s up to me to create my own structure. In other words, I get to be my own parent. Scary.
I make several kinds of visual art, play music, sing in a choir, and write, plus take care of an aging farmhouse on rural property. I’m doing a little of this and a little of that. As a result, my work is all over the place with no real sense of focus & accomplishment. I am “showing up” but irregularly without a clear set of goals. So after bumbling around for a while in this new found frontier of freedom, I realize that in order to function effectively I need to create my own “box” for myself to save me from chaos.
Recently I sent for books on the subject. Currently, I am reading , Goal Setting for People Who Hate to Set Goals.” This small book by Keith Ellis is helping me prioritize & set measurable goals step by step. Today I am going to sit down, write out my goals and create a visual flowchart to follow. For me, unless I write things down and have a visual posted in a place where I see it consistently, all will be a wash.
Some successes thus far: I have started to get up an hour earlier. That helps a lot. I also for some months now have been following a modified version of the house cleaning and organization system on flylady.net. My house is way more in order and clean than ever before by just following her simple systematic approach. I function much better in a clean, orderly environment.
If you have any tricks to stay focused and organized, I would love to know!
For several summers I have returned to Ghost Ranch Retreat Center to take art welding under the tutelage of Tom Nichols and Connie Burkhardt. It’s a glorious week of fire, camaraderie & creativity. I’m always amazed at what the glow of the oxyacetylene torch can create.
You can see examples of my welded art from Ghost Ranch here: https://byalannapass.com/portfolio/junk-collage/
I had to let him go
Like the mother robin
Crowded with her noisy young
In the disheveled nest of twigs overhanging the patio door
Those scruffy chicks there one day
Then gone the next
Never to return
I enjoy putting my own take on the photo theme & not taking the prompt in the immediate literal sense. This photo is about scale but in the realm of comparisons of near and far. As I walked the Camino de Santiago with a friend in 2013, we came upon these signs sometime after Pamplona. We were most concerned with Santiago, 220 km away but still way closer than Jerusalem at 5000 km!
In the aftermath of the Las Vegas shootings last week (on top of everything else going on in this country) I needed a big hug from nature.
Off I went with 3 other women friends to walk in the Opal Creek Wilderness Area. This place has been a refuge for me for years. It is tucked up in the Cascade Mountains about 30 miles due east of Salem, Oregon.
This is one of the largest old growth forests left in the United States and the largest in the Western Cascade Mountains in a watershed virtually untouched by loggers saw. As a result, stunning Opal Creek runs sparkling clear through its rocky course through this forest wonderland of giant Douglas fir, W. Hemlock, & W. Red Cedar.
The Shiny Rock Mining company operated in the midst of this forest in the 1930s from the “town” of Jawbone Flat. In its heyday, about 50 souls lived & worked there. The relics of the town still remain.
By the 1980s, timber companies were eager to log the area. Friends of Opal Creek, an activist organization dedicated to preserving the watershed to a wilderness area, was formed. I joined up. For the next few years, I made many 4-hour roundtrip drives to lead educational hikes to the public along with other docents in an effort to expose and educate the public about why we should preserve this gem of an area.
The strategy worked. Eventually, with public pressure, Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon 
pushed legislation through Congress in 1996 before he retired forming the Opal Creek Wilderness Area. The Shiny Rock Mining Company deeded over their holdings to the Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center whose mission it is to educate children and others on the value of old growth forests.
Today it is a sanctuary for many including myself and a myriad of flora and fauna. Walking through this forest cathedral, the four of us absorbed the healing power of nature and our souls were washed clean, at least for a while, from the cascades of Opal Creek.
It was good to know, there is still beauty in this world.
There is Still beauty in this World
Seek it in the wild forests
Where the only news you will hear
Are the songs of birds
And the shatter of chipmunks
Let the music of cascading waters
Soothe your soul
As you tread in a green world
Lined with lush moss, rocks, and ferns
A winding trail beneath your feet
When you look up through
The cathedral of conifer branches
And the stained glass window of the vine maples in their sunset hues
Know that nature will endure
Beyond the world of man
No matter what rut you’re in, creative or otherwise, the only way to escape is by momentum. Whether it be a running start with or without an external assist (think tow truck) as in a class. Here is a free tow truck- watch the Mel Robbins’ Ted Talk. She is a good motivator.
After a bit of a dry spell this summer (literally and figuratively), I decided to take the sage wisdom of other creatives and just SHOW-UP. Anything is better than being miserable. So I have been just showing up to my studio with no great inspiration, choosing to do whatever caught my fancy. “Junk collage” started me off, then I joined an informal mosaic group on Monday mornings that a friend of mine started. Then
there is nothing like SIGNING UP. I have a couple of holiday shows now I need to create for. Deadlines are a great motivator. I bought a new bag of clay and I’m ready to go.
Creative dry spells are no fun. There is a certain desperation and despair about these times. But just like being physically out of shape, the only way to get in creative shape is to start moving. It’s uncomfortable at first and discouraging to begin again. Creative muscles get sore too. That means baby steps. Show up 10 minutes a day if that’s all you have in you and work up to more.
I’m not making masterpieces here, but I am making, and making is when I’m happiest.
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