APRIL FOOL

This photo is me as the fool a few years back. Actually... in my balloon delivery business... I called this character Jessie the Jester. Of course a jester is a fool, and the number 0 is my favorite card in the Tarot. It suits me don't you think, "The Fool"? The image was manipulated with Photoshop filters to make it look more like a painting. Many old friends have seen this photo before and it resides on my web site Through My Window with a slightly different version of the poem. I could use some help on this verse. If anyone has any suggestions, I am open to critiques. I like the internal rhyme, but something doesn't seem quite right with it as a whole. Could be the tense... could be just a word or two that still need changed.


Say Cheese

Seeing a being needing some freeing
From a saddened thought that was never sought

I borrow a frown from a bluish clown
Try hard to coerce the lips to reverse

Mark it the target to take a good hit
Contagious, I send the grand healing grin

Learning to turn a face scowled with concern
Into a sequence of wrinkles that beam

Beguile for a while with a painted smile
Planning that after, will bloom true laughter


-VCW

Eye to Eye with Jack

I just can't seem to get into a groove with my book. I have spent a great deal of time lately on my older art... formatting it for the "Art Message Cards" that I am creating for my site on YouPublish. Of course "Patchwork Faces of the Moon" is always in the back of my mind mulling around and picking up inspiration from some of my more psychic dreams. They have picked up again.

As does much of my other art, this "Solar Animal Series" has a very other-worldly or dream-world look to it. I decided to post some larger animal images at YouPublish which folks can print themselves. Most of the cards are only $2.00 a download. Some are free. I also have some free photographic art images for this "Solar Animal Series." I noted my favorite online service with each image.

This photo was taken at an exotic animal reserve near Kampwood Texas. The subject's name is Jack, and his girlfriend's name is Jill. I think he was trying to make her jealous, because he was really flirting with me that day. He kept dipping his head down so that I could touch him. A giraffe's head is ... really ... big. Anyway... This file can be purchased and downloaded from my new site at YouPublish.

I am enjoying working again with my art, but feel a grinding expectation in my heart to get back into the progression of my book. I'm just trying to make a little money and art as I go. I will probably add the "Redbird Series" to the cards soon and maybe even make some cards from the "Solar Animals" too. Right now, they are just offered in the more expensive downloads.

Happy Valentine's Day

I can't believe that it is the middle of February, and I didn't even make a post in January. I guess I remembered the New Years Haiga as being done in that month. I have been creating more Art Message Cards for my account at YouPublish. This is a more unusual one. I have a lot of sweet and funny cards that could be all occasion. Several are FREE. Check it out. I will add a link in the side bar, but here is the address. VCW's Original Art Message Cards- https://www.youpublish.com/people/3685

Haiga Christmas Card and New Year's Greeting

New Year's Tanka

we turn to year's end
remember droplets of life
waves moving from pebbles tossed
time circles once again
seeking the center

-VCW
December 2008

My Art For IASD 2008

I had a nice time visiting the International Association of the Study of Dreams in their cyber conference which ended the 5th of October. There was wonderful art and lots of great workshops and informative papers and lively conversation on the threads. I entered five pieces of art, each with a dream verse-- dreamku or series. I decided that I should display a couple of them here since they all have to do with dreaming and may subsequently be included in Patchwork Faces of the Moon or one of the sequels that I plan.

Piercing Eyes

Piercing Eyes is a good example of how creating art can help you focus on your dreamwork. After I started manipulating photos of myself in Photoshop's Image/Adjust/Curves ... It didn't look much like me anymore. I thought ... I know that face though ... it looks Native American ... I have seen it in my dreams. It is the face of a man, and in my dreams he is dressed rather like anyone might be, so I don't know exactly how I know that he is American Indian. He does seem to be wearing long hair in a pony tail. He is never a main player in my dreams, but a reoccurring extra ... so to speak. I started remembering him only after I saw his face in my art. Then I recalled him lingering around in the peripheral of my dreamscape. I hardy ever notice him in my dreams ... but remember him on awakening. I think he is a good guy. Maybe an ancestor trying to get my attention and guide me. He does look a little like me ... in a strange-colored dream-altered kind of way.

piercing eyes
quiet mixed blood holds
proud Cherokee traits

I should mention that I am part Cherokee, albeit only about an eighth.

Tree Watcher

Tree Watcher is a reflection of many dreams I experience where everything seems more real than reality. Things are clearer, poignant, alive -- rather like Alice in Wonderland meets Bilbo Baggins.

The message is a Dreamku series. Dreamku is a form of verse akin to Haiku. Most rules apply, but being dream-based verse, these phrases try to capture a moment in a dream. As a series, the verse may encapsulate several moments, but each separate three-line stanza should stand on it’s on. Many of you will remember Patricia Kelly from her workshop last year. I have worked with her all year by email and in her Yahoo group, Dreamjin, learning the art of Dreamku. It is an excellent tool for dream exploration an often cuts to the core of the dream when you are searching for that perfect word.

past and future
beneath your sentinel gaze
collisions abound

like heat waves
our lives mere shimmers
ancient eyes blink

human echoes trace
heat rising fast to heaven
you frozen between

Check out my VCW Original Art Message Cards at YouPublish.com

Dreamku Haiga - Ink Blots #4

This is the last 'Ink Blots' image variation that will be put up. If you are so inclined, please comment on which one you like the best. Remember ... I am working on enlarging the text size of the Dreamku in #1 and #2. My friend Patricia Kelly mentioned that the word 'beyond' kept replacing the word 'behind' as she read the dreamku. After rolling it around in my mind for a few minutes, I decided that it did have a more etheric sound in this verse, so I went with it.

NOTE: If you do not have a g-blogger ID, please sign your comments, so that I will know some one stopped by besides anonymous.

Thanks -VCW

Dreamku Haiga - Ink Blots #3

This is my favorite and closest to the dream vision from which the dreamku came.

Dreamku Haiga - Ink Blots #2

This is the same image as below with color add from Photoshops image-mode-duotone. I chose a tritone.

Dreamku Haiga - Ink Blots #1

Three ink blot doors
Each one closer to me
A man passes behind

I created this art to go with the dreamku that is with it. I didn't get the exact image that was my dream, but I gave it a try since it was something that I could reproduce with photography fairly easy. I may experiment more with these images and add a few variations. -VCW

Moonlit Memories

Study of a Red Bird Through My Window

This series of photographic art with verse is an experiment. I know of someone who makes a living selling greeting cards that she designs. I just thought that I would try my hand, since I love making photographic art and writing poetry. I am new at these short verse styles, but I love them. I hope to get better before I even think of marketing some version of these cards. These are some of my new haiku, senryu and tanka.(Maybe I should say haiku-like, senryu-like and tanka-like.) Critiques welcome. Keep in mind that the verse was written for the image.

Mesmerized and Peeping Nervously

Swooping In

Seasons Fly

Christen Your Wings

Corner of an Old Photograph

Twist of Fire and Feathers Flaming