Lyrical Thursdays, Illustrated

OK, so I missed yesterday...  To make up for it, I thought I'd share some "illustrations" I did for the haikus I wrote last week.  They're really not the best (the Doctor one is my favorite), but I had fun messing around in PhotoShop to make them.  Enjoy!!

Lyrical Thursdays: Haiku!

Happy (Friday) Thursday, everyone!  OK, so a 10 hour workday yesterday and meeting last night prevented me from getting this post up yesterday.  So let's all just pretend it's still Thursday, even though TGIF, eh, mack?!  

Wednesday was National Haiku Poetry Day!! Haiku has been around for a millennium in Japan, and is often appreciated for its simplicity.  

The 5-7-5 format is easily recognizable, and kids and adults alike can get into the spirit of National Poetry Month by composing their own.  

Not all haiku follow the 5-7-5 format, actually, which gets the perfectionist in me really prickly, but I'm trying not to be a haiku snob. Here are a few famous (and old) examples:

An old silent pond...

A frog jumps into the pond,

splash! Silence again.

A flash of lightning:
Into the gloom
Goes the heron's cry.

by Basho (1644-1694)

Over the wintry

forest, winds howl in  rage
with no leaves to blow.

by Soseki (1275-1351)

Here are a few I wrote.  Warning: I'm a big nerd and some of mine are nerd-inspired. 

The Doctor and friend
Travel all through time and space
In the blue TARDIS

Agatha spins tales
With Poirot and Miss Marple
Solving mysteries

Yummy warm cookie
Chocolate chips melting and
Filling me with smiles

Road Trip!!!!

Last Thursday I did something that I love to do: I took a road trip!  Sadly, my road trip meant no Lyrical Thursdays post, but I'll be back on this week, no worries. (I know how you all worry.)

The road trip I took was to beautiful....historic....Kirtland, Ohio!!!  That may have been rather anticlimactic for some of you if you've never heard of Kirtland, Ohio, and to be fair, it is a very small town.  But in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (of which I am a member), Kirtland is a pretty big deal.

In the early days of our church (the 1830s and after), the Saints (as members of our church are called) moved around quite a bit.  Sadly it wasn't usually by choice, it was a necessity for their safety as they were often persecuted and even given extermination notices to leave certain areas.

In the midst of all of this turmoil, amazing things were happening.  The gospel was being shared, temples were built, and revelations received to guide the church members in what they should do.  There are a lot of accounts of what happened in Palmyra, New York; Kirtland, Ohio; Jackson County Missouri; and Nauvoo, Illinois, and the church maintains sites in these cities to allow members be able to walk the very paths early church members once trod and learn from the history that happened there.

For me, trips to these places have many purposes.  First, I LOVE a good road trip!!  Finding treasures as you trek to new places (or miss your exit and get off at the next one and discover the birthplace of President Garfield!), eating snacks you only ever buy for road trips, listening to audio books in the car...  Love it.  Second, I LOVE history.  It's so fascinating!!!  Yes it can be dull in the wrong hands, but in the right ones, it's SO good.

Third, I love the spirit that is felt in historic places, and especially church history places.  Miracles happened there!!  It's hallowed ground!  I could go on, but wanted to include some photos from my trip.  I might really like taking artsy photos of old timey things, so you can just scroll past those.  ;)

The Kirtland Temple

The Newel K. Whitney Store

Moi!

The School of the Prophets in the Whitney Store

Dining Room upstairs in the Whitney Store

Storage Barrels

Mail at the Whitney Store

Baskets at the Whitney Store

Kitchen at the Whitney Store

Bible in the Whitney Home

Johnson Inn

Along the River

Looking from the Visitor's Center towards the Whitney Store

Birthplace of James A. Garfield!

"We'd all like to flee to 'the Cleve'." - Jack Donaughy, 30 Rock

Lyrical Thursdays: Warm Summer Sun

Here in Michigan, winter has held on like a baby to long hair - with a vice grip that can be painful at times.  (Is that a weird analogy?)  Today it was finally one of those spring days where all you want to do is sit outside in the warm sun in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops, even though it's only 55 degrees.  But come on, after 20-30 degree weather for weeks on end, 55 is practically tropical. 

To celebrate the day, I took a little road trip - to Hell, Michigan.  It's only about 25 miles or so from where I live, and not too much past Dexter, where my show is up currently.  Since I had to go fix a frame at the show, I thought I'd just keep going!  I'll write more about my trip to Hell in the next few days (for a preview, you can look at my tweets about it on the side of my blog), but both the warm sun and the metaphorical warmth of actual Hell (Hell, MI is still defrosting after this frigid winter) made me decide to choose this painting and poem for today.  Both are in the Dexter show (which you should go check out!).  I'll include below the blurb I have next to the painting as well as, of course, the poem.

Encaustic painting is the use of heated beeswax with colored pigments added.  When painting with the beeswax, it can become quite warm, as the wax has to be melted and reheated over and over to gain the desired effect.  All of this heat made me think of the warmth of the sun, and this poem by Mark Twain.  I tried to bring the tendrils of warm colors up through the cool blue to reach out to those who need it so much after the sharp, bitter cold of winter.

Warm Summer Sun

Mark Twain

Warm summer sun,

Shine kindly here,

Warm southern wind,

Blow softly here.

Green sod above,

Lie light, light light.

Good night, dear heart,

Good night, good night.

Warm Summer Sun by Moi
Encaustic on Panel

Lyrical Thursdays: I Dwell In Possibility

Happy Thursday, everyone!!

As I mentioned briefly in my post last week, I've been super duper busy lately and haven't had much free time.  A majority of my time has been spent preparing for an exhibit of a number of my paintings (33, to be exact) in nearby Dexter, Michigan's new(ish) library.  I'm really excited to have all of these paintings up (and out of storage) - and to be able to share them outside of my website and blog!

Around half of the paintings in this show are poetry paintings, many of which have been featured in my Lyrical Thursdays posts, and some of which you'll be seeing in upcoming weeks.  I took a number of pictures today in the hopes of sharing one of them on here, but the photos weren't the best, so I think I'll hold off until next week.  For now, I'll share a short poem by Emily Dickinson that I was thinking about today:

657

I dwell in Possibility-

A fairer House than Prose-

More numerous of Windows-

Superior-for Doors-

Of Chambers as the Cedars-

Impregnable of Eye-

And for an Everlasting Roof

The Gambrels of the Sky-

Of Visitors-the fairest-

For Occupation-This-

The spreading wide my narrow Hands

To gather Paradise-

c. 1862

It was very motivating for me to prepare everything for this show!  I felt possibilities open up before me as an artist, and that is always a good thing.  It's easy to become discouraged when we face trials and hard times (which these last weeks have been - very stressful!!), but it's better to dwell in Possibility, in what can be, and use that to push us forward!

I'll share more about the show soon, but for now, it's sleep and recovery time!  

Happy Easter!!

Lyrical Thursdays: Limericks

In honor of last weekend's St. Patrick's Day celebrations, I thought it'd be fun to post some limericks.  I actually found a website with clean limericks, which aren't always the norm...  I chose a few of my favorites to share here, and would LOVE it if you wrote one and shared it in the comments!!  Here's my attempt, which describes me lately:

There once was a girl so busy, 
Her head was getting real dizzy.

She had paintings and prose

From her head to her toes

And hair that often was frizzy.

If this post is a little short, it's only because I'm so busy with other creative endeavors that I don't have time for much more this week. Those endeavors will be explained in next week's Lyrical Thursdays, so get excited! 

Happy Thursday!


There once was a man named Hall
Who died in the spring in the fall.
'Twould have been a sad thing
Had he died in the spring
But he didn't, he died in the fall.
—Contributed by Bill Pellow

There once was a musical hobo
Who strung four strings on his oboe.
Said he, "With these strings,
This thing really sings!
I both blow and bow on my oboe."
—Original limerick by Dave Reckoning

Flappity, floppity, flip,
The mouse on the Moebius strip.
The strip revolved,
The mouse dissolved
In a chronodimensional skip.
—Contributed by John Field

There once was a man from Peru
Whose limericks stopped at line two.
—Contributed by John Field

There was a young woman named Bright
Whose speed was much faster than light.
She set out one day
In a relative way,
And returned on the previous night.
—Geri Taran

There was a young man from Japan
who's limericks never would scan.
When asked why this was,
he said: "Tis because
I always try and put as many words in the last line as I possibly can."
—From Barbara Sohngen, Amsterdam

A tongue-twister limerick!
A flea and fly in a flue,
Were imprisoned so what could they do?
Said the flea let us fly.
Said the fly let us flee.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
—Contributed by Paul Ogden, Israel

Another tongue-twister limerick!
A tutor who tooted a flute,
Tried to tutor two tooters to toot.
Said the two to the tutor,
"Is it harder to toot, or
To tutor two tooters to toot?" 
—Submitted by Chris DeSantis

(Please record yourself reading these last two out loud and send me the video, would ya? I could use a good chuckle...)  :D

Lyrical Thursdays: Pure Imagination

This week's Lyrical Thursdays was inspired by an awesome experience I had last Saturday.  A friend of mine was in town visiting, and we went with my older sister into Detroit to meet up with her friends at the Redford Theater.  It's an old theater, the last of the old cinemas of its kind in Detroit, and is really beautiful!

The movie we saw was "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and BONUS, the actors who played Charlie Bucket and Mike Teevee were there!!!!  All grown up!!!  (Charlie pointed out that the stretching machine clearly worked, because Mike Teevee is normal sized again...)  ;)

The theater was all decorated with Willy Wonka-esque decorations - funky balloons, big candy (not real), candy for sale (real, and necessary - it's impossible to watch that movie and not eat candy, especially chocolate), etc.  (Also, the candy, popcorn, and drinks there are all reasonably priced!!!  It was amazing to be able to buy candy for $1, pop for $1.50, and popcorn for about the same.  Take THAT big, overpriced theaters...)

Before the movie started, there was a guy playing all of the songs from the movie on the organ there in the theater.  He was so good!!

Plus, Charlie and Mike (alias Peter Ostrum and Paris Themmen), along with a guy dressed up like Willy Wonka (sadly not Gene Wilder), came on stage before the movie and during the intermission and talked about their experiences making the movie and memories from on set.  (My sister wrote more about that on her blog, which you can read here.)

The movie watching experience there was great!  Everyone in the audience was so engaged, gasping and clapping when (spoiler alert) Charlie found the golden ticket, and laughing at all of Gene Wilder's crazy antics.  (Seriously, that movie is realllly weird! But awesome!!!)  I loved every minute of it.*  

So, in honor of this experience, I thought I'd share the lyrics (and a video) of my favorite song from the movie - "Pure Imagination."  I love the words in the chorus: "If you want to view paradise/Simply look around and view it/Anything you want to, do it/Wanta change the world?/There's nothing/To it."  What a great message for kids (of all ages...) to hear!

Enjoy, and Happy Thursday!


Pure Imagination

Willy Wonka:
[Spoken]
Hold your breath
Make a wish
Count to three

[Sung]
Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of
Pure imagination
Take a look
And you'll see
Into your imagination

We'll begin
With a spin
Traveling in
The world of my creation
What we'll see
Will defy
Explanation

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanta change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly wish to be

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanta change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly
Wish to be

Composed by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley

*Disclaimer!!!  I know that you're probably way jealous after reading all about this, and are really cheesed off that I didn't invite you.  In my defense, I had no idea going into it that it would be this amazing! Next time, I promise I'll let you know.  And you.