Celebrating Mid-Spring, Beltain, Studio Update

It is hard to believe we have arrived at the mid point of Spring, for many of us the sweetest most favorite evening of the year tomorrow, May Eve, Beltain, and the beginning of the light half of the year. It is a joyful time to give a surprise bouquet to loved ones. This lilac picture is my bouquet for you.  And click here for a video, Full Circle Tour of Lilac Lane April 20, 2015 Sunwise Farm & Sanctuary. It is kind of long, but we just couldn’t stop filming the thousands of blossoms exuding their fragrant invitation to linger and love the sight of them along with the innocent sound of birdsong. Perhaps in our life time someone will invent a way to layer the sense of smell onto the visual, audio levels.

Happy May Eve Lilacs, Kathleen O'Brien
Happy May Eve Lilacs, Kathleen O’Brien

 


 Sunwise Celebrations Event

 May 5 from 1 – 4

Next Tuesday, I host master gardener, Fox Hutt for Spiritual Gardening, a Sunwise Celebrations event for springtime. She has an inspiring presentation with photos from her extraordinary gardens. I will share about working with nature spirits to create sanctuary. You take home ideas, crystals we found in Arkansas, seeds for your gardens.

Please register by May 4!

Sunwise Celebrations, Beltain, flier detail, Kathleen O'Brien
Sunwise Celebrations, Beltain, flier detail, Kathleen O’Brien

 


Talismans – beaded jewelry and artifacts as power objects  exhibit at MS Studio/Gallery just closed. I have waited until now to add the new artifacts to this site. So if you missed the exhibit you can see everything on the art page. There is also a video and news article of the installation on this page. Since spring’s element is air, I share this Talisman for Air from the exhibit.

"Talisman for Air", MM Collage, by Kathleen O'Brien, 20 x 20"
Talisman for Air, MM Collage, by Kathleen O’Brien, 20 x 20″

 

"Talisman for Peace of Mind" detail, necklace, SOLD, by Kathleen O'Brien

Talisman for Peace of Mind, detail, moonstone and Peridot necklace, SOLD, by Kathleen O’Brien


Stan Brun,  Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, University of Kentucky asked me to write a chapter for his megabook project,  THE CHANGING WORLD LANGUAGE MAP. I was honored that he requested I write about language of art, because of my interest in scripts and my universal language.

Stan said, “It will contain original, interesting, timely, important and cutting-edge topics about language history, use, culture, conflict, instruction, policy, technology, regions and mapping.  The book will be similar in scope to my  THE CHANGING WORLD RELIGION MAP ( 5 volumes, 207 chapters) which Springer just published.  The language book, like the religion one, will include international and interdisciplinary authors and themes.  I consider both language and religion as two vastly understudied topics in the social and policy sciences and the humanities and it is my hope that both books will become the or a standard reference source for the coming decade and beyond. I look at language, language mapping and communication in very broad contexts.The book will include a section on the “language of” different fields, including science, law, architecture as well as new fields such as sustainability, security, gender studies, global warming/climate change, preservation and peacebuilding.”

This will be an amazing book coming next year!

"Scribing a Universal language", detail from "Nesting", ink, watercolor, drawing, collage 30x22", by Kathleen O'Brien

Scribing a Universal Language, detail from “Nesting”,ink,watercolor,drawing, collage 30×22″, by Kathleen O’Brien


My friend Col Mitchell, contemporary paper artist, got me excited to join Society6. It’s a very cool site where a customer can order products  derived from artwork. The example below shows a print, clock, pillow, mug and phone skin taken from “Garden of Healing” on permanent display at UK HealthCare’s new pavilion in Lexington.

A few products from "Garden of Healing" on Society6 by Kathleen O'Brien

A few products from Garden of Healing on Society6 by Kathleen O’Brien