Mark Johnson Art Blog Wonder & Whimsy
Whale Dream is something I’ve been wanting to visit for a while now. There ought to be a few drawings I can pull out of this general theme. This one is the first - 17″ x 23″ finished size.
Just for the heck of it, I’m putting a photo of the piece as it currently sits on the easel in my studio. The clamps that are holding the (well sanded) wood strips on either side of the plexiglass drawing board allow me to easily move my mahl stick to any orientation while I’m working.
… Read more W.I.P. Whale Dream drawing
“You don’t need another human being to make your life complete, but let’s be honest. Having your wounds kissed by someone who doesn’t see them as disasters in your soul but cracks to put their love into is the most calming thing in this world.† Emery AllenÂ
A healing balm for a lover is life’s true blessing.
Today I am staying clear of the bellicosity entailed in the January 20, 2017 Washington DC inauguration of  Trump. For me up here in my own little Canadian world I stay warm with thoughts of all the wonderful ways my Lady blesses my life 🙂
… Read more Quotes I’m Sharing 4 – Wounds and Love
Vision
“If the doors of perception were cleansed,
everything would appear to man as it is,
infinite.â€Â
William Blake
Our lack of sight defines us.
That definition of ourselves is constantly refined and outright changed by scientists, physicists and mathematicians, by philosophers, writers and artists. Their work shows us what we don’t see, where we lack sight. They make visible the negative spaces and dark matter and energy that interweave what we think is the whole of the perceivable universe.
… Read more Quotes I’m Sharing – 3 – Vision
We are continuous with the universe. This seems so obvious, and yet easy so very easy to be oblivious to. A fault I share, a reminder I am glad to get.
“You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.â€
Alan Watts. Philosopher, writer
… Read more Quotes I’m Sharing – 2 – We are continuous
The long view. The big picture. A slice of reality that gives context to the larger reality that we are ripples on the intersection of the infinite seas called Deep Space and Deep Time.
.
“Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust.
… Read more Quotes I’m Sharing – 1
A canal viewed from my hotel room window – Beijing sketch
I was lucky enough to accompany my Lady to Beijing this past November while she was there on business. A couple of Beijing sketches are the proof of that. It takes 12 timezones and 13 hours in the air to get to Beijing. Which actually means you land within minutes of takeoff but the next day when heading to Beijing. When coming home we landed within a few minutes of departure of the very same day –
… Read more Beijing Sketches
there is a wellspring deep within me that will replenish itself continuously – a wellspring that raises up it’s own inexplicable yet significant gifts for me to try to clarify and express using innate talent and nurtured skill sets
The Neolithic misogyny that requires absolute power and control over women instead of attempting even a modicum of self control is a characteristic of the destructive, backwards Fundamentalist mindset that infects billions of people world wide.
I had an image of an Earth Mother type figure that acted as the central engine of life. A flow of light and energy and spirit that fills everything, guided by the organizing principal that seems to be what life is, weaving ever-more widely reaching possibilities out of the materials at hand and creating the wonders that we share in as living creatures.
I wasn’t sure just how a painting of this would come together, but I at least had an idea of what it would look like.
… Read more Sky Drop
There has been a shift, somehow, in ages past that has resulted in this place I now stand. I sometimes wonder what is the real place I am standing in. Is my perspective limited in some way? Ought I shift my viewpoint in order to really see what is around me?
