Showing posts with label butterflies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label butterflies. Show all posts

Friday, September 30, 2011

paintings and nature magic

This is an old friend I wanted to update you on. I started the "quadropus" when I was in North Carolina. So it has been a long process so far. I just wanted to give you a little pictorial tour of the changes its been through.
This orange phase was the under painting. I like do do under painting so that when I paint the final colors on top some of the colors underneath can show through.
 This Phase was the background painting. You can see some of the orange pokes thru the green blue background. If you could see this in person the orange is very firy and red like a burning sunset.
 I had a hard time trying to decide how to finish this one. I paint relatively fast and I tend to not have a whole lot of patience for tedious details. (which is kind of ironic...) I ended up having a lightening strike moment. I do have patience for embroidery and its tiny details. So of course I had to put them together!

I remember having a distinct vision of what the little suction cups would look like when they got embroidered. I have a clear vision for a few of the other details as well. The quadropus is a work in progress very slow progress! I love it!

This monarch I just recently finished. He (yes its a he!) sat patiently as I tended to sewing. I actually originally didn't like how the background had turned out so I set him aside. (do we see a pattern here... apparently my paintings need time outs before they get finished!) I felt so happy as I painted the wings. I could just feel the joy pouring from my heart. 

This is my little Goldfinch friend. She came about right after the monarch. I had her drawn on the piece of hard board and just went straight to it after the monarch. 

She was a visitor about a month ago, she came to visit me 3 times (did i tell you this?) right before I headed to the Midwest Shamanic Gathering. I looked up what she meant in my Animal Speak book, and in short she was awakening me to the Nature Spirits. I was so excited! When I say she visited me she landed on my window twice, barely gripping to the trim on the outside as she peered inside. The first occasion I was singing in the shower and stepped out of the bathroom still singing and she was perched there listening. The second morning i was sitting on my pillow meditating and I heard a small noise on the window, she had come back again! The third visit I was talking with my uncle in the living room and saw a flutter high in the window sure enough she was there! 

A day or so before this all had happened I had discovered an old feather I had found while in California. It was crumpled and kinked up from being smashed in a pocket in my backpack. I showed it to my squeeze and we both determined that it was probably a turkey feather. I set it on my window sill (yep the same window where Goldfinch landed!). After my visits with Goldfinch I took the feather and others with me to the Shamanic Gathering, where they lay in a net in my tent all weekend. On Friday night I attended a sweat lodge, which was amazing! That night I had a glowing vision of feathers as if backlit by a bright white light. I scratched out a picture and proceeded to be serenaded by a thunderstorm all night. Then on Monday when I was packing up my things I pulled out my feathers and as I grabbed my 'turkey' feather my first thought was that it looked like a hawk feather, and my second realization was that it look like it was in almost perfect condition! Over the weekend the feather had been healed. The extra funny thing was that I hadn't touched it all weekend! I wish I had a before picture, it had at least 2 kinks in it and was bent into a "c' shape.


Happy Nature magic! Keep your eyes open it's happening all the time!

Much Love!

L
And I almost forgot! Check out my Etsy shop there are a few new listings!!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Messengers


I feel I have always had what I call a soft spot for animals whether they are two, four, six or even eight or million legged. They capture my attention and fascinate me....beautiful beings. I have started to learn they are bearers of messages. Reminders for us to be aware. Reminders and guides. Their intelligence is not one from books it's inherent, intuitive and wise. I don't feel yet I can share with you their magic maybe soon. For now I will share my encounters.


Butterflies


I met this beautiful Monarch at a butterfly house at Beaver Creek Reserve. It wasn't the best day for butterflies I was told. Of course I decided to venture out anyway. I locked right onto this one struggling on a plastic sign cover. I stretched my hand out and it crawled right on. We spent quite some time together before it decided to fly over to a nearby milkweed plant. I remember the great sense of power I felt as it crawled on my hand. For such a weightless creature it had an incredible grasp!

Red Spotted Purple
This is another friend from the butterfly house. I collected another of its kind in my garage. My mom had pulled out her car to give it a scrub, and in its place were two treasures. One perfect little Pink Edged Sulfur and a Red Spotted Purple, who was a little worse for the wear. They unfortunately had met their end, though I touched the Purple and it began to flap its wing, slowly open and closed. I stayed and watched quietly as my parents shuffled about, my dad peering over obviously wondering what I was doing. I showed him the flapping butterfly. He commented something about a butterfly healer haha. I would be so honored! After I was sure the Purple had passed I picked them up and inspected. I couldn't believe the Purple had been able to flap...only had one good pair of wings on one side the other side was crumpled as well as I believe it was missing many organs....a special moment.


Aphrodite Fritillary
 I was out for a bike ride with my Auntie the other day, and of course as always had my animal spotting eyes on. After about 10 miles I hadn't noticed much. Then on my way down the hill I saw what I thought may be a Swallowtail traipsing in its bouncing flight pattern across the road. I sailed closer just to  have a friendly collision on my shirt. It really didn't seem to noticed and continued on his way. We should all be so calm and accepting of surprise situations!

Cope's Gray Treefrog
This little friend my mom found hanging out on our house. Just a little bigger than a quarter.

This is my parents resident Gray Fox. It lives in the back yard, we've seen it often leaving the den and returning about two hours later near dusk sometimes with prey. So beautiful. My dad also had a Fox and pups living under a shed at his auto shop! Maybe he has a fox totem animal? They sure seem to like him. I let my dog Jack outside one morning about 4:30 am and heard the strangest "Arf" noise...it was the fox with its territorial call!


Jack also woke me up early to see the mist burning off the lake. He's a great friend :)

Have you experienced any animal magic lately or do you have a totem animal? I would love to hear about it!

xoxo
L


Friday, August 5, 2011

The Cascades: Virginia. Trip two.

Still just as beautiful as the first time. This time I had my big camera...

The butterfly is taking flight!

Justine was excellent at finding caterpillars and taming butterflies!





 The Rhododendrons had such beautiful light falling on them.

When I got to look back on these photos I felt such a sense of calm. The Cascades is such a serene place, happy soothing vibes. 

Bidding you some happy soothing peaceful vibes 
xoxo much love :)

Friday, July 1, 2011

slack packing and building demolition

hi.
Well, I just arrived in DC, where I shall meet up with my Auntie Jolene and Uncle Kelly, their son Adam and their foreign exchange student Christian (Who is from Chile) And also where I am updating from! Anywho stay tuned for those adventures next....onto the adventure recap

SLACKPACKING!!! yup, for those of you who don't know, this Appalachian Trail (AT) term it means as a Thru Hiker you have your heavy backpack toted to town by car and you take a daypack and some agua on the trail. More like a day hike.

This was the awesome crew that convinced me it would be rad to hike to town with them. And it was. 10 miles in 5 or so hours left my knees feelin' decrepit and my side butt sore for a couple days! IT ROCKED Thanks crew! You can keep up with what's left of this crew here at Wren's Blog.

From left to right: Neard, Old Spice, Lauren, Wren, Josiah, So Far, and Birch
We trekked thru some awesome Rhododendron forests (I love that word because it sounds like a dinosaur! You can guarantee I was holding my arms t-rex style as I bounced on thru) and saw some awesome Mountain Laurel flowers...that I didn't photograph. I encourage you to google it...ha Ooh and a Scarlet Tanager, electric red feathers!

This was an overlook entitled "Power Lines" where we stopped to have a snack and pee on stuff! (I've really come to enjoy peeing outside...its just so convenient lol!) What a fun group.  Magic Mix is the one with blue hair who picked up a kitten in Demascus, Va and is now hiking with him. The kitten's name is Sir. Night Walker is the other man on the right who enjoyed my "slow"pace until he commented about it!


The Deconstruction Project
Ranger Cabin Before Shot
Sunlight on an old mattress
I strolled into the cabin after carefully maneuvering the rusty nail obstacle course of a deck and found a treasure inside. Im not sure if I can describe to you why I love such old and dilapidated things. They just have such a profound stillness perhaps, they have just been there still, enduring the weather not wanting just there.


Shad, Neville and Michael taking it to the roof!

Evan or "Easy" ripping off the siding. 
A butterfly visitor.

Aumakua with her stick of course...
she has an addiction...
Michael throwing popcorn!
It looks like its in his beard!

Rocky and Bookworm
The wrecking crew back row:
Aumakua, Scrubbs, Easy/Evan Bookworm, Shad/Scar, Five Stones
Front Row:
Neville, Michael, Rocky, and myself

All in all it took us 3 days to take down the old ranger cabin. I was on the de-nail crew. Which at some points I was not entirely thrilled with, but it was still really fun! Evan tore down the old privy too, and now all the wood we saved from that has been turned into siding for the pig pen! There should be three new little piggies to meet when I get back to the hostel!