Season of unknowing

I’d taken the entire month of February as a “news media fast.”

It has been staggering to tune back in the last few weeks. I can barely get my mind around what we are in the midst of at the moment.

My eighty-year-old father who was born into a world on the brink of world war, a marine during the Cuban missile crisis, survived cancer and was one of the lucky ones at the World Trade Center told me he hasn’t seen anything like this in his lifetime.

I’ve been hopscotching through thoughts and feelings. Everything from keeping positive to a pounding in my heart. I’ve been waking up with such a surreal feeling. Each day the count goes higher and the wave of uncertainty keeps rolling towards us. At the same time, the birds are singing with all their might and green things are finding their way back to the light.

There will be a before and there will be an after. This is the uncharted now. This is the season of unknowing.

I’ve collected some photos of one of the Eden Experiment paintings to share with you and here are some hellebores I picked from my garden because it really is Spring…May you be well in all things! 

“One of the most important steps you can take to help calm the storm is to not allow yourself to be taken in a flurry of overwrought emotion or despair – thereby accidentally contributing to the swale and the swirl. Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.
Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely.
It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts – adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take “everyone on Earth” to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.
…One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

International Women’s Day!

“A woman’s creative ability is her most valuable asset, for it gives outwardly and it feeds her inwardly at every level: psychic, spiritual, mental, emotive, and economic.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

In celebration of International Women’s Day! I’d like to introduce you to the musical woman of the Fairmount String Quartet…Beth Dzwil, Leah Kyoungwoon Kim, Rachel Segal, and Mimi Morris-Kim!

I had the honor of having my art displayed at their performances this past February.

I have zero musical abilities and honestly always felt a little intimidated by classical music. Silly! I know! I think it’s because I had never been to a classical concert. I’ve so enjoyed listening to and watching these musicians play together. There is something meditative about sitting down and just listening.

Beth Dzwil says she formed the group because “I wanted to spend my life's work doing what I loved.” Below is a short interview in which she shares more of her passion.

---

What do you love about performing together?
The mutual love, respect, support, and trust we have for each other as musicians - and as people - make it easy to work together to develop our interpretation of a work. It creates a safe place for us to be vulnerable musically and that's when the magic happens.

What’s one thing you want people who aren’t familiar with classical music to know about it?
Like all music, classical music speaks to our common humanity. The emotions, joys, and struggles that existed hundreds of years ago are the same as today.
Classical music isn't all old. Classical genre music being written today uses a fascinating, wide palette of sounds and harmonic colors. You don't need to "know" anything about classical music for it to speak to you. Have no fear!

Any fun/interesting facts about Haydn, Schubert or Caroline Shaw that you would like to share?
Haydn is considered the father of the string quartet. The Haydn quartet we are playing on this program, written in 1799, was the inspiration for the Shaw work that was written in 2011.  Schubert was already suffering the effects of syphilis that would take his life four years later (at age 31) when he wrote "Death and the Maiden". It is based on a song he wrote about 10 years previously. The lyrics are a conversation as Death bids the dying maiden to come rest in his arms. It is a riveting and passionate work and is considered one of the masterpieces of the string quartet literature.

What is your favorite venue for a performance?
We have been enjoying the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. The sound is beautiful and so are the surroundings!

When is your next album being released?
We are hoping for a late summer/early fall release. It has been a challenge to fit recording sessions around our performance schedules. Our previous album, "Spoken with Strings", was all pop music which was great fun! This album is more classical with flavors of different cultures. It will likely be titled "Not From Here".

---

Happy International Women’s Day!

more info at The Fairmount String Quartet

Cosmic Lace: Serenity, oil on canvas, will be on view for the April performances

Under a Yellow Sky

As I’ve been watching and waiting for this painting to dry. I thought a title would surface from that mysterious well of my unconscious. It took a long while. The unconscious is slow-moving. I sit wrapped in my wool sweater listening to the February wind spit rain from fog and fast-moving clouds. And, something bubbles up.

The words “under a yellow sky.”

I know I heard this line from somewhere…but where?

I’m thinking… a David Gray song. No that’s not it…Ah! Alexi Murdock pops into my mind! Since both are excellent singer-songwriters it doesn’t surprise me that I’ve mixed them up.

A little google search leads me to the song I’m thinking of. It turns out I actually have the line wrong. It’s “beneath an orange sky.” This is also no surprise to me. I’m notorious for “improvising” with lyrics because I obviously have a terrible memory. (I don’t let that stop me. I sing along anyway:)

This painting is the last of the “Sea Change” series that I’ve been working on for over a year now. The yellow and details are both intense.

The series is inspired by the phrase “sea change.”

I’m intrigued by both the idea of the immense energy it would take to shift a sea and the play on words of “see-change.” I’m thinking more metaphor for emotional waves and connection to inner vision. That mysterious soul strength that carries us forward. 

This time of year when winter is half over but spring is still out of reach I feel a sense of waiting. A longing for that energy of “sea change" to lift me like a wave. Roll me under a yellow sky.

---

“Well I had a dream
I stood beneath an orange sky
Yes I had a dream
I stood beneath an orange sky
With my brother standing by
With my brother standing by
I said Brother, you know you know
It’s a long road we’ve been walking on
Brother you know it is you know it is
Such a long road we’ve been walking on”

— Alexi Murdoch

---

---

“So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that  further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in Miracles and cures
and healing wells.”

— Seamus Heaney

---

The edge of spring is still a ways off but I’m keeping my eyes open for signs. In the meantime…loving the yellow throat of this giant white crocus from last year!

Till next time! Enjoy the weekend all you art lovers:)

PS

This painting will be available for the Open Studio tour in May.

24” x 48”, oil on canvas

Follow along on Instagram

It’s a new year and I’ve been focused on getting this new website up and running!

These kinds of administrative projects always end up being more work then I imagine at the beginning. My hope is that this new platform will free up my time a bit so I can post more in 2020! At the moment I’m still working out all the details building this site. While I’m getting things in order here I’ve been sharing over on Instagram, a “work in progress/follow along” for a new series of paintings called “The Spectrums.” You can check it out at @siobhan_bedford