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Happy Halloween Dogs!

A little election fun

Time for Some Campaignin' | Funny Jokes at JibJab

For the Forbidden

It is discovered that certain colors are hard to change, and that there are others more susceptible to change.

-Josef Albers

Transitional Ruddy

A really lovely day today. I spent the day with like minds following in the footsteps of my great love Fuertes. I drew a bird prepared by his hand and watched ma the crow wander outside the window as I chatted about all manner of things with some good people. I greet my next show with a renewed enthusiasm.

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.

Khalil Gibran

crabby

Yes, I think I will love Alaska
lay my body down
on soft tundra
watching the bird shadows
pass over me
I will climb to the edges of mountains
and gaze at their splendor
sift my fingers through oceans
listen to the winds
for Alaska's voice
I will walk with the swan
his white ruffled edges
my sweet Alaska
yes, I will love you
as endlessly as your lands stretch
out to greet me.

-By the Corbyhawk herself
as I loaded my paintings a hawk flew low over me flashing against the bricks of the old building. He was followed by the crows who had been conversing on the rooftops. They circled me in quick pursuit a good sign, a crow hawk moment in a rather bad day.

Spend some time in Palin's Presidential office and be sure to click around!~ Happy Friday my dears!

Ask much, the voice suggested, and I startled.
Feeling my body like the trembling body of a horse
tied to its tree while the strange noise
passes over its ears.
I who in extremity had always wanted less,
even of eating, of sleeping.
Agile the voice did not speak again, but waited.
"Want more"-
a cure for longing I had not thought of.
But that is how it is with wells.
Whatever is taken refills to the steady level.
The voice agreed, though softly, to quiet the feet of the horse:
A cup taken out, a cup reappears; a bucketful taken, a bucket.

-From Ask Much, The Voice Suggested by Jane Hirshfield

Hollerin'

Whale

tragedy was emptied for a moment from my mind, for that is the nature of such beauty-that it draws us outside of ourselves to a place beyond memory and thought, and in doing so makes us whole

-Lynn Schooler

I have been thinking about this today, a story from my history which happened over 9 years ago already. Amazing how time flies away but some things stick and shape us. I used to have a dog named Kelly, Kelly the wonder dog. She was beautiful, a reddish brown with a long face and a slight saddle black to her back. When I first got her I would walk her in a park as a puppy that was filled with fragrant lilacs. She was a great companion for me. I was in a bad relationship and I was on my way out of it. I had a great job as an executive in a company, writing and conducting software training (wild huh?but I did it). The man I lived with convinced me to move with him to this old country house and I reluctantly agreed. This was a perfect way to isolate me away from my friends and family, but I still had Kelly. He hated her and tried to convince me to get rid of her. He was jealous of my bond with her and wanted me to himself. I will never forget the late summer day when I lost her. My parents were over at the house and I was showing them the plants and trees in the yard. It was such an amazing yard. Kelly was in the kennel in the back. He let her out when I did not know. She ran out front and crossed the busy road. I yelled for her and began to run. I remember throwing whatever I had in my hands to the ground. I couldn't get her in time, a car stopped and the man tried to grab her. I screamed her name again and another car came by without even touching his brakes he struck her. I can still see her eyes hold on mine at that last second coming towards me. The soft thud as she hit, the scrape as she was rolled under the car and dragged down the road. When I found her she was already dead. It was the most horrible thing I ever seen. He was angry and blamed the car who hit her. Yes, but really it was him trying to force me to cling to him in my grief, he let her out. It took so long for me to leave, but I hated him from that day on. He would sleep with a loaded shotgun next to the bed and threatened to kill me if I ever left. I did though, I did. Poor Kelly, ghost dog, for so long I hated that lilac city and could not claim my name there. Not anymore though I do not have to be afraid anymore, I can reclaim my name now.

In some of your pictures, particularly those of flying birds, you will at times want to depict a wide expanse of landscape and sky; so, among many other things, here is yet another line of study to tackle, for bird painting obviously demands that you should be something of a landscape painter. Your days will be very full.

-C.F. Tunnicliffe
and indeed they are...

Storm

The Whale

Pulled because I just don't like it, not right...sorry readers~!
Ok, some things are creative devices a word here an idea there, reality is somewhat different. Anyway I am agitated and I wasted the day on a painting that I did not put enough thought into and now it is just a big bad painting. This happens from time to time, bad art. So you push them aside and move on. I just do not ever have any time to work and it is making me crazy.

yep I am cute baby

Sit on it. I will sit quiet. Life twists and turns. If you want something then come and take it, if you dare. Why? Life is short and meant to be lived, live then!

Oh and by the way, Palin's family member has down syndrome not autism, get it right.

Ok, when someone complains about your supporters threatening to kill him, laughing is generally not an acceptable response, nor is sighing, or eye rolling.
No you did not do well, and what makes you think McCain that just because you served in the military or anyone else who did, whom I respect for their service, can just walk in a classroom and teach? You are going to wave all of the state certification requirements and anoint them teacher. Thanks, so glad I worked my ass off to get my two degrees needed and went into incredible debt. Thanks a whole lot, ass.
I am sorry but I would rather not pay taxes on my health care thank you, and $5,000 is not going to cut it.
WAS anyone else watching this??? Argh.

A silly self interview just to be tacky...

So you have a blank canvas in front of you?

Yes I have this big show coming and I have to get working. The funny thing is that I want to paint more mammals lately including the bi-pedal kind (us) and now I will be forced to work exclusively on birds, because of the show.

How does one start a painting?
I usually feel them first then see them in my mind. They then bother me, like a little voice in my head and demand to be painted. Unfortunately the three that are haunting me do not have birds in them and therefore have to wait several months. Hopefully the impulse for them does not die off as it can do.

So why are you slacking now?
I have no idea what to paint with this unanticipated theme switch, I was on a creative roll with the other ideas. Birds also represent so much and I just do not want to go there. The paintings also have to be more academic and traditional and part of me wants to abandon realism. A tough spot, to tighten the control when you want to lose it.

So go figure it out you ninny...this is way to important!
I KNOW, and I will, believe me I get my S... done. I am also working on other opportunities at the same time, because I am crazy passionate about this art thing. People do not understand it, how it drives me all day long. It is what I want to do even when I am avoiding it on this type of distraction. Off I go....

Proud Corby

You are an everyday mythic figure
with a striking resemblance to history
in ordinary clothes
I catch the glint
of your gold brown owl eyes
and find a thousand stories in them
In this life you create a passage or two
I read it in your face
a thousand small lines
woven in an unending dance
of histories, blood, trials
all the great cycles
that dance around in that eye
as it opens and closes
letting in the light
that the hand will use
to make your magic real

by the Corbyhawk herself -not so sure on this one, I want it to say more, but here it is...
I smiled all day long I am sure everyone wondered why. Wonder wonder I just smiled that sly small little smile, celebrate today and work work work tomorrow.

From Alaska to NY

A greater white fronted goose among a zillion (ok a lot) of Canada Geese in NY today. He may have flown a bit too far east from Alaska on his way south.

Funny, I owe some of today's triumph to a barn owl, a red-tail hawk and a broad winged hawk. I loved those birds and I honor their memory. I learned how to face my fear with that red-tail even after she got me pretty good, I still worked with her. The barnie taught me about fighting for what is right and to not give up even when it seems like the world is not on your side. The broad wing taught me about trust, he trusted me enough to be the only non-imprinted formerly wild bird willing to jump up on my fist, for no reward. Amazing that another creature can trust a seeming predator. I can believe in today, today was pure joy. This world that I love gave me back a gift, a true gift and I am incredibly grateful for it.

Time for a Lane Change

Domestic
I am edgy to get there
and edgy to leave
trying to always find the right thing
pacing like a captive animal
worn rut in my view
that despite my persistent motion
never changes
just wears deeper
I cannot find now
with tomorrow coming
shielding myself from
the steady blow
of the onlooker's pointing finger

-kaw kaw kiyree by the Corbyhawk who is rethinking the title, maybe domestic bliss but then that is too sarcastic...

Car-ride
my thoughts are like
phantoms
they cross me darkly
rabid at this dull conversation
the monotony of days
with petty little word falls
meant to fill up air
I want to squeeze it out
more then the circular routine
pantomimes of meaning
I furrow my brow
and look out the window
as the colors of the day fly past
while your cadence carries on

Yep by me, the Corbyhawk herself

The image grabbed me-the bear emerging triumphant into a tabula rasa of clean, untrodden snow after surviving the raging storms of winter; the passage from darkness into light; the inevitability of the cycle drawing a perfect circle of rebirth and life"

-From The Blue Bear by Lynn Schooler

I am a mope box today generally down in the dumps as of late and I cannot seem to shake it.

Raven and Merlin

Mysteriously they entered, those few minutes.
Mysteriously, they left.
As if the great dog of confusion guarding my heart,
who is always sleepless, suddenly slept.
It was not any awakening of the large, not so much as that,
only a stepping back from the petty.
I gazed at the range of blue mountains,
I drank from the stream. Tossed in a small stone from the bank.
Whatever direction the fates of my life might travel, I trusted.
There was nothing left to be saved from, bliss nor danger.
The dog's tail wagged a little in his dream.

-The Promise by Jane Hirshfield

my sweet girl

How will these words fall out?
To describe this dream
your hand drew mine
palm up palm down
tracing the edges of our match
puzzled at such a ready fit.
I rested on your shoulder
and could smell your skin
Was it only flashes of a dying mind
that resists the loss of life it craves?
How I wish it were prophecy
the true taste of your mouth
not just a trick of imagined memory.
This has flitted along the edges
of me all day
an unexpected visit
from a forgotten ache.
The laugh of G-d
cursing me to a shell of want
flooding my pulses with latent desire.
My prayers go unanswered
before dawn you broke through
took my surrender found my love
but I awoke too soon.

-By the Corbyhawk herself who is still stuck on the same long drawn out muse who doesn't have the fainest idea about any of this...sigh...why can't you ever get back into the same dream once you are awake and try to get back to it? I would have slept all day and night, for days, months, years...

A little Trumansburg for yah...Herd of 'Em?

ok, John McCain or McStain ummm, last time I checked $5,000 is not going to really cover anything when it comes to health care and I am not your friend, so please stop addressing me as such. Personally you act like an ass who is clearly rattled and your record shows that you helped get our country into this big mess. Oh and maybe next time stop pumping your shaking fist every five seconds and standing like you are Napolean., I mean do your shoulders even move?
Ugh presidential you are not...

a bit of rest

Too long and quickly I have lived to vow
The woe that stretches me shall never wane,
Too often seen the end of endless pain
To swear that peace no more shall cool my brow.
I know, I know-again the shriveled bough
Will burgeon sweetly in the gentle rain,
And these hard lands be quivering with grain-
I tell you only: it is Winter now.

-from Transition by Dorothy Parker

Yeah What?

Today was rather quiet and it felt good. I am concentrating on my goals, step by step, day by day, moment by moment, and it goes. I have not given up, nope I work away, head down dreams up.

Thieves

Roots and leaves themselves alone are these,
Scents brought to men and women from the wild woods and pond-side
Breast-sorrel and pinks of love, fingers that wind around
tighter than vines,
Gushes from the throats of birds hid in the foliage of trees
as the sun is risen,
Breezes of land and love scent from living shores to you on
the living sea, to you O sailors!
Frost-mellow'd berries and Third-month twigs offer'd fresh
to young persons wandering out in the
fields when winter breaks up,
Love-buds put before you and within you whoever you are,
Buds to be unfolded on the old terms,
If you bring the warmth of the sun to them they will open
and bring form, color, perfume to you,
If you become the ailment and the wet they will become
flowers, fruits, tall branches and trees.

-Walt Whitman

If you missed the Vice Presidential debate or if you did and you are still trying to get Pollyanna Palin's voice out of your head check this out and laugh your bottoms off!

Oh and fair and balanced media on Fox News here

Sockeye

I am the salmon
who rubs off it's scales of sorrow
I am the gull
who picks out the egg of creation
I am the eagle
who's talons sever loss
I am the sky
that enfolds wings
I am the rain
that falls as tears upon you
I am the still pool
reflecting souls
I am the river
erasing time down mountains
I am the ocean
who cradles the young
I am the salmon
who always returns to you

-In the shamanic tradition by the Corbyhawk who will not be bothered by being the fool again and again and again because their really is no antidote for a heart. If you have heard of one let me know.

a dream city

She's tired
lay your weary
head down
fly under
this city
of concrete bridges
yellow lights
pulse in time
taking you
further away
the birds settle
in the dark
on the rooftops
waiting for what
will not come
the sun has gone out
no struggle
will free it's chariot
of blazing hope.

-by the Corbyhawk

hopefully

This will be a crabby post, it has been a crap week and my job is well.... I think it is very sad when young people promote as a joke images that are pro-nazi and therefore anti-semitic, racist, and well add sexist to it because it had that element as well. I also think it is doubly sad when people do not take that kind of thing seriously and let it slide under the carpet. I never can, I am far too passionate. Which can at times get me in trouble. It is so easy for the young to forget the reality of tragedy in this world, so easy to go again on that slippery slope. I worry that this may be a window into the future and it chills me deeply. I think it is important to never forget how easily hate can breed.

This is news from Birdchick Blog-They(you know the people in office) are trying to mess with the Endangered Species Act in order to just really leave their sham legacy. According to the Washington Post "The new rules, which will be subject to a 30-day per comment period, would use administrative powers to make broad changes in the law that Congress has resisted for years. Under current law, agencies must subject any plans that potentially affect endangered animals and plants to an independent review by the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service. Under the proposed new rules, dam and highway construction and other federal projects could proceed without delay if the agency in charge decides they would not harm vulnerable species." Read the entire article here and wonder no more why the last 8 years have sucked.
Do something here, and thanks to Sharon of BirdChick Blog for calling attention to this.