When Nature Speaks

"Sunset on ice," 8 x 10 acrylic on canvas panel

Sometimes Nature speaks to you if you listen. Not in words, but in impulses, in sights and sounds and moods.

So it was when I saw  a dramatic photo by my blog friend Alan Bates on one of his hikes in the Turkey Mountain urban wilderness at Tulsa this week.

Alan's photo

Alan and I met online several years ago when our blogs caught each other's attention. Some of that was because we both have memories of New Mexico,  and a love for the outdoors and photography. 

He's also an avid geocacher, and spends more time outdoors than I do, hiking and bicycling. On this photo he added drama with a Snapseed filter and the iphone's ArtCard app.

We follow each other on Facebook, that's the story of the photo of sunset on a partially frozen pond. I'd been searching for something different to paint, and Nature spoke.

 I also tried to add drama, taking artistic license with it to flip it horizontally for composition purposes. Then I just started painting, using palette knives for texture, not sure where it was going. Before I was through I discovered I'd gone back to favorite complementary colors, oranges and blues. Brushwork added a few finishing touches. 

I discovered more about myself here too. I was not tied down to reality--my usual fault. Instead  I painted looser, ending up more impressionistic, with  more texture and more vibrant color (the colors you see are actual). It just seemed to happen.

Quotes to think about, "piss" and "stupider"

Two quotes by friends caught my eye this week, and made me think. I think they will you too.
Fellow blogger and friend Alan Bates of Tulsa, a natural gas professional, amazes me with his blog, Yogi'sDen. I envy his consistency in publishing and his many varied interests. We also share a New Mexico background. Check out Yogi'sDen for photography, and lots of interesting content. I appreciate that he rarely delves into politics.
 His headline on a post this week grabbed my attention:
"A piss poor job of it."
Now you just have to read something like that, and I began scanning his comments, which were all about the oil and gas industry and the falling gasoline prices. Having often thrown sarcastic barbs at the energy companies, I loved and laughed at his conclusion: 
"I am starting to hear again the old saw about how the energy companies control the price of oil and natural gas and products such as gasoline.  All I have to say is that if that is true then:

"We are doing a piss poor job of it."

The second quote came from my friend and former student Heide Brandes @HeideWrites on twitter. Her blog is http://www.heidewrites.com/ This energetic woman is making a living as a freelance writer, and as a professional belly dancer.
We were taking recently, and she was commenting on how intolerant the country has become. Essentially she was  exasperated and worried because people of different political views won't even listen to those who differed with them, or even consider that there might be more than one view possible. 
Discussing media (Having been attacked on social media for just writing for Reuters about an event someone didn't like) and social media, she said something about there being no room for compromise but outright hate--not just in Congress, but on the Internet. She said  adults ought to be mature enough to at least be polite and listen, but it's getting rarer.
Her comment:

"It's amazing, with more information out there, we're becoming stupider."