I adore Mary Nohl - part 2 (in which I must see this special house for myself)

Since the Mary Nohl House isn't located that far away from where I live, I couldn't sit still until I took a look at it for myself.
:0)

The house is protected by a tall vine-covered wire fence, but a friendly, smiling concrete face urged me to step closer.

The house is not open for viewing, since it's located on a quiet upscale dead-end street.  These signs are posted on the gate at the end of the driveway.

Two more happy faces flank the driveway.  This is the one on the right, which bears the name Nohl.

I was able to photograph through the gate to get a photo very similar to the one on the cover of the book (see previous post)!  I could have stood there for hours.  I didn't notice until I posted this photo here, that there is a light on in the right second story window.  The spirit of Mary, maybe?  If I were Mary, I'd like to stop back to visit once in a while, too

Here's a photo through the fence looking toward Lake Michigan.  The tall statue on the left is the one that I could see looking at me over the fence in the first photo.

And a closer look at the happy couple.  I noticed while I was looking at all these statues, that they all looked happy.  I like that.

Another parting glance at the house and the handsome blue-eyed dude with the pointy head.  It was a pleasure to meet you all in person!

Here's the view from just outside Mary's house looking toward the lake to the right

and to the left. . .  I'm going to take a little blogging break to read my book about Mary Nohl from cover to cover.  She's my new hero, and I know there is much I can learn from her.

I adore Mary Nohl

One of the many reasons I love the internet is how one thing leads to another and another and another. Earlier this month I had the pleasure to meet a wonderful Wisconsin artist I had recently learned about. Her name is Susan Hale, and she paints the most exuberant, magical landscapes. You can see her work at her website (here) and her blog (here).

And earlier today, while taking a quick peek at facebook, I spotted a wonderful video on Susan's page, about an artist I've been wanting to tell you about.  Her name is Mary Nohl, and during her later years she was called "the Witch of Fox Point".

Mary Nohl, who lived from 1914 - 2001, turned her lakeside cottage and property into a work of art.  And although she was misunderstood by many during her lifetime, she prevailed in the end.  I wish I would have known her. . .

Here's the wonderful short video about Mary that I found this morning:





The image at the top of this post is the cover of an excellent book about Mary, which is available from Amazon here.  It's a gorgeous book, with lots of pictures and snippets of her writings.

"I like the days best when I have a lot of projects - 

each so much fun that I don't know which to do first."

~ Mary Nohl

"Keep getting more ideas - 

all of which I have to try."

~ Mary Nohl

I hear you Mary!

You can see more photos of Mary's house here.  And read more about her and her work here, here, here, here and here. (Or just google :0) )

We are very fortunate to have quite a number of incredibly talented outsider artists and outsider environments in Wisconsin.  Many of them are generously preserved and supported by the Kohler Foundation.

Before and after

(detail)

I think this landscape is finished now.  I didn't do too much more to it.  Just highlighted parts of the leaves with a little oil pastel, adjusted some of the colors, and added some texture to the bottom portion.  It has an acrylic encaustic finish, to protect the leaves and to give the whole piece a warm, more organic feeling.

(detail)

The broken purple line along the horizon reminds me of Lake Michigan, of how it looks when you're driving toward it and suddenly catch that first amazing glimpse of the water along the horizon.  It never looks the same twice, ranging from the palest gray to the most intense Mediterranean blue.  And it's gorgeous every time.

This landscape is my interpretation of Wisconsin's golden corn fields, the Lake, and the short but glorious fall foliage.

So here it was before:

and here it is after:

Wisconsin Landscape

acrylic encaustic mixed media collage with leaves

on 12 x 12 wrapped canvas

Two more 12 x 12 landscapes to go, and then - who knows?

:0)

Keeping it simple

These last beautiful warmish days before our long cold winter make me appreciate the simple things even more.  Like the last few odds and ends from the garden displayed in a tiny vase.

Our sleepy cat, dreaming blissfully on the one and only pillow she knows she's not supposed to be on.

Two surprise late-bloomers sunning themselves on the trellis.

A few relaxing moments enjoying a favorite book outside. And appreciating the beauty of a robin's nest here,

and here.  Loving the bright colors of the crisp leaves and seed pods from a maple tree.

Treasuring the words of the wise ones who came before us,

and trying to notice the details of the many things I rarely took the time to notice before.

I hope you have some time to notice and appreciate the simple things all around you this week.   I've left the images larger, so you can click on them to see more detail.

Do you ever think about food?

Sunday, October 16, is Blog Action Day 2011, and this year's topic is food.  Let me assure you, that while there will be quite a bit of bad news in this post, it will end on a serious note of hope and good news.

image from an interesting article here: 

Chicago Press Release Services

Just yesterday I saw a short but eye-opening article on news.Yahoo.com entitled "More Americans than Chinese can't put food on the table" (read it here) which I must admit shocked me.  I knew things were bad, but this was worse than I expected.  According to the article:

The number of Americans who lack access to basic necessities like food and health care is now higher than it was at the peak of the Great Recession, a survey released Thursday found. And in a finding that could worsen fears of U.S. decline, the share of Americans struggling to put food on the table is now three times as large as the share of the Chinese population in the same position.

  According to Feeding America, these are the most recent US hunger statistics:

In 2010, 48.8 million Americans lived in food insecure households,

32.6 million adults and 16.2 million children.

You can see all the statistics for yourself on the Feeding America website here.  


It is estimated that there are over 1.02 BILLION hungry people in the world.

I don't know why the US, or North America for that matter,  isn't on this chart.

You can find more of these sad statistics for yourself.  But today I want to also share just some of the promising things that people are doing to help ease this food crisis.  In Wisconsin, we are fortunate to have Will Allen, a pioneer in urban farming and the founder of Growing Power.  Growing Power aims for sustainable food production, as well as the growth of communities through the creation of local gardens.  You can see more at their website, here:  http://www.growingpower.org/index.htm

Here's Will Allen, describing his amazing work:






Will Allen and others who are reclaiming urban lots to produce food are working on just one of many potential answers to dealing with food shortages.  While his ideas are new and innovative, others are looking to the past to find answers to today's problems.  One such person is Britain's Martin Crawford, who in this next video takes you through his edible food forest garden, which is a model for resilient local food growing.





Food forests are not a new idea. Here's a short video about a 300-year old food forest in Vietnam:




And another short video about a 2000-year old food forest in Morocco:




So you see, I think there is hope.  Great hope.  But we need to work together, we need to help those who are less fortunate, and we have to stop using access to adequate food and water to keep some people down. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but there are enough ways to grow food and distribute it fairly, so that not one single person on the planet should die of starvation.

What kind of world of world do you want to live in?

In case you are interested, I wrote some other articles about food earlier this year on my other blog here:

http://amazingmotherearth.blogspot.com/2011/01/we-are-what-we-eat-bad-news-and-good.html

and here:

http://amazingmotherearth.blogspot.com/2011/06/farm-of-future.html

"Never doubt 

that a small group of committed people 

can change the world.

Indeed, 

it is the only thing that ever has."

~ Margaret Mead

Learning as I go

Here's a sneak peek at one of the canvases I've been working on.  As I've mentioned here before, I've been especially intrigued by the details on the backs of the falling leaves this Fall.  I keep noticing how much some leaves look like trees themselves.  So, here is a canvas where I used three dried leaves as the trees. It's still very much a work in progress.  I'm not sure where I'll go next with this painting, but I'm really enjoying learning as I go, and not rushing the process. 

And, because I am so madly in love with the Horicon Marsh this year, here are a few photos I took of the marsh recently.

It was very windy the day I took these photos, so there were lots of ripples in the water.  Usually the water is very, very still.

I left this photo larger, so you can see it better when you click on it.  It's a huge group of pelicans!  Until a few years ago, pelicans were very rare in Wisconsin, but we are seeing more and more here every year.  Climate change is changing their migratory patterns.

Did you know that a group of pelicans is called a "pod"?  A group of geese is called a "gaggle".  And a group of crows is a "murder of crows" - really!

Looking and seeing

I've been looking more closely at things that are around me every day.  Things I may have been taking for granted a bit.  And in some ways it's like seeing them for the first time.  Like the beauty of fern leaves after the rain.

And the moss on the tree, which looked a lot like an abstract landscape when I looked at the photo in a horizontal format.  (Or is it lichen?  It may be lichen, not moss. :0) )

I really liked all the different colors of moss/lichen found on this one tree.

This is a small, but tall, zinnia which has been blooming for about 8 weeks. Instead of going to seed, she just gets bigger and better.  I like that!

This grasshopper and I looked at each other for quite a while. I think he won the staring contest.

Different fields, different grasshoppers.

Different seas, different fish.

~ Indonesian proverb

I'm including this photo of the last few wild geraniums just because I love everything about these flowers.  They bloom for months, and the gorgeous color reminds me of my favorite crayon from when I was a little girl - periwinkle.

I've been spending a lot of time with our old Beau-doggy.  He's around 11 or 12 years old, and we've had him almost 5 1/2 of those years.  He's had lots of trouble with his hips and legs since before we adopted him, but it's gotten worse and now his front legs are getting weaker, too.  He stumbles and falls more frequently these days, so he needs extra tender care.  Beau is one of the great loves of my life, and I hope he makes it through the winter.  It would be so nice if he had one more spring, so he could lie on the grass one more time, dreaming his doggy-dreams under the warming sun.

In my many travels around the house with Beau, I always see this bit of tree root in the grass.  Lately I get the feeling it's looking back.  Is it only me, or does this look like a slightly demented cross-eyed owl to you too?
:0)
And since I seem to be going in so many unplanned directions lately, I thought you might enjoy this silly quote I found:

A woman,

like a cross-eyed man,

looks one way

but goes another,

hence her mysteriousness.

~ Austin O'Malley

(United Irish leader, 1760-1854)

I hope you find some sunshine, warm days, and light-hearted moments in your travels.