Letting Paint Dry 2012
Though we are constantly surrounded by magnetic energy, by looking carefully, we can find internal harmony.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/letting-paint-dry-2012-drea-jensen.html

Invitation

by Mary Oliver

Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude—
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

— from Red Bird: Poems by Mary Oliver

Admiration 2012 by Drea Jensen
There is always room for adoration and intense love.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/admiration-2012-drea-jensen.html

Desire

“You Don’t Have to Be Pretty. You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked “female”.”

~ Diana Vreeland

Arrival 2002 by Drea Jensen
The blue triangles and trapezoids represent peace and joy, a meditation on color and shape. A moment of reconciliation when the body and mind relax into spirit.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/arrival-2002-drea-jensen.html

The Journey 

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice —
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do —
determined to save
the only life you could save.

~ Mary Oliver

Ladybird Poppy Photograph

“Whatever you are looking for can only be found inside of you.”

~ Rumi

Red Poppy VI by Georgia O’Keeffe

“I think it’s so foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary–you’re happy for an instant and then you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.”

~ Georgia O’Keeffe

Kiva 2011 by Drea Jensen
Every person has creativity in them whether they can see it or not. Some show it on the outside and some keep it hidden, but everyone has the capability of letting it out.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/kiva-2011-drea-jensen.html

“We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. Our best destiny is to imagine, at least, completely, who and what, and that we are. The greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined.”

~ N. Scott Momaday

Mosaic 2012 by Drea Jensen
Even the most different of things, shape, size, etc, can come together to form something beautiful.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/mosaic-2012-drea-jensen.html

Mosaic
BY LINDA PASTAN

1. THE SACRIFICE

On this tile
the knife
like a sickle-moon hangs
in the painted air
as if it had learned a dance
of its own,
the way the boy has
among the vivid
breakable flowers,
the way Abraham has
among the boulders,
his two feet heavy
as stones.

2. NEAR SINAI

God’s hand here
is the size of a tiny cloud,
and the wordless tablets
he holds out
curve like the temple doors.
Moses, reaching up
must see on their empty surface
laws chiseled in his mind
by the persistent wind
of the desert, by wind
in the bulrushes.

3. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT

We know by the halos
that circle these heads
like rings around planets
that the small donkey
has carried his burden
away from the thunder
of the Old Testament
into the lightning
of the New.

4. AT THE ARMENIAN TILE SHOP

Under the bright glazes
Esau watches Jacob,
Cain watches Abel.
With the same heavy eyes
the tilemaker’s Arab assistant
watches me,
all of us wondering
why for every pair
there is just one
blessing.