‘The Woods Enchanted’ has a new home!

The Woods Enchanted 7-8-2020

“The Woods Enchanted” has a new home! Happy, happy, joy, joy!

It was on display in Corporate Square in Terre Haute where other works in my solo show are featured through mid-December.

The happy owner is a woman who works in one of the offices in Corporate Square, who was a student at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College many years ago  and thereafter worked several years with the Sisters of Providence at The Woods.

She appreciated the piece even more after I gave her the back story:

In March 2016, I digitally enhanced and manipulated my original color image of the foot bridge over Lake Le Fer at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College for entry in the Vigo County Public Library’s Wabash Valley Community Read Artist Exhibition. All artwork was based on the exhibition theme “An Unconventional Shakespeare,” and the book by Indiana State University professor Laura Bates, “Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard.”

My artist’s statement accompanying “The Woods Enchanted”:

“Fantasy and the bridge over Le Fer Lake on the SMWC campus interprets a scene in William Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ where he wrote of a forest that was enchanted specifically by the presence of Oberon and Titania, the fairy king and queen; like many forests in Shakespeare’s works, it becomes a place of metamorphosis and resolution. People come out of the forest changed for the better.”

In August 2016, “The Woods Enchanted” received a Second Place in Photography/Digital Art at the River City Art Association 8th Annual Juried Exhibition in Terre Haute.

The foot bridge over Lake Le Fer deteriorated beyond repair and was later removed from the SMWC grounds.

“I have always felt [St. Mary-of-the-Woods] was a magical place,” the new owner said. “I also love fairy lore and such, so it is no surprise that I was so attracted to the picture.”

That right there beats Second Place!

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Season of promise, renewal

On a recent walk, Pooch and I visited with the ancients of the forest. We paid our respects to a once lumbering giant snapped in two by an unrelenting storm. I followed Pooch’s lead and climbed up into the dying treetop to sit and reflect on the season of promise and renewal.

An ethereal glint from the sun drew my eyes to the ancient’s splintered trunk and outstretched arms.

And to a face with a mouth drawn up like a bowl … as if the ancient was singing praises for its life renewed.

“It is not what you look at, but what you see.” – Henry Thoreau.

Renewal: Moss living on a decaying fence post.

Promise fulfilled: This lilac bush bloomed for the first time since it was planted years ago. Its fragrance reminds me of my grandmother’s sweet perfume.

 

This old crabapple promises an abundance of fruit in the fall to sustain the wildlife.

 

Redbud Forest: Blushing beauties as far as the eye can see.

The Redbud’s promise: “You might know this tree by other names. Some call it the Eastern Rosebud. Others call it the Canadian Rosebud,” says writer RGraf at hubpages.com. “But the most infamous name is the Judas-Tree. Tradition holds that it was the Redbud that Judas Iscariot in the Bible hung himself after betraying Jesus. The tree was so embarrassed by the part that it played in the story that it forever blushes and grows in a such a twisted manner that it could never be used like that again. Thus, we have the blushing tree known as the Redbud with its twisted and strange looking limbs.”