Acrobats in the Freezing Wind

I have gone again and again to this post about feathers, on Art Propelled.

Robyn Gordon has such a magnificent eye, from my perspective. I am in love with how she chooses a theme, then finds different artists’ works to illustrate the feelings/ideas she wants to express. None of her work is featured in this post, but it is well worth exploring. She could have added June’s Angel to the mix . . .

June's Angel ~ by Robyn Gordon

or Broken Angels.

Broken Angels ~ by Robyn Gordon

And that POEM!!!! I read Mary’s poetry often, when my emotions feel stuck and need a nudge to flow again. Oliver expresses longing in a way that clutches your soul and propels you out of your darkness into the light.

Starlings in Winter by Mary Oliver Chunky and noisy, but with stars in their black feathers, they spring from the telephone wire and instantly they are acrobats in the freezing wind. And now, in the theater of air, they swing over buildings, dipping and rising; they float like one stippled star that opens, becomes for a moment fragmented, then closes again; and you watch and you try but you simply can’t imagine how they do it with no articulated instruction, no pause, only the silent confirmation that they are this notable thing, this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin over and over again, full of gorgeous life. Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us, even in the leafless winter, even in the ashy city. I am thinking now of grief, and of getting past it; I feel my boots trying to leave the ground, I feel my heart pumping hard, I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.

Robyn is truly one of those acrobats in the freezing wind, by which I mean that she propels herself into issues that others would freeze in the face of, and uses them to inspire herself. This is apparent in her gorgeous, carved art. That line about being” improbable, beautiful and afraid of nothing” seems appropriate both for her, and the art that flows from her.

Here are a couple more of my favorites. They happen to be paintings, of which I hope she does many more. They are both stories on canvas, and the colours are dazzling.

Undercurrents ~ watercolour and oil pastels, by Robyn Gordon

Removing the Snake From Eden ~ by Robyn Gordon

#painting #RobynGordon #improbablebeautifulandafraidofnothing #ArtPropelled #feathers #wings #snake #poetry #BrokenAngels #MaryOliver #RemovingtheSnakeFromEden #Eden