A COVID poem

Covid-19

days wasted in fear of covid,

death lurking at every door,

in every hug,

the truth forgotten,

death wed to life,

one does not exist,

without the other,

there are no guarantees,

life transitory,

the Scriptures warn,

the time of our deaths unknown,

except to the God above,

security an illusion,

Science does not know,

nor the governments of the world,

though salvation promised,

but for how long,

and at what cost?

days wasted,

never recovered,

or relived,

the approach sinful,

when days lived in fear.

I tire of people telling me, "I will follow the science."

Science is only a methodology. Following science is what has given us, Global Warming, the threat of Nuclear destruction, and COVID.   To say I will follow the science, is to say, I do not believe in  God, I believe in the genius of Man. Science is blind, it is reactionary. It never exists on the cutting edge of reality, but is delayed by our evaluation and analysis of reality . . .Science is tinted by our perceptions of reality, it is never pure . .and seldom correct . . . .

Douglas Polk

favorites

People have asked me about favorite paintings I have painted. Here are seven  that today are some of my favorites, though my favorites change almost on a daily basis. The reason these are favorites might be what I feel the painting captures, or how it looks, or even what it reminds me of . . .

This first painting is one I just painted this past week. I was really feeling homesick for my home in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. I painted it from memory, but it captures the place, even if this particular bend might not exist just as it appears about the canvas.

this painting, holds a special place in my heart, because I believe to painted from a photo I took riding horseback working cattle one day. It would have been taken by an old 110 camera. . .

this painting was painted and I was thinking of a buffalo stampede of all this. . .This captured some energy or something, other than buffalo stampeding. . . .

This painting was about relationships between the sexes in the 21st century . . .enough said . . .

Driving around town after Christmas one day, I came across this tractor in a vacant field. It reminded me of a tractor my Grandpa used to let me play on. . .though that tractor had metal wheels . . . .

I love this painting, it is of a winter sky, after a snow storm at a local lake . . . .

This painting was in response to the Me Too movement.  If I had ever done anything to a woman of which I should ask forgiveness , , , this hopefully represents that moment. . . .

images

this painting is one I really liked. I don't know what I was painting, but decided it had something to do with the sea . .

this painting is entitled the repentant sinner. It is based on the way I sometimes felt after sinning. I felt it almost impossible to approach the cross and Christ's sacrifice for us, head on.  I would sneak in the back way and beg forgiveness before anyone saw me.

I was just playing one day, and painted this and decided it was a painting of a monkey, or maybe it looks like something a monkey would paint. But I must admit I like it.

this was a waterfall I painted from a photograph. i was happy with it, so thought I would share it on here.

This is another experiment, that I ended up really pleased with. i had got a new kind of paint brush as a gift and this was one of the first paintings I painted with it. Entitled the eye, i again am happy with this painting.

important places

most of us have special places, where experienced magical moments, or maybe the experiences became magical memories.  Below are a few of my places.

The first entitled Fishing Pond. It was a real pond just a little northeast of the town I lived in during my teenage years. We would hike out or later drive our cars, and fish after work. The pond was full of largemouth bass and northern pike. So many wonderful wonderful days fishing at his spot.

This next one is entitled Lost Creek. This creek again was just north of town on the outskirts of town. It was a wonderful place for adventure. Never caught any fish here, but captured all sorts of aquatic creatures. Wading down the middle of the creek in the shade of the trees, during the middle of a hell hot August was a treat not soon forgotten.

The Bend by the Bridge .  It painting in of a place on the Dismal River, right before an old wooden bridge that used to span the river. The bridge is gone now, but the river remains. For a while a picnic table was on this piece of land, and canoers would stop and eat some lunch and rest before attempting the river again.

 This painting in entitled Grandpa's Barn. It isn't my grandpa's exact barn, but when i saw this barn, I realized it was the same style as grandpa's and the windmill was in also the same place as the windmill beside my grandfather's barn.

Blue Creek.  This little creek has held a special place in the history of Nebraska and the land even before it became Nebraska.  The creek does have an amazing almost sacred aura about it.

Iris is the Park . .this painting is included because it takes me two special places, One to my grandma's flower beds, she had the most beautiful flower beds of iris. She grew and created many unique colors and breeds of iris. This also takes me to the city park of the town in which I now live. Sitting in the sun, soaking up the sun after a bout with cancer, I looked up and saw this individual iris growing in the park, and I decided I had to paint it, it was my destiny.

the mind

this post is probably as much about my mind, as it is about paintings. I have found over the years, my mind will get fixated on a series of colors, or brush strokes, and I am obligated to try to paint what my mind wants, though I am not sure what it wants. But I have noticed when looking at colors schemes, and brush strokes, there are familiar patterns. These paintings seem a kin to each other in my mind. . . .like brother and sister, or cousins.

I have no titles for this painting, but I would point out, to me, I see a face in the upper right corner in the yellow sector there.

this painting again, untitled as a similar color scheme, but to many it may not seem related to the painting above or below it, but in my mind it is. Even though I on some days, see nothing in common between the two, even though my brain tells me they are related.  I do see a head of some sort of insect in the upper middle of this painting.

Sometimes it feels quite baffling, when you paint a painting and don't know what or why you painted the said painting. But in doing so, my mind tends to find some comfort. And since basically the only reason I paint is the need to help my mind cope with reality, I am okay with that. In this painting, on the upper center left of the painting, I see an alligator. Don't know if anyone else sees it or not.

This painting again features the same colors, yellow, blue, red and green, This painting is stuffed full of visions of things, which I see. I see a union soldier in blue standing in the upper left of the painting. Towards the middle center of the painting, I see a figure which reminds me of edward scissor hands. In the upper left I see a figure which reminds me of an Aztec god. This painting did get published in an online website. I sent a batch of three paintings, with this being the one I was least proud of, yet of the three, this was the only one published on the website. I almost asked why, but decided I wasn't sure, I wanted to know.

Again, the color scheme, and nervousness exists in this painting. And again, it is untitled, and I am not sure what I painted or why. My mind was quite pleased with this painting, I do remember that. This morning it just looks like some creatures trapped in a pit of blue.

This last painting really pleased my mind also. And again, I am not sure what I am seeing, or what I was trying to capture on canvas, or paper.  I do see a profile of a man, in the middle left center of the page, with red hair. I also get the image of white flowers towards the middle bottom of the page. White as been an element in all these paintings also. Whether parts of the paper were left white, or white was interlaced with the other colors. Interesting how the mind works.

acrylics

I always loved painting with watercolors. I didn't start painting with acrylics until the last couple of years. I really enjoy the boldness of the colors. But photographing the paintings is more difficult. This first one is entitled, My Secret Place.  There was a place out in my Grandparents garden, where some trees and bushes made a little place, I took as my own. That was the memory that inspired this painting.

My wife saw a photograph of an old bridge across a stream, that reminded me of one I had known growing up.  I didn't get to spend a lot of time at this bridge, but remembered standing and watching the creek flow.  I have tried but can't remember for sure where the bridge was. Wondered if it was still there.

This last painting is untitled. It was painted from memory, of the river on my parent's ranch. I loved the view and remembered a series of little valleys across the river, getting higher and higher like rungs on a ladder.