knowing how to look – Page 3 – Water :: Earth :: Wind

03.02.201409.20.2022

A Gift for You – a Calendar for March

Dear Readers: I appreciate you. For reading my words and for commenting. For looking carefully and engaging with my artwork. For telling me if and how I have touched your hearts. And I hope that somehow I have.

Here is your free calendar for March. These calendars are a gift from me to you because I want you to have something to remind you of a different way of seeing the world around us. And … well, just ‘cuz…

I’d love to know if you find these useful.

The calendars are free for you to download. I will try to post the calendars the first day or two of each month. The only thing I ask is that you use them only for your personal use. Please don’t sell them yourself. And please do tell your friends these are available. Thank you!

If I don’t have the size or proportion of your computer monitor, or if you would like one for a cell phone, please tell me in the comments and I will make one for you and post it here. This month I am posting two versions: the calendar below may be downloaded and printed for your wall or fridge. The one at the top of this post is desktop wallpaper for your computer.

How do I do this? Just right-click to save the image. Let me know in comments if you have any trouble. You can download and print either calendar. Late Winter Cheers from me to you!

Calendar for your (analog/actual) wall:

calendar for your iPhone

02.28.201409.20.2022

Selected Sled Dog Portraits Available

I promised to post a gallery of the sled dog photos included in the exhibit, Ancient Bond. So here it is. Each of these is available for purchase as a signed, archival print. (See details below the gallery) Click on the photos to enlarge them. Watermarks are not on the prints.

At the pre-race vet check — Intensity and Trust

Paw-Check-Complete-Trust — Paw Check: Complete Trust

Sled Dog Curiously Tilting Head — A Tilt of the Head

Thunder, a sled dog, howling a warning — Warning Song

Red sled dog waiting for the race in the snow — Roberta’s Beguiling Smile

Race to the Sky Sled Dogs and Musher — Sheer Exuberance

Old Sled Dog Waiting — Old Warrior Waiting

Two sled dogs who have been rejected by the vets at vet check — They Won’t Be Racing

Two Sled Dogs Howl at Starting Line — Starting Song

Old Black Sled Dog Waiting — Old Warrior

Photo of Musher Handling his Dog — I’m Only Just Putting Up With This

Sled Dog Eyes — Up Close and Very Personal

Dog Yoga — Yoga Stretches Before the Race

Sled Dog up close — The Eyes are the Soul’s Windows

02.26.201409.20.2022

The Color of Zero Degrees Cold

or: Snow is Not White

or: How Many Shades of Blue is Winter?

Helena, Montana is closing in on a record February snowfall. The winter of 1936 set that record. I’m not sure how much snow we’ve had so far this month (usually our driest month of the winter) but, since last Friday, at least 18 inches of snow has fallen outside our house.

Snow is good. The mountains need snow. The soil, the prairies and farms and trees and fish, the rivers and air and people. We all need this moisture and I will be glad of it in summer when the grasses are crisping and crackling. When wildfires do their roaring, racing, burning thing…

The older I get, the less patient I am with the inconveniences of Montana winters. But the colors! Those colors keep me interested!

I go on at least one walk a day, but I get so cold in my bones that it’s just not as much fun as it was when I was younger and (ahem… ummmm) hotter.

it takes a day like today:
wide open skies
not a single cloud
an almost
(imperceptible)
mist hanging close
to the frozen earth

it takes this kind of day
to remember
how many different blues are inside the cold

… how many
different
colors belong to white

Snow.
Is not.
White.

You knew that.

So … I hope these images inspire you to take some time and get out into the cold. Bundle up. Stay out until just before the sun goes down so you can grab a little of that incredible light into your soul.

And look. Really look at the colors that surround you!

Those colors will still be inside you on a summer day that tops 100F. When all you want to do is stick your head in a freezer. When you are wishing for some of that of zero-degrees-cold.

01.20.201409.20.2022

A Prairie Sunset that Fills Me with Peace

I love the soft gradients of some sunsets. This kind of sunset is a quiet counterpoint to the wild, heavily textured sunsets we sometimes have. I like both kinds.

This kind fills me with peace.

These two skies were on either side of me. The top photo is looking east in the evening twilight … then I turned around and shot the photo below, facing directly west.

01.05.201409.20.2022