Author Archives: Maggie C

Unknown's avatar

About Maggie C

Stained glass artist, writer, respecter of life.

Inward Eyes

Posted on by
3

“To see the moon that cannot be seen,
turn your eyes inward & look at yourself, in silence…”

~ Rumi

moons

Moon Phases (artist Maggie C)

You might say I’m in the eye business. According to Dictionary.com, one of the definitions of eye is:

the power of seeing; appreciative or discriminating visual perception: [as in] the eye of an artist.

Okay, so this particular definition is sixth in line of the listed meanings, but it is there.

I think for most visual artists, what you see (literally, with your eyes) when you look at their work is inconsequential compared to what you feel. Or how it makes you think. Or what memories it evokes.

Or any number of other responses. But a response that comes from your inner eye.

I always find it interesting to hear how my stained glass pieces affect a viewer. What it says to them, if anything. It’s especially interesting with my abstract designs.

Someone saw one of my panels once and said, “That looks like hope!” Someone else might see it and say it looks like despair. There’s no right or wrong.

I may have my own interpretations of the pieces, and my interpretation is also neither right nor wrong, even though it’s my creation. It can evoke myriad responses from me, too. Different responses at different times.

Different things that my inner eye chooses to perceive. That’s what makes art – and life – interesting.

“Close both eyes to see with the other eye.”
~ Rumi

eyes

NaBloPoMo ~ NoMore

Posted on by
3

We made it! It’s the last day of November, and the last day of the 2015 National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) challenge. I succeeded in posting to this blog daily for 30 days and — as promised — I didn’t resort to regaling you with endless photos of my cat and dog. Well, maybe I did. But they’re so stinkin’ cute!

No More

 

Most of the time it was fun, sometimes tedious. It certainly did force me to crank up my creative juices, and to acknowledge that I don’t have to wait around like some mutt underfoot begging for table scraps, hoping my muse tosses a few ideas my way.

Okay, so it’s never been that bad. My usual writing process is that some notion begins buzzing around my head like an annoying insect. I roll up a metaphorical newspaper and swat it. When it falls to the ground, I poke at it to see if there’s any life left in it. If there is, then maybe I write about it. The metaphorical insect, that is.

If it’s a real insect, I try to get the dog to catch it and either escort it outside or ensure its demise. He usually just sniffs at it and walks away. As does the insect.

insect2

Outdoors: live and let live.

 

Outdoors, my bug philosophy is “live and let live.” Indoors, the rule is if it won’t go away or if it creeps me out, it dies. Kind of like a blind date. But I digress.

There aren’t many insects flying around my part of the world at this time of year. Except stink bugs. And who wants to write about a stink bug, metaphorical or otherwise?

insect1

Indoors: sic ’em, Chules!

 

The point of all this is to say that I will write with less frequency from now on, that I’ll try not to write if I have nothing to say, and that you probably shouldn’t go on a blind date with me.

Thanks for seeing me through this month, and for reading each and every one of my posts. You did that, right?

Four Diagonals & Two Thankfuls

Posted on by
3

This week Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge focuses on diagonal lines, with extra credit for a couple of photos illustrating things for which we are thankful.

Here are my diagonals:
First up, these clever weeds who had the wherewithal to grow in rows.

diag1

 

A tree splintered in a windstorm.

diag3

 

These branches reaching toward one another remind me of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” frescoe. They also remind me of the rose hip jelly my granny used to make.

diag2

 

A caterpillar makes his escape across a railroad tie.

diag4

 

And my two “thankfuls:”

I am thankful that nature hasn’t given up on us. And thankful that there are numerous people and organizations working to preserve nature and repair the damage we’ve done to this planet.

diag5a

 

I am thankful that humanity hasn’t given up on itself, and that there are multitudes of kind, caring people despite what we might see to the contrary in our newsfeeds.

diag6

Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Week #8 Diagonal Lines

Seasonal Transitions

Posted on by
5

It’s fun to make series of panels on a theme. I have one in progress that I’ll share more about later.

The topic of The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge this week is Transition.

Here I have used some fun background glass to help depict the four seasons. Hope you enjoy.

Click on photo below for larger images of each panel.

seasons

Life Squared: The Instagram Junk Drawer

Posted on by
Reply

insta picI try to not get sucked into social media: Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr… whatever else is out there with cute misspelled names. I have a love/hate/hate/hate relationship with Facebook, and I probably definitely give it much more space in my life than it deserves.

And Instagram? At first I couldn’t see any point in taking photos with a cell phone, formatting them into tiny little squares and then posting them to… exactly where was it they were posted to???

When I finally got a cell phone that had capabilities beyond conveying conversations,  however, I simply couldn’t resist the urge to document all the minutiae of my daily life. And of course once one goes to all that bother of snapping a photo, they need to share it with someone, right? Enter, Instagram.

I see it as my photo “junk drawer.” Junk drawers don’t really contain junk. They hold any number of useful things that just don’t have a designated spot to hang out. Sometimes I take photos that I simply find amusing or pretty or whatever, but don’t really want to share on Facebook for the whole world to see.

Today I thought I’d pull out a few items from my Instagram junk drawer to share with you, but don’t show them to the whole rest of the world like Facebook does, okay? Promise?

Instagrams seem to fall into certain categories. We have…

the oddities:

insta gate

A gate held shut by chains and a padlock, but there’s no fence. Anyone see a security risk here?

insta glove

A glove balloon in the shrubbery outside a hospital. Bored interns?

the beautiful:

insta flowers

Summer flowers, autumn leaves, winter snow, spring flower and leaf buds and melting snow…

insta sunrise

The obligatory sunrise/sunset taken through power lines.

silly captions:

insta seagull

“I think I’m lost. Has anyone seen the ocean? Big… blue… wavy…”

insta pun

Rare sighting today: the yellow-bellied sap maker.

pets: (silly captions optional)

insta leaves

I wanted to continue our walk today, but Chules just wanted to leaf.

adventures:

insta wrench

When you forget where you packed your utensils, you have to get creative.

and of course, Selfies!!!!

insta selfie

Taking selfies isn’t as easy as it looks, kitty.

Now I’ve shown you mine… What’s in your junk drawer?