My little poetic line for this month is simple. Just something I read while heading to a hike in the mountains.
“Linger Longer”
That’s it. “Linger longer” friends.
For the desktop, click on the image below to view the large size image.
Happy June friends!! I just came across this poem shared by one of my friends. I love the feeling it leaves me with. I want June to be full of fun, and freedom, and wild abandon. Jump!
Long enough have you dream’d contemptible dreams,
Now I wash the gum from your eyes,
You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life.
Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the shore,
Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,
To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to me, shout, and laughingly dash with your hair.
Walt Whitman
For the desktop, click on the image below to view the large size image.
For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the image you want. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen or both.
iphone wallpapers:
Thanks for being patient with me on this months desktop wallpaper. Moving is a lot of work! I am running a few days behind. One of the unexpected joys I am finding at this new house is how loud the birds are in the morning! Tim has had to shut the window a few times in the morning because they were so noisy. I love it. So the artwork this month is inspired by our new noisy neighbors.
For the desktop, click on the image below to view the large size image.
This months poem is from a Newberry award book called The Girl Who Drank the Moon. I love it so much –
“The heart is built of starlight
And time.
A pinprick of longing lost in the dark.
An unbroken chord linking the Infinite to the Infinite.
My heart wishes upon your heart and the wish is granted.
Meanwhile the world spins.
Meanwhile the universe expands.
Meanwhile the mystery of love reveals itself,
again and again, in the mystery of you.
I have gone.
I will return.
Glerk”
― Kelly Barnhill, The Girl Who Drank the Moon
For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the image you want. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen or both.
iphone wallpapers:
As I have been going through old photos as a part of our moving process, I came across several pictures of artwork I don’t think I have ever shared on this space. Most of these were various commissions. All have them have sold, but I thought you might enjoy seeing these.
(If you are ever interested in commissioning a piece, feel free to contact me at betonycoons@mac.com)
_______________________________________
This piece about a small mining town in Alaska – created for a beautiful family that spends half their time in Colorado and half in Alaska.
This commission for a missionary on an Indian Reservation struggling to find home in the midst of difficulties –
These little tiny painting about light and warmth and springtime –
This tattoo design –
This painting I made during a live painting performance with Tim about light and home –
This butterfly commission piece about being remade –
This “Frolicking Flowery Fox” made as part of a concept project that never panned out –
This Metallic bird piece –
This block print for a Country Western Band –
And this project I just finished TODAY for a beautiful travel loving couple in Denver. They also love antiques, so I found and refinished this ornate gold frame to complement the painting.
My good friend Wes Sam-Bruce shared this poem at his film screening for The Wonder Sound. It has been floating around in my head ever since. So good.
“Widening Circles”
I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?
So here is to living our lives in ever widening circles. Migrating outward…
More on that soon. It’s been crazy around here lately….
For the desktop, click on the image below to view the large size image.
For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the image you want. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen or both.
iphone wallpapers:
We almost bought a house last week. We put an put an offer in, dreamed about flipping a dusty ugly place into something beautiful, had our offer turned down, put another offer in, cried a lot about the emotion of leaving a house we love, started the process of getting ready to list our house, talked to the kids about moving, talked the kids down from both crazy excitement and mourning, worried about all the money bits, and worried more. And then, after all that, had our offer turned down in favor of a lower one (without a contingency).
Still not sure why we had to go through all of that emotional wreckage, or where it will lead. Obviously my hopelessly optimistic heart would like it to mean there is something better out there waiting for us… But that is yet to come.
So this months image is about homes – past and future. The bones that we live within. Our migration of moving. Packing our belongings and moving from one structure to the next. Taking and making home where we land.
For the desktop, click on the image below to view the large size image.
The poem this month is one that Tim found while running when we were first married. It was taped to an overpass on a scrap of paper. It was only recently that we discovered that it was from a Jewel lyric.
Joy, Pure Joy, I am
What I always wanted
to grow up and be
Things are becoming
more of a dream with
each waking day-
The heavy brows of Daily Life
are becoming encrusted
with glitter and the shaking finger
of consequence is
beginning to giggle
Grumpy old men
have wings
Burns sport Halos
and everyday dullness
has begun to breathe
as I remember the
incredible lightness
of living
Jewel lyrics from “On Moving into my Van”
For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the image you want. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen or both.
iphone wallpapers:
And don’t forget! Our new album is finally available for preorder – here!!
This year I am following the theme “Migration” for my desktop backgrounds and sharing a piece of writing or poetry that inspired the image.
This months wallpaper speaks of blankets piled high, snuggling in for the night under layers of stitches, and of tiny footsteps migrating in the dark hours, coming in to find warmth and safety in your arms. The arrow patterned quilt is called “Migration” or “flying geese.”
For the desktop, click on the image below to view the large size image.
The Hundred Names of Love by Annie Lightheart
The children have gone to bed. We are so tired we could fold ourselves neatly behind our eyes and sleep mid-word, sleep standing warm among the creatures in the barn, lean together and sleep, forgetting each other completely in the velvet, the forgiveness of that sleep. Then the one small cry: one strike of the match-head of sound: one child’s voice: and the hundred names of love are lit as we rise and walk down the hall. One hundred nights we wake like this, wake out of our nowhere to kneel by small beds in darkness. One hundred flowers open in our hands, a name for love written in each one.
For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the image you want. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen or both.
iphone wallpapers:
The inspiration for the wallpaper this month comes from our newest project – Imago Divina: The Joyous Mysteries – an incredibly beautiful advent collaboration with several other artists/creators (The Liturgists!)
Watch/Listen/Enjoy all of that goodness here.
And then put some new wallpaper on your screens and breathe in all the Christmas goodness that is coming in the door this month.
For the desktop, click on the image below to view the large size image.
For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the image you want. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen or both.
iphone wallpapers:
November is my favorite transition month. The days moving from autumn into winter. Enjoy this cozy new wallpaper for your screens. Much love,
Betony
For the desktop, click on the image below to view the large size image.
For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the image you want. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen or both.
iphone wallpapers:
Today is my last official Open Studio as the artist in residence at the Children’s Museum in Denver! (If you are in the area, please come say hello!)
The three months have flown by! I still have some finishing touches to do on my leave behind art piece and get to finish off my stay at the museum with a party on the 25th of October. But, I wanted to write this post and share a few of my favorite moments from the past three months with you and also invite you to the closing reception. Getting to be part of the magic that the Children’s Museum staff creates on a daily basis was such a gift and getting to play alongside kids and families and create art together was a dream. I’m still pinching myself that I got the job. Enjoy flipping through these photos!
I’ll see you Wednesday, October 25th at 6 PM! Here’s the info for the event.
__________
A giant color collage we made on my first open studio day.
Making mountains out of words –
Painting eclipses the day before the great American eclipse with visitors from around the world getting ready to head to Wyoming.
Museum goers’ tiny contributions to my leave behind piece
Painting stars –
Here is a nice little write up they did about me –
Creating a blue zoo –
Working on my “leave behind art” piece
A particularly adorable visitor testing out my stage for me
A little corner of the studio –
Planning for my family workshop where we made little table top paper theaters
One of the kid’s finished theaters
A workshop with Kindergarteners making shadow puppet monsters inspired by “In the Hall of the Mountain King”
And more work on the leave behind piece…
