Contest Prompt: Golden Stillness
February 1, 2010 by catvibe
10hb_goldbuddha
Golden Buddha by Cat Vibert
Photography Collage
Available in Art Store

 

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I will meet you there. …  Rumi

Friends and followers, February is the month of love.  Love is a giving thing, and I am joining the many bloggers out there who are giving things away in honor of blog love.  On Valentine’s Day, I will hold a drawing for a chance to win the above image.  To enter, leave a comment on this post with a short poem about Stillness.

Spread the love, tell your friends. Tweet it, Facebook it, be creative, and let’s have some fun!

Love,

Cat

 

Added on Feb 3: Awesome entries so far everyone.  Keep them coming, tell your friends.  I’ll accept entries until midnight on February 13th.  I will announce the winner on February 14th.  Good luck everyone!

 


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Nothing Stays the Same
January 29, 2010 by catvibe
hb12_dancingbuddhas
Dancing Buddhas by Cat Vibert
From Headless Buddha Series available in Art Store
Oh they do come and go

Dancing in

Swirling out

In

Out

Come

Go

Like my heart beating blood

It comes in blue

It goes out red

 

You rush in red

I come out blue

Because I can’t hold blood

 

You walked in silently

Through layers of fog

Touched the triangle

Reaching clarity

Touched the triangle

Instant opening

Touched the triangle

With quiet revelations

The dam is broken

 

I bleed

 

The doctor exposes the wound

And is gone

 

I stumble, I feel, I ache

I don’t feel, I am numb

 

The fog is thick

The triangle bleeds

 

It bleeds

 

I don’t know how much

 

It doesn’t matter

 

Blood comes and goes

 

It comes

and

goes

 

Nothing stays the same

©2010 Catherine Vibert

(PS, I’d love to know your thoughts on this image.  I had fun ‘doctoring’ it recently as I’m entering the Headless Buddha Photography series into a juried exhibition. To see the original unedited version click here.  Thanks!  ~ Cat)



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A Couplet for a Secret Lover
January 25, 2010 by catvibe
9hb_sunrisebuddha
Sunrise Buddha by Cat Vibert
A Photo Collage from Headless Buddha Series
Available in Art Store

Oh how you’ve got my thoughts derailed

“My lover, my secret, my one,”


Dancing and swirling on neuron tails

Far away from the light of the sun.


Just watch the stage from here above

The  passion play of fire,


An artist painting flames of love

With cauldrons of desire.


Oh yes this play, this stage within

Leaves swaths of ash behind,


And still I would invite you in,

(As if your heart were mine).


But find me in another realm

A place where love flows kind,


Where we can dance and sing as One

Yet free from chains of mind.


Just follow


Me Here


Not there,


Yes, Here


Where hearts


Beat slow


At peace


With God


The Water


Our Secret


My Love

 

©2010 Catherine Vibert

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Just Maybe
January 22, 2010 by catvibe
8hb_mirrors
Mirrored Buddha by Cat Vibert.
Photography Collage.
From Headless Buddha Series available in Art Store.

If I sit

Long enough

With enough quiet

My mind might disappear

Then maybe



Just maybe

When the characters in my mind

Step off the stage,

I will hear You


I will hear You in the wind

In the song of the bird

Or the purr of my cat

In the voice of my lover

Or the cackle of the witch

Just maybe


And just maybe

When the sea behind my eyes

Is no longer drowning me,

I will see You


I will see You in the sky

On the starlit horizon

Or there in the ground

The crystal held in rock

Just maybe


And just maybe

When needy thoughts have fled

Because I am not listening,

I will feel You


I will feel You,

In the beating of my heart

As the world decays around me

My heart would beat for You

I would follow the rhythm

Dancing to Your song

Just maybe…

 

 

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Trapped Buddha
January 11, 2010 by catvibe
7hb_trappedbuddha_0

Trapped Buddha by Cat Vibert.  From Headless Buddha Series.  Available in Art Store

Hidden in shadows
And tangled webs of light are
Stairways to heaven
© 2010 Catherine Vibert
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Chasing the Muse: A New Blog for Catvibe
November 30, 2009 by catvibe

1hb_bmoon_orch

Welcome to my new website.   When I set up my first blog, Witnessing a World of People and Places, I was about to fly off to India and I wanted a way to communicate to my friends and family about where I was and what I was doing.  The blog became so much more than that, as have the community I have found through that blog.  You!  I thank you for following me here.

Since moving to North Carolina a little over a year ago, because of the rural situation I am living in, the time spent living with my father, etc, I’ve been able to spend a lot of time in contemplation.  I’ve been chasing the muse all around the house actually, from painting, movie making, multimedia and as of November, writing a novel.  I’ve always been a creative person actually, but something about this last year has cemented it.  If you can cement something that is more like a butterfly than not, and still have it fly.

And so, along with the Headless Buddhas has come the will to actually create a business of musing.  Yes, even muse chasers must eat, and I am no exception.  I am taking the plunge and putting my work in the marketplace!  It’s a little odd for me, I’ve never been much of a mercenary.

With this new site, I have succeeded in incorporating my new creative writing blog with an art store, to give people the opportunity to buy my prints, just in time for the holidays!  Please take some time to browse the site and let me know what you think.  Over the next few days I’ll be making changes to add multimedia and perfect the appearance.  The store is all set up and ready and I’ve tested the checkout so feel free to shop!

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Headless Buddha gets selected for show!
November 6, 2009 by catvibe


Dear Friends, I am very excited to announced that my Headless Buddha with Blue Moon and Orchid was selected by a juror to be in a very intimate and competitive art show at Grace Community Church in Mills River, NC. It’s the first time my art has ever been in a show, and I’m so excited and honored to have my work selected. The opening is Saturday night from 7:30 to 9:30 and is open to the public.

I am taking a blogging haitus for the remainder of November. I’m writing a novel as a participant in the NaNoWriMo.org annual writer’s contest. The only way to win is to get to 50,000 words by the end of the month. I’m a few days in and at 9300 words, so I’m plodding along.

In addition, I’m also taking a class and learning how to use WordPress software to have an online store for my prints. I intend to have this up and running by the beginning of December. I am taking pre-orders for the above Headless Buddha prints. If you are interested in ordering one or more of these prints, which look beautiful when printed on textured fine art paper, please email me at cat@catvibe.com. I will also be offering others, but I haven’t tested the printability of all of them yet. Do let me know if you have interest in any other images on my blog, and I will test and see how well they print. For instance, the Headless Buddha and New Moon doesn’t print so well. Calibration is key! I’m working out the kinks.

In any case, I am so grateful for all of your ongoing support. You must know how much each and every one of you mean to me. I cyberhug you now. Did you feel it?

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Gaze of Fire Woman
October 20, 2009 by catvibe

Gaze of Fire Woman
From Headless Buddha Series
Digitally Altered Watercolor

She stares at the stillness as her dreams fall away into the clouds of desert sand and pools of darkness somehow connect the colors of its countries rendering death and forever into a complex tapestry that she lives purging all perceived self definitions into the fire of wholly sacrificing every scrap from past destinations and stepping off the cliffs of nothing into love invisible and omnipresent reality.

Note: Nod to ee cummings; ‘the colors of its countries rendering death and forever’ borrowed from Somewhere I have Never Traveled
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Fall Away
October 13, 2009 by catvibe
Headless Buddha with Birthday Orchid
Digitally altered watercolor

If only I were a statue
I would sit all day and watch the clouds
Until my head fell away.
Then, still, I would sit
With my hand in my lap
Knowing it is not me
That makes the orchid grow.
The water flows so perfectly
While I am still.

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Beauty from the Dust
September 29, 2009 by catvibe

We crumble, we can not help this
Our dreams, thoughts and loves will all fade in time,
As beauty grows from the dust.

Blue Moon with Buddha and Orchid
From Headless Buddha series
Digitally altered watercolor collage

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Reality
September 24, 2009 by catvibe

Reality
From Headless Buddha series
Watercolor on paper

Dear friends, I will turn 49 on Saturday. That’s 7 squared, somehow that seems important for some esoteric reason of which I am clueless. For my birthday, please gift me with a short poem in the comment section that describes how this image relates to reality in your mind.

I am so very grateful for the many connections I’ve made over the last year via blogging and Facebook. It’s a strange place, this internet, but it has truly been amazing. I look forward to another year!

(Added 9/26)Thank you for these poems my dear friends. They are wonderful, and you are all precious.

Emergent

Emergent be your heart and soul
The splendor of each moment’s toll
The knowing grace of love now known
In joyous beauty ever shown
Your gift of life, a birth sublime
Celebrated now in your year 49.
Rose Marie Raccioppi

Above It All

The effervescence of our life unfolds in loving attitudes
We witness blessings far and near
amid a world of war torn strife
Our love for nature carries us to places high above the sky
Peace carries us amid the clouds we’re lifted up, away we fly.
–Kathryn A. Curry

broken in the hole I dug for you
yellow on black
yellow for roots
but I will not sprinkle the dirt
or stomp down mud
reeking between my toes
take the little piece of sun
a fish for maize
I know my place
in the shade
Jason Evans

Timeless echos near and far..
reaching out to stir the quiet unrest, becoming light and leaning
before our eager minds.

Only a concept that is time
Count the lifetime.. 49
–Mark

IMAGES OF REALITY

Lightening breaks the define
between the blue black seas
and the sun opening sky.
Witnessing with
attached detachment
of all that sails
within the sight
unseen with mere eyes.

I am yet bound by sight
to know the color
that forms the shapes
the shapes the images
the images the idea
and the idea the reason.
The Walking Man

Sweet age dissolves the mind,
awareness
flows forth from the cerebral cave of inexperience and youth,
connecting through the ethereal,
assembled with the whole, experiencing
the self beyond physical form.
Peace in that there can never be death as we are confident in our legacy,
admit our imperfections
and grow with our thoughts in others.
For this is life, where chronology, at first a foe,
becomes friend. May the journey
be longer, much longer,
and when time beckons us to rest, so it shall be.
Minister of the Masochistic Truth

Diverted into dreams
of naked illusions
floating in fragile bubbles
of golden stardust
bathing in sugar-coated
cotton candy sweetness
until reality strikes back
with it’s icy hand
demanding it’s rightful presence
in our headless minds
Margaret

I’m not sure how
the bones fit together
so seamlessly along my spine
that year, rising and falling
like the swells in the Pacific.

But age did not determine
the…experience my ligaments
entertained holding me together
–Jill Zimmerman

Head in the clouds
Mind blown
Call it what you will
I call it reality
–Claudia Larson

Anger does not stick
to purple ashes rained on
and silent, sepia bones
drained of all lightning

Reality is a static song
filled with seconds
that cannot sustain themselves
and structures that fall
like hearts once did

Despair it
Or not

It does not care
Sarah Hina

The egg split, transient
as a golden bubble blown
by a downy–headed child
with a wand and tube
of birthday soap.

The egg split, and out
came the sky, birthed
new and gleaming,
dreaming
of a chaos of feathered
wings and the patter
of triumphant storm.

Rachel Westfall

Reality

Sun lights window on the heart
Etches a gold leaf on the breast

Bruised butterfly wings splay open
A thumb pokes upward behind a painted foot

A lazy alligator smiles, gazing contentedly
As the shadow of a unicorn softly shifts shape

Among blue crystals that
Fracture and float free

Act of violence carves rivulets of pain, prompting
The soul’s flight across a sky of islands aloft with grace

–A very dear friend who wishes to remain anonymous

Reality comes, goes.
Is coloured, is colourless.

There is dark
there is light

there is you
there is me

there is Buddha
in all his glory…

it’s all a gift
the pain and the beauty

and you are Beauty!

Calli

a piece of her here
a piece of her there
love oh love she does
both one and the other
blinded by grace
to hurt no one
how long will her heart
be torn thus
one way
and the other
when will she find joy
in greaving one
and loving the other

Jorc

I wish I had wished you,
If not before, then just in time.
I wish I had written for you
The sweetest of rhymes.

But reality can suck,
And I cant turn back time
Though if I could, I’d write a few lines
To thank you, praise you and bring you a smile

You have been a great inspiration
And such a sweet friend
Even close to the naughty fifty
You set the latest trends.

You’ve gifted us with many
Haiku, sonnets and proses
Also, your with the brush,
Beats anyday, a bunch of roses.

So forgive me, my friend
for I am late to thank
I cross my heart and swear
I’ve been totally frank

You most certainly are
You are a treasured one
Looking forward to your next 50
And hell loads of fun!

Aniket

somehow this year
i forgot to think
about all the quiet
violets that crush
under my stinging tears
and forgot to see all
the shapeless birds
building nests of words
in trees of hope in
branches of faith
in a darkness that
bleeds to purple

K. Lawson Gilbert

Bounded by flesh
Yet not limited
Not even by the stars
Your soul soars

Vesper

This abstract of reality
Speaks volume from a space empty
in shades of yellow and blue
depict life’s black and white hue
the lightening, awaken the truth
bringing wisdom with age to earth
know that you are blessed with age
as you see life’s truth like a sage!

Swapnap

There are some more sweet sentiments in the comments, but they felt more personally directed so I left them in the comments. I thank you all for your lovely sentiments, and I am floored by all the wonderful interpretations on the painting. They mean more to me than you can know! Thank you so much for participating!

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Buddha in the Blue
September 18, 2009 by catvibe


Buddha and New Moon
Watercolor and Digital Collage

This image is a collage of two watercolor paintings that I altered and combined. The Buddha was inspired by the countless headless Buddhas that I saw while traveling in Thailand. Asian relics such as heads have been pillaged illegally throughout the last few hundred years in order to serve the desires of collectors and so on. I’m starting a painting series of headless Buddhas.

I greatly apologize not coming to your blog recently. I’ve been a little headless myself as of late. I’m feeling kind of overwhelmed by this health care fight, and am putting so much emotion into it that it is starting to make me crazy. What a vortex of insanity. Painting has been a wonderful way to escape news, computers, reality, whatever. Anyway, I will be around to your blogs very soon and I thank you for your continued visits to mine.

Oh, I can’t seem to think of a poem to go with the image, so please feel free to create one yourself in the comments!

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