Three Graces Night and Day
August 7, 2010 by catvibe
cvibert_fall10
Three Graces Night and Day by Cat Vibert
20X24 oil on canvas

Dawn pierces through the dead of night

where light becomes shadow

then shadow to light

as pain sees beauty

when sorrow finds sight

seeking refuge in the deep.

See mountains beyond so steeped in blue

but when I climb them

there is only You

for that is the path

we climb anew

in spirals of our sleep.

Awake then friend, and see the dawn

for dark becomes light

when night has gone

The Graces will sing

their  siren song

forever yours to keep.


@2010 Catherine Vibert

Dear friends, perhaps you remember a poetry contest a few months back in which Sarah Hina, Tom Hirons and Rachel Westfall were the winners?  That contest featured the photo that inspired this painting.  This painting represents a new turn for me in my painting, as I’ve just started in with a teacher and I’m loving the results.  Can’t wait to get started on the newest effort!

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Color Blazes from the East
January 27, 2010 by catvibe
tgairstreaksky2
Three Graces under the Air Streaked Sky by Cat Vibert
Photography
This image is available for sale in the Art Store.

 

Color blazes in from the East

Waking me from a black and white

Night of the forgotten

One who touches me

Where fire is not allowed

And the cold blue dawn

Ignites in rainbow visions

That have no home

In this reality

Of forgotten dreaming


Air streaks cross the sky

Arcing from North to South

As fallout dusts

The sunset West

©2010 Catherine Vibert

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Sunrise
January 18, 2010 by catvibe
tg_marlow_sunrise

Marlow and the Three Graces at Sunrise by Cat Vibert

 

“Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” Martin Luther King

Friends, the Haiti earthquake has taken all the blog out of me!  I want to write something in regards to all of that, but the scope is just so huge that I am really quite speechless.  I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch any of it on TV, it seems enough to know.  I donated a little money, but it never feels like enough…  My prayer is that since this tragedy has illuminated the dire needs of Haiti and its citizens,  that the help they receive will have long term beneficial consequences for them in the rebuilding.  Please consider making a donation to help.  There are a long list of outstanding organizations that are on the ground now making a difference.

 

How does the picture relate?  Well, it doesn’t really.  Except that I would like to send a little light down that way.  A little sunrise for Haiti.

 

©2010 Catherine Vibert

 

 

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Three Graces in the Apricot Dawn
January 3, 2010 by catvibe
8tg-apricot-dawn

Three Graces in the Apricot Dawn, by Cat Vibert.  Watercolor Digital Mixed Media.

Three Graces Series available in the Art Store

An Apricot dawn
Graces greet the morning sun
Their shadows dancing
©2009 Catherine Vibert
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Three Graces hold an Autumn Ball
October 28, 2009 by catvibe


Three Graces hold an Autumn Ball
Oil on Canvas

Wear your finest gold
Winter is tomorrow’s game
Today, we shall dance!


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Three Graces Under a Zebra Sky
October 23, 2009 by catvibe

Three Graces Under a Zebra Sky
Watercolor

Yes friends, there is more to life than Headless Buddhas. A person can’t stare at stillness forever! I have been a very busy bee lately. In addition to taking classes in InDesign and WordPress and Dreamweaver, etc. I’ve also embarked on a process to learn the business of becoming a professional artist. I can’t tell you how happy I am to sit down to paint with the knowledge that I am doing my job! So, I thank you again for your patience, my blogging friends are getting short shrifted as my schedule fills up, but I want you to know that you all have been SUCH an inspiration. Your support over this last year has been what has gotten me through a very difficult and introspective journey allowing me to come to this point. You people are just awesome and it is a blessing to know you.

The above painting is my view across the street. Those who have been following my blog for a while may remember The Three Graces, my beloved trees.

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Art and Organisms:Cat of Arc in the kitchen
August 23, 2009 by catvibe

Hello everyone, this is Cat of Arc. Yes, I’m still here and very much in possession of Cat’s blog and her body. She really doesn’t like to give up her blog for me, but I’m the one with the swords.

On the health care thing? Oh, yes, I am still very much working in this dimension to talk to people about what is going on out there, and the general consensus is that everyone is extremely confused and very pissed off. People on all sides of the coin have gone completely bonkers and the vision that is supposed to stand as the fulcrum is being tested with a force stronger than a Cat 5 storm. I can still see the vision however, and plead with you not to give up hope, and to keep talking to people from all sides. Listen to each other! Calling each other names is simply not going to leave room for open communication! And please folks, leave your guns at home, will ya? You may claim that your gun is your second amendment right and that’s why you’re carrying that semiautomatic weapon on your belt at the town hall meeting. However, you and I both know that you are just trying to intimidate and bully. A gun at a meeting about health care is, simply put, off topic.

Alright now, please take a deep breath and cool down for a bit while we look at some images:

Morning On the Dream Field
Digitally Altered Photo

The Llama’s Refuge
Oil on Canvas

Ok, break over. Here’s the thing, one of the big concerns I have over the health care system, is how completely inadequate it is to help people learn to actually keep themselves healthy. People don’t do it, they just eat what they want to eat even if it will kill them. On NPR there was a radio program on Talk of the Nation a few days ago, on the subject of health care. There was a call in guy who claimed to be a Libertarian. He was strongly of the opinion that before people depend on a government system for their health care, they need to take care of themselves. People need to claim personal responsibility. Although I DO think we need a government health care option (that is a choice and not forced upon one) I actually agree with him about health. I think people should stay healthy, and frankly, I think we’ve forgotten how because we made the silly mistake of letting the ‘free market’ determine how we eat. The industry panders to the lazy in us. I also think people should eat local produce because it makes sense to eat food that is grown down the road. However, that makes eating vegetables a very difficult thing to do in the winter when food isn’t to be found growing down the road that is covered in 4 feet of snow.

That is, unless you managed to save some of that summer bounty somehow.

Before I moved here to Asheville, I was visiting a friend and we went to see a traveling puppet show that was coming through town. The show had some anti-government messages, one of which I found to be truly delightful, “The Government won’t set you free. Chores will set you free!” Now, about having the choice between government health care and private insurance, you bet I want that choice. And I’ll sign right up for the public option, and then try hard as heck not to ever use it. To that end, I have taken on the chore of preserving my locally grown organic veggies, grown by my friends at a local CSA (Community Supported Ag), by lactic acid fermention. A process using salt and water, which not only preserves the qualities of the raw vegetables, but it turns out the organisms that congregate as a result of the process are gonna save your life! They eat all the bad stuff inside you and leave you only with good stuff. That way you won’t have to be a burden on that government health care system that we are asking for, no, demanding. So in this way, you could say I am ‘pro-life’, or ‘pro-microbe life’ otherwise known as ‘pro-biotics’. I’m sure you’ve heard the term? Preserving vegetables in this way, means you don’t have to take pro-biotic supplements.

So I came up with the motto “No Vegetable Left Behind”, (which I happen to think is terribly original), and now I have got several months worth of dinner breeding in my basement. It was hard work (only because of the sheer amount of veggies), but think how much is saved in money and time down the line! It’s an investment in your very near term future! I’m not going to tell you how to do the brining process itself, but will recommend two books at the bottom of this post if you want to learn how to do this incredibly simple and safe and healthy way to preserve raw food, using practices that go way back to Genghis Kahn. Think Sauerkraut, think KimChi. Think easy, healthy, sustainable, and delicious.

And now it’s time for some more images. The first one below is a picture of a fermenting jar, that I played with in Photoshop, keeping the vegetables as my inspiration. The second is the counter where the magic took place. Cat may get some time to play on her blog soon. I’m just wondering who is going to be the big cheese that will take it upon themselves to organize an ‘All Organisms Deserve Health Care’ march on Washington? (Said in jest, meant with all my heart.)

March to the Fermenting Pot
Digitally Altered Photo

Fermentation Station
Digitally Altered Photo

Books on fermentation:
Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

Making Sauerkraut by Klaus Kaufmann.

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Liturgy
June 29, 2009 by catvibe

In the wind they heard
The three graces chanting soft
A summer None song
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Springtime Song for The Graces
March 31, 2009 by catvibe

T’was on the distant mountain
Past the gate of The Three Graces
Where the wild forsythia blooms,
An old crone sat
On a green mossy stone
Contemplating the phase of the moon.

“Tis the time”, thought the crone,
As she reached for her spade,
“I will turn the ground now to prepare.”
And she went to the field
Sprouting green with new grass
And dug three holes with great care.

“In the hole to the North,”
Said the crone with much glee,
“The seeds of Earth’s Joy I shall plant”,
And she sang and she danced
As she banged on her drum
Thus infusing the seeds with intent.

In the holes to the South
She put seedlings of Charm
And next to that Beauty, you see?
The seedlings would grow
To be great spreading trees
Guarding gates of creativity.

The Three Graces are they,
A siren’s song
Three ships on a bonnie green sea,
Dancing bare in the snow
Or on moonlit bright nights
Unbridled they swing, they are free.

I can hear the crone’s laugh
Whistling up the through the hills
By the light of the Beltane Moon,
As The Graces they dance
To the May breeze call
And the peacock’s song echos the tune.

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All Things Being Equal
March 20, 2009 by catvibe

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while know that sometimes I just have to stop everything and paint. Last week my body was hurting so bad that I started thinking of my computing habits as akin to a heroin addiction. My therapy is painting. Today, in honor of the vernal equinox, I offer you this most recent painting as an image prompt, and request of you a few lines from your creative coffers. Have at it folks, and Happy Joyeous Spring Tidings!

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A Sonnet for The Three Graces
February 9, 2009 by catvibe

I hear the murder calling as I paint
They’re mocking me from high upon their perch
Accusing me of my misguided fate
They warn me, “Watch, you haven’t got the merch!”
I tell you now to flee from my great trees
To fly and find some other place to chat
But leave the goldfinch here for me to see
And learn to paint as delicate as that.
Ah now, I keep The Graces in my gaze
The fog beyond with subtleties of breath
On softly shifting colors do I graze
My brush in varied hues of shadowed depth.
With patience then The Graces do appear
Soft paint on paper, wetted with a tear.

To K. and Sarah, It’s crow season! Thanks for the inspiration!

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And The Trees Danced
January 23, 2009 by catvibe

A bitter wind blew through the land
And screams of rage could be heard
From every corner of the sky,
Echoing throughout all of the Earth.

The ground was red from the battle, the long and endless battle,
Where neither one side, nor the other
Was heard to profess an element of understanding,
And pleas screamed would only break on ears of stone,
As each claimed that their god would reign victorious.

And there were those who loved and simply watched,
Who could see beyond the shades of skin,
And the acclamations of divine intent,
And would weep helplessly,
As they watched the ebb and flow of the bleeding tides,
Cursing the shades and pointing to the color that all beings shared,
Spilled relentlessly on fields of intolerance and greed.

And the reddened brown mud dried and cracked over the earth,
And the land was parched with flame and ash,
And the waters became putrid so no one could drink,
And the air thickened, and was brown with smoke and dust,
And the food would not grow because the rains would not fall,
And all of the Earth settled into a deep despair.

Then, just when all of the world agreed that the end was near,
And that nothing could be done to reverse the turn,
A man with skin the color of coffee and milk
Stepped out onto the battlefield,
And with his eyes, ears and heart open wide,

He listened.

And he heard the cries of the people,
And he spoke to them of Hope,
And the hearts of the many who heard his words
Chose him above all others to be their voice,
And to speak the truth for them.

A fuse was ignited and all around the world,
Tall columns built on worm ridden pedestals
Began to crumble and collapse,
As the age of plenty built on shards of illusion
And the backs of slaves
Could not stand tall,
And cowered in the brilliant light of Hope
And words of Truth.

And all of the people fighting
In all of the lands,
Increased their battles,
Reaching farther into the darkness,
Looting whatever remained of anything precious.
They waged on in their wars, in the names of their gods,
Utilizing women and children, in the crimes of their greed,
And causing a great wave of grief throughout the world.

Then on the eve of the day before the man was to become
The voice of the people,
A great cloud filled the heavens and settled over the land,
And a long and quiet snow fell throughout the night,
Covering the fields stained red in the blood of slaves and soldiers
With a soft blanket of redemption.

And in the morning light,
As the sun shown on the fields of ice and snow,
The man the color of coffee and milk
Stood in front of all the world,
And spoke of Peace and the Promise of Humanity.
And all of the people from all four corners of the earth,
Heard the words,
And wept,
For the broken hearts of the many,
That had finally been redeemed.

And the trees, that had stood guard in watch of their fields,
Who witnessed the toils of the pickers and planters,
Those unlucky, who as children
Had been stolen from the arms of their mothers
And sent in the bottoms of ships, in sickness and shackles
To toil in the fields,

The trees who watched helplessly,
Bearing silent witness to the rape of young girls,
Who thought the dream was a fool’s folly
As the weight of somebody’s child
Swung heavily from their branches,
Though try as they might,
They could not release them,

The very trees whose limbs hung heavy in frozen tears,
Suddenly stood tall and reaching their naked branches to the sky,
They danced with their shadows in the fields of snowy white.
Filled with the blood of the ages they sounded in words heard clearly
In the hearts of the crying spirits of mothers and children of Africa,

“Hallelujah!” They sang.
“Behold, a brand new day!“

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A Word to the Three Graces
October 14, 2008 by catvibe


Each morning as the dawn arrives, my cat, Marlow, jumps off the foot of the bed and goes to stare out the window at the dawn and the first birds of the day. I pretend to sleep a while longer, staying huddled under warm covers. Finally he can’t stand my slothful inattentiveness anymore and he jumps back onto the bed, walks up toward my face and then jumps off the bed as I reach out to pet him. He sits just below the bed and stares up at me, occasionally calling out to me as if to say “Get up! The day has arrived!” Suddenly the light hits the window and I am charged with energy in a way no animal can inspire. I run up the stairs with my camera, to see how The Graces across the field will look today. I am in awe of their stature and beauty as they are struck by the first rays of the morning sun.

Solidly rooted, you remain unchanged,
as the world around you swirls.
Every day you remain unchanged,
but through my varied lenses,
I perceive you differently.

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Morning
October 13, 2008 by catvibe

How lucky I am
To wake up to this beauty
Dancing in the dawn

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A rainy day
October 10, 2008 by catvibe


It is difficult to think, in this season, of anything but the dismal gray of politics and the economy. Wouldn’t it be nice if instead our thoughts danced on about how good the grass tastes when it is wet, and how the mountains look with a light mist shroud? I’d like to set my mind alight with those kinds of things…

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