“Free to Wander Wherever They Choose”

“Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world;

but here the earth was the floor of the sky.”

― Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop

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One and one-half wandering Jews
Free to wander wherever they choose
Are traveling together
In the Sangre de Christo
The Blood of Christ Mountains
Of New Mexico
On the last leg of a journey
They started a long time ago
The arc of a love affair
Rainbows in the high desert air
Mountain passes
Slipping into stone
Hearts and bones

Paul Simon, Hearts and Bones

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Rio Grande Gorge Bridge and Sangre de Cristo Mountains, painting, Douglas Moorezart, copyright 2018, all rights reserved

PRINTS

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“Winter… Something waits beneath it”

 

“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.  Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.”

Andrew Wyeth, American, painter

 

The promise of seed, painting, Douglas Moorezart, copyright 2017, all rights reserved

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”

Snowy Path – Douglas Moorezart, c 2017 all rights reserved

― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

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“A puzzle without a solution is a work of art.”

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“A puzzle with a solution is a game.

 

A puzzle without a solution is a work of art.”

 

— Marty Rubin

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Dark Path, original photography by Douglas Moorezart, copyright 2017, all rights reserved

 

“The ideal place for me is the one in which it is most natural to…”

“The ideal place for me is the one in which it is most natural to live as a foreigner.”

-Italo Calvino

Promenade, copyright 2017, Douglas Moorezart, all rights reserved

 

 

“a world where there are Octobers”

 

Through The Island Forest by Douglas MooreZart – copyright 2016, all rights reserved. Original Fine Art Prints By Douglas MooreZart

 

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“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

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In the mountains of southern California there is a lake with an island in its midst. Outside this island a majority of trees were consumed in a forest fire in 2003 (The infamous Cedar Fire).   Many of the trees had stood 200-300 or more years. But on the lake’s island you can still walk through a landscape of beautiful ancient oak and pine trees. On a fall day, as I walked the island’s edges, I came upon this spot-  a still standing glorious ancient survivor.  Autumn perfection – Fall color surrounds, the air is crisp and clear, migratory birds call above and the sun rests on the horizon.

“It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend”

“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend”

Sarah Ban Breathnach

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Within our garden in the high mountains of New Mexico is a 150 year old Pinyon tree.  Our first few years here we made a twice daily pilgrimage to sit beneath this beautiful tree — folding chair in one hand, espresso in the other.

We end up here in time to see the sun rise and the night’s mist vanish.  And in book-end symmetry at sunset we sit silent observers of the distant mountains set beneath an O’Keeffe sky of crimson, orange and purple.

One day a question arrived.  How about more permanent ‘season ticket seating’?  How about an old-fashioned tree swing? How about that branch there?  But it’s old like us and might break. Perhaps an arbor to support it – a little insurance.

Arbor done, swing hung, but something was missing. It needs some color doesn’t it?  Many colors had potential. All were considered and it took some time to settle on just one. The final choice of vibrant yellow worked perfectly, poetically.

All elements in balance now and for 310 days a year (give or take), this swing seems to levitate in the rising and setting sun, like a magic carpet….two performances daily.

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The Yellow Swing – photography by  Douglas MooreZart – Fine Art Prints

 

 

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Emerald Twilight: “Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints.”

Emerald Twilight – mixed media, copyright 2017, all rights reserved, Douglas Moorezart

Prints available here

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“Take only memories,
leave nothing but footprints.”

-Chief Seattle

 

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“without perfume yet red as a rose”

 

In my New Mexico home the wildflower known as Indian Paintbrush found just the right conditions to take up residence. It’s no easy feat to cultivate the growth of this wild scarlet and orange flower that, in fact, does resemble a free-form paintbrush. Good luck propagating this flower. Seeds are available commercially but it is anything but guaranteed to succeed.

It has very specific requirements and is a true wildflower requiring no human intervention to grow where it wills. Transplanting an Indian Paintbrush does not work as it is a parasitic plant attaching its roots to the roots of other plants and deriving water from them. So it was to my amazement that my specimens spread prolifically all over my land, increasing its range each year.  Here is one of several artworks I’ve created on this unique, complex and truly wild botanical wonder!

Indian Paintbrush, mixed media, copyright 2014, Douglas Moorezart, all rights reserved

There are multiple legends about the origins of this remarkable beauty. One such legend is shared in Tomie dePaola’s children’s book the…

…’Legend of the Indian Paintbrush“.  This is the story of a young Indian boy who did not fit in his society’s assigned role as warrior. Today I suppose he would be labeled “special needs“.  Eventually, he finds his place as an artist. (Hooray for that!)  And as you might guess, this eventually leads to the origin of the Indian Paintbrush flower. But I’m not giving away the punchline! Here is a 5 minute version of the story by Tomie dePaola:

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This striking perennial is honored by poet A.V. Hudson,

 

“A strange little flower with a sun-kissed nose,

without perfume yet red as a rose.

Did some Indian maiden plant you here

in the footprint left by the hoof of a deer?”

 

First Sight

At First Sight, Watercolor/Mixed Media, Douglas Moorezart,, copyright 2017, all rights reserved

“For it is up to you and me…
to create the everlasting
from fleeting moments.”

― Sanober Khan

“The past is never where you think you left it.”

Chinese Vase with Daffodils, oil on canvas, D. Moorezart, copyright 2017, all rights reserved

― Katherine Anne Porter

“The cure for anything…”

Wave, acrylic on paper, D. Moorezart, copyright 2017, all rights reserved

 

“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.”

– Isak Dinesen

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“If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face…”

 

“If a dog will not come to you
after having looked you in the face,
you should go home
and examine
your conscience.”

― Woodrow Wilson

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Apollo and Jack, c 2017, all rights reserved, D. Moorezart

 

 

“in a world which is doing its best… to make you like everybody else”

Unnoticed – D. Moorezart, c 2017, all rights reserved

“To be nobody but yourself in a world
which is doing its best day and night
to make you like everybody else
means to fight the hardest battle
which any human being can fight
and never stop fighting.”

― E.E. Cummings

 

 

“However vast the darkness we must supply our own light”

 

Coastal Ramblings – D. Moorezart, copyright 2017, all rights reserved

 

— Stanley Kubrick

 

 

“moments pass as though they wished to stay”

Flaxen Ephemera – D. Moorezart, c 2017

“So moments pass as though
they wished to stay.
We have not long to love.
A night. A day….”

― Tennessee Williams, The Collected Poems

“i vanish into poetry”

“moonlight disappears down the hills
mountains vanish into fog
and i vanish into poetry.”

― Sanober Khan

Moonlit – an original photograph by D. Moorezart, c 2017, all rights reserved (click to enlarge)

“There is a crack in everything, That’s how the light gets in.”

 

Forest Light – Douglas Moorezart, copyright 2017, all rights reserved

 

~Leonard Cohen

Daily Illuminations

Daily Illuminations – painting, Douglas Moorezart, c 2017, all rights reserved < click image for prints >

“What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.”

― Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

“you can’t tell her to come back later”

a muse d, D. Moorezart, c 2017, all rights reserved

“The muse whispers to you when she chooses, and you can’t tell her to come back later, because you quickly learn… she might not come back at all.”

— Terry Brooks

“Music was my refuge”

Street Musicians, D. Moorezart, c 2017, all rights reserved

 

“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”

― Maya Angelou

“I don’t enjoy surprises that compel me to renegotiate my relationship with the past.”

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― Adib Khan, Spiral Road

Resistance is Futile – Douglas Moorezart, copyright 2017, all rights reserved

“What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question”

Pigeon Point Lighthouse – Douglas Moorezart, copyright 2016, all rights reserved

“What is the meaning of life? That was all-a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.”

― Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

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Between Night and Day

Between Night and Dawn – Douglas Moorezart, c 2016

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” 

-Thomas Jefferson

220 Years of Respite

220 Years of Respite – D. Moorezart, copyright 2016, all rights reserved

On my travels along the California coast this year I retreated from the 100 degree heat and the endless, unrelenting freeways into this otherworldly house of worship – the San Luis Rey Mission in Oceanside, California.

Here it is cool and still and with one step past the threshold the outside world simply ceases to exist. Here time stands still and the rarefied ambiance of 220 years takes over my being. One lone man sits in midday prayer before me.

Some time later, my being in balance, I depart through the church doors and, as I do, I recall the opening lyrics of the Elton John song “60 Years On”.

Who’ll walk me down to church when I’m sixty years of age
When the ragged dog they gave me has been ten years in the grave
And señorita plays guitar, plays it just for you
My rosary has broken and my beads have all slipped through.

— Bernie Taupin

“We need hope, the sense of a future”

Blue Hope – Douglas Moorezart, c 2016, all rights reserved

 Prints available here.

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“To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient for human beings;

we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning,

understanding, and explanation; we need to see over-all patterns

in our lives. We need hope, the sense of a future. And we need

freedom (or, at least, the illusion of freedom) to get beyond ourselves,

whether with telescopes and microscopes and our ever-burgeoning

technology, or in states of mind that allow us to travel to other worlds,

to rise above our immediate surroundings.”

— Oliver Sacks

Desert Mission

Anza Borrego Desert Church – Fine Art Prints available at link – Douglas MooreZart

St. Richards Catholic Church turned 60 last spring.  I’ve created a fine art print above to capture how striking this humble Borrego Springs mission style church appears before the looming Santa Rosa mountains.

The background story:

1940s – No road, no telephone, just a name

Borrego Springs, California was barely connected to the outside world in the 1940s.  There were dirt roads, no telephones, no outside electricity.  The Catholic Church purchased land for the church site naming it the  “de Anza Catholic mission,” after Juan Bautista de Anza, the early Spanish explorer who traversed the Borrego Valley in 1774.

1950s  – Volunteers, money, new name

Built by volunteers and financed by 16 local Catholic families the church was completed in April, 1954. It’s final name –  St. Richard Catholic Church.

1960 – Fire! send for help from Julian!

In 1960 the church survived a fire but was severely damaged.  State park rangers and local residents fought the flames with garden hoses for over an hour until State Forestry fire equipment from the mountain community of  Julian, California arrived – a 31 mile trip.   After repairs the church was reopened.

1970 – 2001  How about some stained glass?

In the 1970s Julian, California glass artist James Hubbell installed windows along the side of the church.  In 2001, world-renowned stained glass artist Sarah Hall, using glass from France and Germany, created an 8′ by 8′ foot stained glass window behind the church altar, illuminating the darkest part of the sanctuary.

“put it on canvas as fast as possible.”

“The important thing is to remember what most impressed you and to put it on canvas as fast as possible.“

Pierre Bonnard, painter

Salvia and Coreopsis – Original Art and Fine Art Prints – Douglas Moorezart