Bloom

My favorite tree is in bloom.

Just when I think winter will never end, the buds start showing up and there is hope. This year the buds appeared, then there was a freeze and I panicked--maybe they wouldn't bloom. But here they are.

Their beauty so strong that they get me out of the house to look closer, and to share with you.

This bloom reminds me of the incredible painting by Van Gogh that is on display at the Philadelphia Art Museum in the exhibition Van Gogh Up Close. It closes tomorrow but moves on to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottowa, May 25 to September 3, 2012. The painting comes right at the end of the exhibition, and clearly the curators also feel the power of this painting since they put it as the first illustration in the catalog and as a two-page detail at the end. Almond Blossom, from 1890, shows a branch of the flowering tree silhouetted against a fantastic blue-green sky. When I saw it I almost burst into tears. It has nothing contrived about it. It's not cleaver, or witty, or conceptually smart--it simply conveys an absolutely present communication between the artist and the tree--so honest that anyone looking at the painting must feel the exhilaration of being alive. It is what I wish of my work, and why I appreciate the tree outside my window.

Thank you for the encouragement to continue writing this blog that came in emails and online. It makes me happy to share my thoughts with you; keeps me connected from my corner of the world. I do post in facebook fairly often, so if you aren't my friend there, please send a request. You can like my professional page (bhakti ziek weaver) or ask to be friends on my personal page (bhakti ziek). Or do both--why not?