an abstract pastel by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Tag Archives: art
Shining Waters and Sonnet 44
photograph by Sonja Bingen
This photograph was taken after the memorial for Kevin Michael Davis, organized by Sonja and Mary Wood, our daughters, was held at Newport Beach on the tip of Door County in Wisconsin, one of Kevin’s favorite places when he was a child and young adult. This beautiful place looks out on Lake Michigan and is filled with the sounds of birds and lapping of waves on sand and wet, black stones. Passing ships are often small dots on the distant horizon.
Sonnet 44
by Thomas Davis
To sum an individual life with words
is like endeavoring to touch a hand
through shadows on a wall. Like falling sand
words flow around our substance; sounds unheard
dance symphonies of brilliant mockingbirds
into an absence; moments fade into a fairyland.
Our son was loved; he loved; he made a mark
in web design, fought deep depression, wrote
some poems and essays, loved to walk the dark,
taught everyone around him, wore a coat
of many-colors from the spirit of his heart,
and blessed his father, mother as he taught
us courage as he faced life torn apart.
His death left us bereft, alone, distraught.
Filed under Art, Photography, Poetry, Thomas Davis
The Marriage
a pastel by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Filed under Art, Art by Ethel Mortenson Davis, Ethel Mortenson Davis
Darfur
a poster design by Alazanto, Kevin Davis, our son
Kevin’s note with the design: A simple play on the Sudanese flag to bring greater attention towards the ongoing Darfur situation.
The Darfur conflict is still ongoing even though the region, the size of France, gained independence in 2011. Kevin was part of the movement to protest what he saw as genocide in Darfur and created this poster as part of that movement. The poster gained national notice.
Filed under Art
Weather Upside Down, a photo essay
Snow came to Continental Divide yesterday and last night. Sometimes it was so thick you could not see the Zuni Mountains out the back window.
Ethel Mortenson Davis’s photograph of flowers blooming as snow fell
Up north in Wisconsin, where Sonja Bingen lives, spring is bursting with intensity.
Sonja Bingen’s photographs
Is the north becoming the south?
Filed under Art, Essays, Photography
The Dance
a photograph and poem by Ethel Mortenson Davis
There is a dance
the bee makes
when it has found food.
It dances in the hive
with all the other bees
looking on
until each one
understands the dance
and knows where to fly–
unlike the astronauts
who came around
from the dark side
of the moon
and saw (for the first time)
what the earth looked like,
new and bright
and more beautiful
than we could have imagined–
a blue-green jewel
shrouded in white clouds.
They wanted to tell us
the best thing
about going into space
was the earth itself.
They wanted to do
the dance for us,
but we could not
get the sense of it.
We could not imitate
the dance.
The Dance copyright © I Sleep Between the Moons of New Mexico, 2010.
Filed under Art, Ethel Mortenson Davis, Photography, Poetry
Cat in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France
a photograph by Alazanto, Kevin Davis, our son
Taken on November 15, 2009
Filed under Art, Photography
Northwest Indian Mask — Poem: The Haida
a pastel and poem by Ethel Mortenson Davis
The Haida
The Haida left
the Northwest to come
to the Chicago Field Museum
to bring home their ancestors;
They were gone
for over one-hundred years,
stolen from a village
and put into drawers.
The Haida made button blankets
and round-cornered cedar boxes
painted in their rich
black and red symbols
in which they would place
their family remains
and bring them peace.
The Haida asked
the Chicago Field Museum
if they would also return
their family totems
and masks and other artifacts.
The Museum said,
“We’ll think about it.”
The Haida copyright © I Sleep Between the Moons of New Mexico, 2010.
Filed under Art, Art by Ethel Mortenson Davis, Ethel Mortenson Davis, Poetry
Kite Flying
a photo essay by Sonja Bingen
The winds of early spring sing windy songs
and young boy’s thoughts begin to long
for wings that lift his feet off ground to sky
and let his spirit start to fly.
He starts upon a hill, runs, lets legs stretch
as gentle winds begin to catch
the kite into its dance of buffeting
as paper, string, and tail go soaring
into a place where boys have always run
into the joy of springtime’s sun.
Filed under Art, Photography
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