All Zhenne & Everything

...somewhere between the words,

DO THE BRIGHT THING!

AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN,

ANY AND EVERY MOMENT YOU CAN DO -

AND THEN KEEP DOING IT

AGAIN AND AGAIN

IN EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE YOU CAN...

IT WILL BECOME A VERY GOOD HABIT

AND ART & LIFE & LOVE

WILL SHINE LIGHTER AND BRIGHTER!

ENJOY THIS MOMENT!

AS MUCH AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN!

One night a couple of years ago, I was worried about a couple of things and I lay down to rest.  My two cats Quinn and Masako had eaten dinner and were on the bed with me.  After a while, Masako got up and started to move things around on her little dish, for quite a little while...I wondered what she was doing...she wasn't eating, just moving things around. Then she got back on the bed and I fell asleep.  When I awoke in the morning - and saw her little dish, this is what I saw!  It made me very happy.

She has a very high LQ = Love Quotient, and so mystically so.  Sweet Masako!

Zhenne Wood Statement About Art of Dollmaking

 

   
"The creative imagination touches the mundane and makes it extraordinary. Expressing the creative process is a deep spiritual human need...it is a continual learning process: my art studio is my classroom where I teach myself things I cannot understand, but the answers are dazzling and significant. It is my magic castle, my alchemical laboratory, my field of dreams. Within its walls I explore compelling realms of inspiration, pursuing beauty and that transcendent split-instant when the magical aspects of reality shimmer into view. Emissaries from beyond the looking-glass and mirroring our cultural beliefs and fancies, dolls are inextricably entwined with our private and collective histories. Dolls reflect our spirit and we react to them on a mysterious emotional level. I have been caught by their mysterious charm and metaphysical allure. Dollmaking is an ages-old tradition and a folk art that I have chosen to perpetuate. It allows me to express a lifelong entrancement with colour, costume, ritual, tableaux, myth, fairytales, primal notions and the odd appeal of inscrutable objects. From the stuff of my dreamings and the stuff of this world all sewn together with needle and thread, I bid these unique presences into existence to amuse and dazzle the eye -- to befriend and inspire myself and others. They speak a silent language; impelling or answering us with a gaze or a stance... ...poised midway between Art & Magic - seemingly ready to reveal a secret or tell a story... ...to be continued. "   Zhenne Wood

 

 The dolls/figures shown here are "Blue Sky Brother and Sister" and are my original and one-of-a-kind creations.  I will talk more about them in the next post.  I thought they were nice images to accompany my statement on dollmaking.  I made them in 1993 and are in a private collection.
 
 
 

I arose before the sun this morning...

...now, here it is - tapping at my window

a faithful friend bringing the gift of a beautiful day!

I am pondering the future of Beauty and Reality...let us make beauty more real and reality more beautiful...

this is a word image I created a few years ago.
 

BE WHATEVER IT'S NEVER WASTED FOR...

 I don't write many letters...it has always been difficult for me to get past how are you?  One night with the full moon motionless outside my window I tried and tried to write a letter - after countless crumpled how are you's? had gathered on my floor like paper snowballs I decided to just start writing anything that came to mind as quickly as I could without even thinking about or even really knowing what I was writing this is what it turned out to be.  I never sent this letter - and now I send it into cyberspace.  I took this picture of a sunset a couple of years ago.

"Hold fast to Dreams...

...for when dreams go,

Life is a barren field, frozen with snow."

--Langston Hughes

 

I just have a couple of photos of me from my early life.  Here I am under my first Christmas Tree with a toy piano and a duckling doll.

Here I am at six going on seven.  This photo was taken exactly 50 years ago - my first school picture.  I haven't changed much.

Here I am exactly 20 years ago.  I haven't changed much. 

STILL ENROLLED IN THE SCHOOL OF LIFE,

HOLDING ONTO MY DREAMS AS FAST AS I CAN

AND EMBRACING ALL THE PASSIONATE MYSTICAL BEAUTY OF LIFE
ARDENTLY, COMPASSIONATELY -

KNOWING THAT AFTER EVERY SNOWFALL
THE SUN APPEARS IN THE MORNING
NURTURING US WITH BEAUTIFUL LIGHT.

Most recent picture...

This picture was taken exactly 10 months ago by a passing neighbor outdoors as I held Nora, the outdoor cat.  She used to be feral, but I won her heart and trust as I fostered her until I could find her a loving home.  It broke my heart that I could not keep her myself - but 3 cats would be too much.  She's an absolute Sweetie!  UpDATE:  Nora was adopted into a loving home just in time for Thanksgiving last year shortly after this picture was taken.!

MEANWHILE, I haven't changed much.