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Mystic 2014 by Drea

Using patience and introspection we can focus on rejoicing and know that new opportunities will come. Greater spiritual awareness comes when we manifest magical relationships.

Black Swallowtail
By Mary Oliver

The caterpillar,
interesting but not exactly lovely,
humped along among the parley leaves
eating, always eating. Then
one night it was gone and in its place
a small green confinement hung by two silk threads
on a parsley stem. I think it took nothing with it
except faith, and patience. And then one morning

it expressed itself into the most beautiful being.

Oracle 2012 by Drea

Graton artist and school teacher, Drea Jensen, in efforts to raise money in memory of Cameron Varnell, is donating Oracle 2012 to a silent auction, with 100% of the proceeds going to fight childhood leukemia.

The Summer Day

Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Oracle 2012 has been donated to the silent auction for Orion Strong’s 16th Birthday and Leukemia Fundraiser.
This painting was originally painted in honor of Cameron Varnell.

Prayer for Cameron 2013 by Drea
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~ Mary Oliver

Dear Cameron,

Today is your 14th birthday and we remember all the ways you embraced life:

playing baseball with passion,

entertaining us with Michael Jackson dancing,

and adventures on the beach with friends.

You taught us all about hope, love, and faith as you courageously battled leukemia.

You were like a brother to my son, and you increased his ability to show empathy,

taught him about the loyalty of friendship,

and inspired him to play baseball in honor of your name.

Cameron Varnell, you have changed our lives forever, we remember you always, and celebrate your greatest gift:

your powerful spirit.

Love,

Your Friends and Family

Acquiesce 2014 by Drea

“I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery.” ~ Mary Oliver

The Ponds
by Mary Oliver

Every year
the lilies
are so perfect
I can hardly believe

their lapped light crowding
the black,
mid-summer ponds.
Nobody could count all of them –

the muskrats swimming
among the pads and the grasses
can reach out
their muscular arms and touch

only so many, they are that
rife and wild.
But what in this world
is perfect?

I bend closer and see
how this one is clearly lopsided –
and that one wears an orange blight –
and this one is a glossy cheek

half nibbled away –
and that one is a slumped purse
full of its own
unstoppable decay.

Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled –
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing –
that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.

Rites of Passage 2012 by Drea

Life can be a hectic mix of good and bad, light and dark, happy and sad. Living is all about slowing down and finding the highlights of it.

Walk the Road
By Drea

Pavement radiate heat,
Re-Blessing Ceremony,
red wine.

Dog day of summer,
caress bare skin,
nature time.

Walk the road,
freedom come,
excite now.

Occidental Road Cellars owner Joelle Prather sits in the tasting room with daughter Fiona and puppy Dash. Photo: Carey Sweet

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/http%3A//www.sfgate.com/travel/tastingroom/article/Family-winery-with-a-homey-feeling-5645683.php#photo-6626044

"lots of colorful abstract paintings" ~ Drea Art mentioned in SF Chronicle write up for Occidental Road Cellars!

Thank You for supporting Drea Art!

The Messenger
By Mary Oliver

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

Testimony 2012 by Drea

Seeing things first hand is really the only way to experience things in life. Never miss a chance or opportunity to see something new.

Little Summer Poem Touching on the Subject of Faith
By Mary Oliver

Every summer
I listen and look
under the sun’s brass and even
into the moonlight, but I can’t hear

anything, I can’t see anything–
not the pale roots digging down, nor the green stalks muscling up,
nor the leaves
deepening their damp pleats,

nor the tassels making,
nor the shucks, nor the cobs.
And still,
every day,

the leafy fields
grow taller and thicker–
green gowns lofting up in the night,
showered with silk.

And so, every summer,
I fail as a witness, seeing nothing–
I am deaf too
to the tick of the leaves,

the tapping of downwardness of the banyan feet–
all of it
happening
beyond any seeable proof, or hearable hum.

And, therefore, let the immeasurable come.
Let the unknowable touch the buckle of my spine.
Let the wind turn in the trees,
and the mystery hidden in the dirt

swing through the air.
How could I look at anything in this world
and tremble, and grip my hands over my heart?
What should I fear?

One morning
in the leafy green ocean
the honeycomb of the corn’s beautiful body
is sure to be there.

Redwood Forest Mural by 2nd graders and Salmon Creek Middle Schoolers

When I Am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

by Mary Oliver

Prayer for Cameron 2013 by Drea Jensen

The ability to stay strong and see the good when things are pushing down around you can go a long way, positivity is worth far more than some think.

http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/prayer-for-cameron-2013-drea-jensen.html

Opening Day

There is a prayer inside
our hearts
stitched with red thread

On opening day
your legacy lives on
Cameron Varnell

Captured in the perfect pitch
the ball thrown to the mitt
cheers from family and friends

We are on the sidelines
while you take center stage
performing
eyes bright blue
your smile alive and present

When a young man dies
our souls shatter
fragments of our former selves

Our soft animal hearts witness your souls journey
from the physical to the spiritual

Your friendship lives on
Cameron Varnell
each pitch a prayer.

~ a poem dedicated to Cameron Varnell
August 19, 2000 – April 16, 2013

Elizabeth Bishop Red Flowers on Black

One Art
BY ELIZABETH BISHOP

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Imagine
By Mary Oliver

I don’t care for adjectives, yet the world fills me with them.
And even beyond what I see, I imagine more.

Seeing, for example, with understanding,
or with acceptance and humility and
without understanding,
into the heart of the bristly, locked-in worm
just as it’s becoming what we call the luna,
that green tissue-winged, strange, graceful,
fluttering thing.

Will death allow such transportation of the eye?…

Well, we will all find out, each of us.
And what would we be, beyond the yardstick,
beyond supper and dollars,
if we were not filled with such wondering?

During February and March please visit these two local businesses and enjoy paintings by Drea Jensen. 10% of all paintings sold will benefit ARK.

Drea Jensen Art:
Come view these paintings at East West Cafe Sebastopol

Lingering in Happiness
By Mary Oliver

After rain after many days without rain.
it stays cool, private and cleansed, under the trees,
and the dampness there, married now to gravity,
falls branch to branch, leaf to leaf, down to the ground

where it will disappear–but not, of course, vanish
except to our eyes. The roots of the oaks will have their share,
and the white threads of the grasses, and the cushion of moss;
a few drops, round as pearls, will enter the mole’s tunnel;

and soon so many small stones, buried for a thousand years,
will feel themselves being touched.

Here is an event invitation for Sweet 116.

Taste Route 116 Hosts Second Annual “Sweet 116” Event Celebrating Valentine’s Day February 15, 2014

Sanctuary 2012 by Drea Jensen
The natural world holds a temple, a safe place for growth. A healing shelter for seeds to germinate and take root.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/sanctuary-2012-drea-jensen.html

Coming Home
by Mary Oliver

When we’re driving, in the dark,
on the long road
to Provincetown, which lies empty
for miles, when we’re weary,
when the buildings
and the scrub pines lose
their familiar look,
I imagine us rising
from the speeding car,
I imagine us seeing
everything from another place — the top
of one of the pale dunes
or the deep and nameless
fields of the sea —
and what we see is the world
that cannot cherish us
but which we cherish,
and what we see is our life
moving like that,
along the dark edges
of everything — the headlights
like lanterns
sweeping the blackness —
believing in a thousand
fragile and unprovable things,
looking out for sorrow,
slowing down for happiness,
making all the right turns
right down to the thumping
barriers to the sea,
the swirling waves,
the narrow streets, the houses,
the past, the future,
the doorway that belongs
to you and me.

Truth of Creativity 2013
Resonance 2013
Fluent 2012
~ a collage of paintings by Drea Jensen

Mother Teresa’s Anyway
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Marvel 2012 by Drea Jensen
Step back to see the sensational differences in life’s situations.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/marvel-2012-drea-jensen.html

Phenomenal Woman
BY MAYA ANGELOU

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
’Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Daydream 2012
Money Honey 2011
Ventral 2012
~ a collage of paintings by Drea Jensen

LIFE DOESN’T FRIGHTEN ME
By: Maya Angelou

Shadows on the wall
Noises down the hail
Life doesn’t frighten me at all
Bad dogs barking loud
Big ghosts in a cloud
Life doesn’t frighten me at all.

Mean old Mother Goose
Lions on the loose
They don’t frighten me at all
Dragons breathing flame
On my counterpane
That doesn’t frighten me at all.

I go boo
Make them shoo
I make fun
Way they run
I won’t cry
So they fly
I just smile
They go wild
Life doesn’t frighten me at all.

Tough guys in a fight
All alone at night
Life doesn’t frighten me at all.
Panthers in the park
Strangers in the dark
No, they don’t frighten me at all.

That new classroom where
Boys pull all my hair
(Kissy little girls
With their hair in curls)
They don’t frighten me at all.

Don’t show me frogs and snakes
And listen for my scream,
If I’m afraid at all
It’s only in my dreams.

I’ve got a magic charm
That I keep up my sleeve,
I can walk the ocean floor
And never have to breathe.

Life doesn’t frighten me at all
Not at all
Not at all
Life doesn’t frighten me at all.

Garden 2012 by Drea Jensen
The most beautiful art can be found flourishing in nature…or your very own garden.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/garden-2012-drea-jensen.html

The Summer Day
by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

We celebrate a bright star today, it is our friend's 13th birthday.
We are blessed to have you in our lives.
You have taught us how to love and how to let go...

Diversion 2012 by Drea Jensen

Confusion can often divert our original paths. Keeping a level head is a must to stay as close on course as you can.

http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/diversion-2012-drea-jensen.html

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Painting Honey by Drea Jensen
May the divine feminine bless us all with her honey bees!

Honey At The Table

It fills you with the soft
essence of vanished flowers, it becomes
a trickle sharp as a hair that you follow
from the honey pot over the table

and out the door and over the ground,
and all the while it thickens,

grows deeper and wilder, edged
with pine boughs and wet boulders,
pawprints of bobcat and bear, until

deep in the forest you
shuffle up some tree, you rip the bark,

you float into and swallow the dripping combs,
bits of the tree, crushed bees – – – a taste
composed of everything lost, in which everything lost is found.

~ Mary Oliver

“Believe it or not, the notions of free will and destiny are not mutually exclusive.

Predestination is the universal framework of limits (based on natural physical laws) placed upon us.

Free will is our infinite ability to make choices within that framework.

Because the universal scale is so great—and most of it constitutes an undiscovered frontier—our choices are only limited by our knowledge, our abilities, and out imagination.

To put it simply, the world is such a huge playground sandbox that we will never run out of sand or reach the faraway safety fence of destiny.

So go out there and play!”
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“You Don’t Have to Be Pretty. You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked “female”.”

~ Diana Vreeland

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”

- Martin Luther King

By Allison Giles Tannehill

May 11, 2013

As I sit and stare!
Stare into the darkness.
So many thoughts but really none at all.
You will never be back in this physical world.
NEVER!
The truth fucking sucks.
To understand that my heart can not.
It does not understand this truth, this pain,
this misfortune.
Why?
Why you?
I want to know why?
Why you were chosen?
Why did you have to leave me?
My truth knows why but
my heart will never understand.
I LOVE YOU.
I MISS YOU.
I want you here with me.
Our bond was like no other.
Our love complete.
Two hearts beating together.
Loving one another
forever.
Your heart failed you
but your love out grew you.
Time was cut short
and your flight was taken.
I want this empty space to leave and fly with you.
To the beyond. To freedom.
To a world past any comprehension of my worldly mind.
I want to soar in the afterlife with you.
I want our love to ride through eternity.
Connected.
FOREVER.
You are light, peace, and healed.
I am done, broken, and empty.
Wrap your loving lightness around my darkness.
And fill me back up.
Only you can help me find my way home.
Thank you
for our love,
our perfect oneness.
Thank you for allowing me to feel.
Thank you for your heart, smile, and love that only you could share.
You are my shining star.
My full moon,
my perfect wave.
With that perfection I can conquer all.

dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com
facebook.com/dreajensenart
virtualartistaltar.com

Here is a wonderful Dr. Seuss book and preview of a DVD.
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com
facebook.com/dreajensenart
virtualartistaltar.com

Sea Of Emotion

Just as a warm smile makes you glow inside
And washes through you like an incoming tide
That travels over sandy footprints and then recedes
Leaving no trace of or evidence that someone had passed that way
So my pain does recede

Just as a hurtful word makes your anger grow
And washes through you like a winters tide on the turn
With crashing waves rushing forward headlong into a seawall
And sending its spray wide, so the anger courses through my body,

Just as a gentle hand upon my shoulder sends peaceful reassurance
And washes through my heart like the sea gently lapping on the shore
Its tranquil sound lulls my senses and brings the peace of a calm seashore

Just as when someone gives a departing wave and leaves you
A sad and empty feeling washes through you like a tide that swiftly withdraws
From the shore to the horizon and disappears from sight,
Leaving a Stretch of sand empty and desolate, but knowing that just as the tide will turn
And once again these waves will wash upon the shore
So too my sad emptiness will only be for a while
And once again you will return like an incoming tide and make me smile.

Frieda Hewitt

Kaleidoscope 2013 by Drea Jensen

Being young can be like looking through a kaleidoscope; we see only the beauty and don’t question the things that may confuse others.

http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/kaleidoscope-2013-drea-jensen.html

“I said to myself, I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me – shapes and ideas so near to me – so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down. I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught.”

~ Georgia O’Keeffe

Tie Your Heart At Night To Mine, Love
by Pablo Neruda

Tie your heart at night to mine, love,
and both will defeat the darkness
like twin drums beating in the forest
against the heavy wall of wet leaves.

Night crossing: black coal of dream
that cuts the thread of earthly orbs
with the punctuality of a headlong train
that pulls cold stone and shadow endlessly.

Love, because of it, tie me to a purer movement,
to the grip on life that beats in your breast,
with the wings of a submerged swan,

So that our dream might reply
to the sky’s questioning stars
with one key, one door closed to shadow.

Playground ~ Art Inspired by Childhood: paintings that explore childhood memories and the concept of play.

“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.” ~ Toni Morrison

dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com
facebook.com/dreajensenart
virtualartistaltar.com

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Allow yourself to trust joy and embrace it. You will find you dance with everything.”

dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com
facebook.com/dreajensenart
virtualartistaltar.com

I am excited to be working with local art teachers on this project.

Prayer

By David Abram

May a good vision catch me

May a benevolent vision take hold of me, and move me

May a deep and full vision come over me, and burst open around me

May a luminous vision inform me, enfold me.

May I awaken into the story that surrounds,

May I awaken into the beautiful story.

May the wondrous story find me;

May the wildness that makes beauty arise between two lovers

arise beautifully between my body and the body of this land,

beween my flesh and the flesh of this earth,

here and now,

on this day,

May I taste something sacred.

Come join us and create art!

dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com

The Waking

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

― Theodore Roethke, The Collected Poems

Promise by Guest Artist Rosemary Claire Allen:

Welcome! Currently, I am an artist/naturalist living in between the mangroves and the uplands in SW Florida. My soul’s journey continues to lead me through a spiraling path as I endeavor to embody the natural world through the eyes of an artist. As a naturalist guiding others through our uplands and wetlands in SW Florida, wonder calls my name and I feel that I am a part of the ecosystems that surround me. Local flora and fauna become my neighbors and friends but the memories of old gardens long past often remain with me. My paintings and drawings are an out pouring of these connections that I experience. Guides in all shapes and sizes appear and disappear depending on the seasons and time of day.

~ Rosemary Claire Allen
Artist/Florida Master Naturalist

To view this amazing woman’s dedicated art journey please click:

http://www.watertopaint.com/

dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com
facebook.com/dreajensenart
virtualartistaltar.com

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facebook.com/dreajensenart
virtualartistaltar.com

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 7 years to get that many views.

Creating ART with children is inspiring and the results are beautiful!

I Will Keep Broken Things

I will keep
Broken
Things:
The big clay
Pot
With raised
Iguanas
Chasing
Their
Tails;
Two
Of their
Wise

Heads
Sheared
Off;

I will keep
Broken
things:
The old
Slave
Market
Basket
Brought
To my
Door

By Mississippi
A jagged
Hole
Gouged
In its sturdy
Dark
Oak
Side.

I will keep
Broken
things:
The memory
Of
Those
Long
Delicious
Night
Swims
With
You;

I will keep
Broken
things:
In my house
There
Remains
An

Honored
Shelf
On which
I will
Keep
Broken
Things.

Their beauty
Is
They
Need
Not
Ever
Be
‘fixed.’

I will keep
Your
Wild
Free
Laughter
Though
It is now
Missing
Its
Reassuring
And
Graceful
Hinge.

I will keep
Broken
Things:

Thank you
So much!

I will keep
Broken
Things.

I will keep
You:

Pilgrim
Of
Sorrow.
I will keep
Myself.

Alice Walker

Thank you for supporting Drea Jensen Art!

A Light in the Darkness

An eerie darkness, leaves a
footprint behind, as the thud, thud
of walking grows louder…
it is amplified
as my heart ponders:
the gust of wind, that blows, blows…
and hear the
wail of the wind leaving behind
…the unspoken word of:
a light in the darkness.

Birds outside, fly into vast
amounts of freedom,
in between the wails of the wind.
Envy etched on my eye,
as animals of all sorts, tenderly
caress the unspoken word of:
a light in the darkness –
a faint glimmer of candle light
creeps in the crack of the curtain;
and whispers from the unspecified man:
“all will be fine”
he says.

A hope no longer as broken clay,
but clay smoothly put into place –
as the unspecified man
slowly glues broken clay together
in a mundane artwork
slowly awakening
a broken heart.

Celine Bergh

You can view "Autumn 2012" and 320 other works of art at Sebastopol Center for the Arts!

Song for Autumn

In the deep fall
don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think
of the birds that will come — six, a dozen — to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
vanishes, and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.


Mary Oliver

I feel inspired by the colors in nature this time of year. When you take walks in the fall and notice the changes in the leaves of trees you will be amazed. Enjoy!

Thank you for liking Drea Jensen Art! ♥

https://www.facebook.com/dreajensenart

I feel grateful for this beautiful day and for all you lovely art supporters! Thank you for being attentive, connected to spirit and for celebrating the beauty of art in your life!

“For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

What inspires you?

When we look through watery darkness, we find an expansion of golden light.

Graton artist and school teacher, Drea Jensen, in efforts to raise money for the Harmony Ark Education Foundation, is putting “Fluent 2012″ up for sale, with proceeds going to help fund the enrichment educational needs of local students.

Remember the importance and value of innovative creativity. Sometimes it will lead us to things we would have never seen or experienced before.

Graton artist and school teacher, Drea Jensen, in efforts to raise money for the Harmony Ark Education Foundation, is putting four of her paintings up for sale, with proceeds going to help fund the enrichment educational needs of local students.

“Providing art, music and sport opportunities to young people encourages them to succeed academically in school,” said Jensen. “It is my hope that selling these paintings will help our local children.”

The Harmony Ark Education Foundation funds many programs for the Harmony Union School District including art, music, band, after school sports, technology, drama, the garden program, Renaissance Fridays, Spanish, field trips, and poetry as well as scholarships and materials for the classrooms and the library. This year, the Ark is also funding a new play structure for the Kindergarten area, e-books for the school library, and listening centers for the second and third grade classes.

The paintings can be viewed in the “Small Wonders” exhibit running 10/16/12 to 1/06/13 at the Occidental Center for the Arts.

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(Dream Work)

Come and view “Small Wonders” at Occidental Center for the Arts.

http://www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org/

“People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.

A true soul mate is probably the most important person you’ll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave.

A soul mates purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master…”

~ Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

Exhibiting Artists Hermine Glaser and Drea Jensen
"Oracle 2012"

Oracle 2012 by Drea Jensen showing at Sebastopol Center for the Arts to raise money for Cameron Varnell.

Here is the promo for Oracle. The plan is to have the painting in an art show at Sebastopol Center for the Arts on September 6th. My intention is to raise money for Cameron Varnell. So let's put out positive energy and generate some well deserved cash for Cam!

We look with uncertainty
Beyond the old choices for
Clear-cut answers
To a softer, more permeable aliveness
Which is every moment
At the brink of death;
For something new is being born in us
If we but let it.
We stand at a new doorway,
Awaiting that which comes…
Daring to be human creatures.
Vulnerable to the beauty of existence.
Learning to love.

~ By Anne Hillman

“Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.” - Frida Kahlo

Money Honey 2011

“The print ‘Money Honey’ is beautiful and fits the strong, independent woman theme I’ve got going in my home.”

~ Gwen Neu winner of the Drea Jensen Art contest

www.facebook.com/dreajensenart

Elements 2012

People and things are made up of so many different parts that it’s often hard to judge them from the outside. Take time to get a cross section and see what they are really made of.

Framework 2012

Just because a frame encloses something, doesn’t mean it’s trying to constrict it.

Awakening 2010

This feminine point of view includes a surfboard on the beach in tropical Baja. The desert scenery invokes renewal.

Origami 2012

Something as simple as folding paper can create beauty.

Lotus 2012

Perspective can change anything. Take one step to the left, and you will see things differently than if you took a step to the right.

Artistic Social Media (ASM) is geared towards assisting creative professionals, from musicians and chefs to painters and photographers and beyond, in building their brand and online presence via social media and web optimization. Though ASM caters to creative professionals, our services are not limited to the arts, as we also work to grow online visibility for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Contact ASM today and let us help you connect.

http://artisticsocialmedia.com/asm/

Absolution 2012

No matter the chaos around you, if you counter it with positivity, you will shine through it.

Oracle 2012

When we launch our work into the world it is a gift that we are offering to others and gives us a chance to celebrate our initiation with friends, family and future collectors of our work.

Red Sands Beach 2002

Living next to the ocean and the pristine beauty of nature inspired this artwork. An imaginary seashore with sunset coloring.

Natalie Gage, my professional photographer, is the proud owner of this painting.

Spirit 2007

Thinning of the veils between worlds is the feeling invoked in this painting. The spirit behind the universe comes through.

Connection 2003

The two dancing figures in the surf and sand celebrate sisterhood. The elements: water, sky and earth, compose tranquility with the beloved.

Drea Jensen Art Show
By Orion M. Jensen

In northern California, January 13th, 2012 at Café Brio, Drea Jensen had her first art show in Arcata. Drea is an intuitive abstract artist and was very happy to see Café Brio overflowing with art and food lovers. Her exhibit contained original paintings such as Veracity 2011, and Perception 2011; and framed prints Muse of Fire 2011 and Money Honey 2011. Each painting has a special story and a meaning hiding inside it. Just ask the artist and you will find out.

Four Sacred Directions 2002

Life is an ever changing thing, be it seasons, direction, or age. Embracing these changes is the most important thing we can do.

Perception 2011

Though there are always people looking at you, there is never just one impression that you leave. Everyone has their own perception.

Possibility 2011

The emotion and feeling of one's self can be seen in so many things outside of our everyday lives. A leap of faith provides opportunity and action leads to a potential vision.

Zenith 2011

An abstract representation of breaking through the barrier of resistance to reach what your heart wants. The chosen seed of a saguaro cactus creating new life.

Marie our music teacher came out to the Cove and picked up her original painting today!

Dear Pearl B. Hardy,

We are inspired by your creative spirit, and filled with gratitude that you expressed your artistic nature through painting. Your influence is felt in our brushstrokes, your progressive thinking in our life choices and your courage to be an individual provokes us to be unique artists.

We are indebted to your loving nature that raised five children in fairness, with empathy, and a passion for social justice. Your kindness shines through us and provides us with a supportive family. We are blessed to have had you in our life and as a spirit that guides us.

Love from your granddaughters,

Naomi P. Hardy and Drea Jensen

Courageous Kid
By Orion M. Jensen
I admire Cameron Varnell because he is the most determined, happiest friend in the world. He's a courageous kid because he's gone through 2 bone marrow transplants and taking pills; and has great doctors. He is the best friend because he can make friends with everyone, and even in the most dire situation, he still has a smile on his face.

A Sacred Time is Upon Us....
By Bridget McBride

We enter the month of February which stems from the Latin word meaning to purify. This is the time of initiations, quickening, and healing. This is a sacred time to cast spells and make wishes for love, healing, money, and children. Now is the time to invoke, Brigid, the Goddess of Fire, poetry, art, and good harvest.

Let us embody this!
For this sacred time you will need to create a simple ritual that involves fire, purification, and the planting of symbolic seeds. Be prepared to conduct this ritual during the first three days of February. This is a holy and scared time. If you cannot think of a ritual you would like to create, please find a candle and use a sharp point to write words of that which you are calling in and then write on slips of paper that which you are releasing and burn them in a bowl. If you feel inspired, collaborate with other artists to coordinate your rituals. Get inspired by what other artists are doing.

In this ritual clearly enact and identify the following:

* A release of that which does not serve you. Give this up to the fire!
* The sowing of seeds in your own fertile field of abundance
* A healing and purification.

For this ritual:

What you are releasing into the fire?
What you are healing?
What seeds you are planting?

Blessed Be!

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” ~ Maya Angelou

Thank you for a successful show!

All is well and everything we need comes to us at the perfect moment. We love our artist selves and trust the universe to bring us everything we desire as we connect to spirit and fulfill our destinies as wildly successful artists.

Join northern California abstract artist Drea Jensen for the unveiling of Virtual Artist Altar: Creating a virtual altar to honor our artist selves within. Her current show entitled Money Honey can be viewed as a part of Arts! Arcata at Café Brio on 791 G Street, January 13, 2012 from 5pm to 9pm.

Drea is an intuitive artist. “Our intention is to use our creativity to create abundance and share our art with the world. When we trust our Money Honey we are empowered, creative beings that are active and our abundance flows. We have what we need to put our work in a sacred place…a virtual gallery.”

Drea began painting in 2002, and her paintings express, acknowledge and celebrate her self expression as an artist, and encourages others to express their unique selves. “In each painting I am committed to creating sacred space, portals into imagination using abstract expression, color and texture. My paintings express an internal landscape that provokes emotions.”

virtualartistaltar.com
dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com

Spiraling Path

by Artist Rosemary Allen

My soul’s journey continues to lead me through a spiraling path as I endeavor to embody the natural world through the eyes of an artist. As a naturalist guiding others through our uplands and wetlands in SW Florida, wonder calls my name and I feel that I am a part of the ecosystems that surround me. Local flora and fauna become my neighbors and friends but the memories of old gardens long past often remain with me. My paintings and drawings are an out pouring of these connections that I experience. Guides in all shapes and sizes appear and disappear depending on the seasons and time of day. The flux of this life is intoxicating as is my yearning to express myself through line, shape and form. And, hopefully, that may guide you to the next discovery about yourself. Sometimes I get to a place in a painting where I want to stop because I’m not ready to finish. So I sit with it and go back to drawing parts of the image until the vision for the painting becomes clearer. This is where I find the opportunity for both reflection and for perfecting my techniques. Living my life as an artist means to keep those portals of wonder open for myself and hopefully for others. You never know what work of art will guide you to a nuance in nature that your heart always hoped would be there! As my young niece said when she blew her first dandelion seed head into the air, “I’ve been waiting my whole life to do that!”

Follow Rosemary Allen’s Blog: http://www.floridagreenbean.blogspot.com/

We affirm our selves as artists and together we create artistic manifestations. We create abundance around our artwork. What magical reality would we like to create with our artwork and how will it feel to be living our lives as artists?

Point A Showroom

“Here’s to the ability to be creative and professional…how lucky we all are!”
http://www.pointashowroom.com/

During the week we will create a mandala using an artistic technique that appeals to us and pay attention to how creating this circle ritual feels. As we meditate on our art, what insights do circles reveal about us and our journey? Where would we like to invite more sacred space into our life and how does creating mandalas help us create artistic change in our lives?

Shop at Drea Jensen Art for the Holidays!

“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things...I want to be improbable and beautiful and afraid of nothing as though I had wings.” ~ Mary Oliver

When we allow creating art to be our motivating force, our artistic creations become our fuel for our artistic fire. We are committed to working with our artist selves, opening doors, creating with clarity, aligning with spirit and fortifying our souls.

Dear Drea Jensen Supporters,
I have sold my first painting Solace 2007 to a customer in New York through Drea Jensen Gallery and I am so excited! So thankful for this journey of Blooming Artist! I am blooming, it is happening! Yes!!!
Love,
Drea Jensen

“Drea has the depth of ability to get the essence of the experince she is expressing. Her art is a bold statement of the movement inherent in all. Drea wields her brush with focused perception and a power that engages your heart and soul.”

~ Teresa von Braun
www.teresavonbraun.com

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~ Mary Oliver

Dear Drea Jensen Supporters,

When you buy a print or painting 10% of the profits will go to Cameron Varnell. Money raised will encourage and celebrate his healing.

As a teacher at a small school in Southern Humboldt County, I come to know my students very well. One child that I have become very close to is Cameron Varnell, who is working at being a survivor of childhood leukemia.

I first met Cameron when he and my son were on the same Little League baseball team. What struck me about Cam was his bright smile, twinkling eyes, soft southern drawl and amazing pitching talent. He was dedicated to playing baseball, had great team spirit, and genuinely cared about the other baseball players.

We were concerned when he missed the last game, and quickly became alarmed when he was diagnosed with leukemia. He was urgently admitted to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Our immediate response was to organize a fundraiser for Cam at the Little League field by having a home run derby, and having children play baseball in his honor. This fundraiser was successful in raising money and giving children a chance to participate and help with his healing.

Cameron came back to us cancer-free and we couldn’t have been happier. We all felt so fortunate to have him back with us. My son and he became friends, enjoying being 10 and 11-year old boys.

Unfortunately, in September 2011, Cameron’s cancer came back a third time. He is now back in Memphis facing another successful bone marrow transplant and we are so happy that he will get an additional chance. Your donation will lift Cameron's spirits and help him continue his recovery.

Sincerely,
Drea Jensen

"I'm glad for them saving my life once and I hope they can do it again. I know they will do it again." ~ Cameron Varnell

A Tennessee news channel, WRCB, interviewed Cameron for a story about St. Jude:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150347082856416

"Drea's work is filled with vitality, movement, possibility and passion. There is a quality of her work that seems very familiar, as if one has 'been' to that destination before but is seeing it with new eyes."

~ Shiloh Sophia McCloud
www.shilohsophiastudios.com

“I am so totally pleased with my painting ‘Connection‘, it hangs prominently in my living room. What a joy to have it greet me daily. Always as I gaze upon it I am delighted to discover the colors, movement, and beauty it offers anew to me. Drea Jensen is a bold Northern California Artist. I thank you Drea for your joyful art work!”

~ Erica Nickerson

“Drea’s painting first caught my attention when I viewed ‘Awakening‘ over a year ago. I am in my own process of awakening to my creative spirit and immediately felt connected to this artist and openings to possibility. Her journey to recognize and develop her talents both as an artist and entrepreneur have truly inspired me to go forward with my own venture!”

~ Rosemary Allen

Abundance

When meaningful experiences

Collect

Deepen

And find strength

The energy overflows

Provides infinite love

~ A well deep as our souls.

Generous hands lift up our spirits

Guidance whispers in our ears,

“The Universe is on your side!”

Blessings multiply

We are loved

Complete with healing wings

Ready for flight.

By Drea Jensen