{"id":787,"date":"2015-04-10T16:23:38","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T16:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.healingicons.org\/?p=787"},"modified":"2015-05-21T19:11:10","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T19:11:10","slug":"cultivating-optimism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healingicons.org\/cultivating-optimism\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultivating Optimism During Difficult Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nature is Magnificently\u00a0Creative and Inspiring<\/h2>\n
\"Wow!<\/a>

Wow! Jersey tiger moths in Petaloudes, Greece.<\/p><\/div>\n

If you are not familiar with Bing<\/a>, it’s a wonderful search engine that presents a different, stunning photograph on their landing page\u00a0every day. The images\u00a0are always\u00a0wonderful, guaranteed to delight and inspire. Today\u2019s image was the incredible photograph of Jersey tiger moths above. Talk about nature as an inspiration for visual art! \u00a0Thanks to Bing, my favorite search engine (or, as they like to call themselves, a “decision engine”), I discovered the bowerbird. More importantly, I discovered bowerbirds’\u00a0highly artistic nests.<\/p>\n

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\"I<\/a>

I was drawn to the lichen within this amazingly tiny nest.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Spring is in the air, and along with the pollen clogging\u00a0my inundated\u00a0lungs, it delivers\u00a0the music\u00a0of optimism to my soul each morning as I walk Ziggy, my ever-faithful companion. The cacophony of bird songs around the ‘hood fills me with awe, wonder and delight as I watch these industrious birds — their\u00a0beaks filled with straw, bits of paper and plastic scraps — flutter back and forth,\u00a0creating their nests. As a bird\u2019s nest aficionado, I have been collecting abandoned ones for some time now, eventually using them in my sculptural series as a symbol for new beginnings, fresh starts. Isn\u2019t that what spring is all about? Creating spaces and cultivating optimism to make way for growth.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBlessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.” – Camille Pissarro<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Patrick<\/a>

Patrick Dougherty’s sculpture<\/p><\/div>\n

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But back to the bowerbird. At first glance, I thought the featured image was a remarkable sculpture by noteworthy artist\u00a0Patrick Dougherty<\/a>\u00a0—\u00a0but no! It was an incredibly sculptural nest created by an\u00a0Australian bowerbird<\/a> in its\u00a0annual pursuit to\u00a0attract the opposite sex.<\/p>\n

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“Art takes nature as its model.” – Aristotle<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"This<\/a>

This bowerbird loves blue.<\/p><\/div>\n

Every spring, \u201cMr. Bower\u201d carefully constructs his nest, piece by piece, with focused attention towards beauty and craftsmanship. The nest must be not only visually alluring but also built to withstand the elements. It must be strong and protective. After this attentive construction, he thoughtfully collects and places\u00a0a variety of brightly colored objects around\u00a0this edifice. These objects can include hundreds of shells, leaves, flowers, feathers, stones, berries, and even what we would consider “trash” — discarded plastic items, coins, nails, rifle shells, pieces of glass. The\u00a0hours\u00a0he spends\u00a0arranging his personal, highly individual collection around the\u00a0newly built nest is reminiscent of many of our creative practices.<\/p>\n

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“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” – Georgia O’Keeffe<\/span><\/p>\n

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