Greetings Dear readers,
The concept of “Home” has always been sacred to me, even when my own home was inhospitable towards me for one reason or another. This past year and a half there have been many big lessons we’ve had to confront and the idea of “Home” is at the center of them all. “Home” in the biggest sense of the word is of course about our planet and how we are seeing massive changes to nearly every ecosystem on this precious place we all call “Home”. We must be brave and make better choices if our home is going to be a place of Beauty for our great-great-grand children and for all the other creatures that live here with us.
“Home” is also about the space we live in with our families, our partners, or perhaps solo with or without companion animals. But no matter what, it is generally a shared space, one where we must all find the balance between individuality and being part of a greater whole.
“Home” is also the community in which we live and here too friction and disruption have made things uneasy for many of us. And so, we long for a peaceful home, whatever that means to us. And if we long for it, so do others. All of nature needs “Home” to establish itself and to prosper. Humans tend to forget that all too often. But what humans also need (and sadly too many around the world do not have) is a sense of Beauty to feel “at home”. How many times have we visited a place of beauty and thought to ourselves “I wish I could live in a place like this.”
What is it about Beauty that fills us with peace, calm and inspiration?
Why does being in the presence of Beauty fill us up with emotion and awe?
The Goddess Venus was seen as the source of both Beauty and Justice in the ancient world. These two concepts, Beauty and Justice, were wedded as one idea each giving rise to the other in many cultures around the world who appreciated this deep aspect of the Feminine. Beauty nurtures the part of us that wants to remain sensitive to the world and so we enact laws to protect such beauty, because we valued it. Beauty entices us to be humble, to be open, to soften and be receptive. Beauty invites us to be better humans, to be kinder, to be more generous and to care for what we have because we love it. Beauty can transform how the heart perceives. Beauty can bring quiet joy and peacefulness into your soul, your home, your community and the world itself, if we value it and give it our appreciation.
All of these grand words are an attempt to give purpose as to why I build sculptures which are often created from bark and twigs and other natural materials. It is in homage to the Beauty we need to be our best selves that I make these little sculptures which are all about “Home”. And through the beauty of the images of these sculptures I hope to spark a little awakening in the viewer about the importance of Beauty and Home in all of our lives. Rumi said it best: ” Let the Beauty you love be what you do” or words to that effect.
I’ve taken those words to heart in all the creative work that I do. To help share this celebration of “Home” and to bring a little extra Beauty into people’s homes I have created a new calendar for you or to give as gifts to friends and family. Of course there are also the Amber Lotus calendars which are beautifully designed and printed which are available now in both the larger wall calendar format and the cute mini size. But the self-published calendar is of my own design and thru the magic of Lulu can be ordered by anyone around the world. Here is the cover of the new 2022 calendar which has just been released!
The interior images do not have the vine border but just a simple frame of purple with a fine bead of gold such as this image from the month of June:
Each monthly page shows the new moon and full moon. Also included are the solar and lunar eclipses, solstices and equinoxes. And Earth Day too, of course. I’ve decided to not include any of the normal “holidays” as they are generally culturally or religiously oriented and I wanted to make this time-keeper universally acceptable for everyone. Natural cycles seem to best reflect this though it is oriented towards the northern hemisphere with regards to the equinoxes & solstices, with apologies to my friends and fans from the south.
What is also new for this year is that I will be donating 10% of all the profits from these sales to environmental organizations that have proven track records and are doing great work to help trees, restoration projects and the protection of animals and the natural world. I will give my readers updates on which organization have been supported thanks to your generosity.
The 2022 Fairy Houses calendar is now live on my website and you can find it HERE on the calendars page in my shop. Here you can also see the full preview of all the pages in the calendar, just click on any of the images for the slideshow gallery. There will be discounts in the future that Lulu will offer and I will post the coupon codes here as they become available (I do not control these coupons, only Lulu does). That said, I urge you not to wait too long to place your orders as things are taking longer to produce and ship than they used to. For my International readers, you too can order these calendars and they will be printed and shipped to whatever destination you choose (with some exceptions). Lulu works with various printers on all continents to make this possible.
Thank you again for your support of this work. It means more than you know that I can continue to make my little offerings of Beauty to share with you.
Be well, stay safe and may the Beauty you love be what you do!
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