BE IN TOUCH

by Jude Lobe

This last Fri­day in May, 2019, I will be fea­tured in the show, BE IN TOUCH, with Gar­ry Childs and Pat Mer­ri­man. For this show, I was inspired by the role of Shamans who, for as long as time remem­bers, have worked to nego­ti­ate life-giv­ing har­mo­ny to all things in the envi­ron­ment. Their belief is expressed in the Native Amer­i­can quote, ” We do not inher­it the earth from our ances­tors, we bor­row it from our chil­dren.” As care­tak­ers of this plan­et, it seems to me we have much to learn from nature if we just be qui­et, observe and lis­ten.

When I am hik­ing along a trail, seat­ed on a deck look­ing out over waves of blue and pur­ple moun­tains, sit­ting with my dog, kayak­ing through marsh­es or just walk­ing in my yard being aston­ished at the array of shades of yel­low daf­fodils bloom­ing in places I did­n’t even plant them, I become present in nature. It’s a calm­ing and stress-reliev­ing feel­ing to be in touch with nature.

In my art­work, I cre­ate my impres­sions and remem­brances of the feel­ings I had when alone with nature. My land­scape paint­ings, aren’t recre­ations of the scenes, but rather an expres­sion of the emo­tions I had while com­muning with nature. My cop­per sculp­tur­al works are sym­bol­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tions of Native Amer­i­can spir­it guides, par­tic­u­lar­ly heal­ing guides that help with bal­anc­ing our spir­i­tu­al, emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal health. The encaus­tics, nature in theme, play on the theme ‘Be in Touch’, being very tex­tur­al.

Look deep into nature and then you will under­stand every­thing bet­ter. – Albert Ein­stein

< Left: Top — Sun­scape, cen­ter — the Crow Saith, Bot­tom — Bod­hi Beleaf