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The Sailing Ship: My Muse, Weekly Photo Challenge

Muse, n. a woman, or a force personified as a woman, who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.

Seems fitting that a sailing ship should serve as a muse. Some historians believe that the ancients dedicated their ships to goddesses. In Latin, the gender for the word ship (or navis) was feminine. Then as customs changed, ships were dedicated to important women. Captains and sailors of the past thought of their ship as their home and their love.

For me, the sailing ship has been a source of imagined and romantic travel. Enchanted with the splendor and grace of the sailing ship, a masterful creation, a work of art, I fell for sailing the frothy seas that inspired waves of passion for life as the salt air wind blew away doubts and dreams unfurled.

Inspiration from a sailing ship comes in many forms: a model, painting or sculpture. These recreations tell stories of the human experience at sea.

Whether sailing the Mediterranean, Doubtful Sound in New Zealand or the coves of Maine, viewing the landscape from a Clipper enhances the travel experience. The wind billows the sails and the bow slices through the waves as the hand of nature pushes the vessel to the next destination.

Mary Day at anchor.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Muse

Written

on 06/26/2015

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Colorful Koi, Colors of the Rainbow, Weekly Photo Challenge

Came across a pond with this fellow swimming about. Koi are popular ornamental pond fish that have been bred in many colors, patterns and sizes.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Seven Colors of the Rainbow

Written

on 06/19/2015

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Off-Season: Weekly Photo Challenge

So you’ve arranged to have a fancy party where the guests are dressed in their finest ensembles . . . and in walks . . .

Weekly Photo Challenge: Off Season

Written

on 06/12/2015

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Vivid: Weekly Photo Challenge

Bilbao, Spain, once an industrial center now claims their fame as home of the Guggenheim Museum of Contemporary Art. My first impression: the building was an architectural marvel, made from titanium, limestone and glass, designed by American architect, Frank O. Gehry. On the patio that follows the river, the Tulips Exhibit by Jeff Koons offered a lively and colorful display on a rainy day.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Vivid

Written

on 06/05/2015

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On the Way: Weekly Photo Challenge

On a recent voyage of the Star Clipper, a full-rigged barquetine sailing ship, the vessel pushed off from the Lisbon dock and began a series of maneuvers. Rather than heading directly out to sea and under the Vasa de Gama Bridge, Star Clipper sailed in the opposite direction, only to complete a full circle and begin the exercise again. The ship found its way to the open sea as the engineer consulted the sextant.

Weekly Photo Challenge: On the Way

Written

on 05/29/2015

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Broken beyond Repair?

A good novel captures the imagination, and I attempted create a scene from a book into a sculpture project.

Working with porcelain, I carved the clay into the shape of a book and then created a scene from Herman Melville’s literary masterpiece, Moby Dick. As the piece air-dried, I had to fix and fix again the clay cracking along the sides but finally stabilized the splitting. Unfortunately, when it came out of the kiln, the book had nearly broken in two with a quarter-inch gap across the front. A corner had fallen off, and the sides had split and warped in several sections. Still, I set to work to see if I could make repairs. With glue, paint and glaze I began the patching process thinking that, in the end, this is not going to work.

Cracks on the Underside of Moby Dick

Perseverance prevailed and the porcelain representation returned, however imperfect, to one piece.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Broken

Written

on 05/22/2015

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Enveloped: Weekly Photo Challenge

Chinese Lantern plants produce white, 5-petaled flowers in mid summer that transform into a lantern-shaped husk. As it matures, the husk turns papery. These papery pods skeletonize, revealing the seed within the lantern.

Weekly Photo Challenge Enveloped

Written

on 05/16/2015

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The Storm Cometh, Force of Nature

Echo the far-off roll of thunder,
Rumbling loud
And ever louder, under
The blue-black curtain of cloud,
Where the lightning serpents gleam.
–Storm-Music by Henry Van Dyke

Weekly Photo Challenge: Forces of Nature

Written

on 05/09/2015

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Intricate: Weekly Photo Challenge

St. John’s Cathedral, in Valletta, Malta

Detail

Weekly Photo Challenge: Intricate

Written

on 05/01/2015

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Afloat

A wind carves concave sails against the sky
Above I see clouds and sun alternating
in revealing themselves. I hear new waves
being born in the ship’s rushing wake.
And I feel the bow undulating
into the sun’s reflection of a churning sea.
All this, and beneath me a silent life
streams on into eternity.
Written to Captain Bruno and his Crew, Revised