Sunday, September 25, 2011

Greetings from Whitehorse Mountain



'Greetings from Whitehorse Mountain' oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner


The mountain we now call "Whitehorse" was originally called So-Bahli-Ahli, (The Beautiful Woman From the east) by the Stillaguamish.  


One day,  a long time later, a pioneer lost his white horse.  His neighbor, looking up at the mountain, saw a patch of snow that looked like a white horse and said jokingly, 'There it is, up there."  


From then on this mountain was called Whitehorse. 





Friday, September 16, 2011

Speaking of Gods..



'Jellyfish' 5x5" colored pencil; Kathleen Faulkner


God of the Jellyfish


The god of the jellyfish
must be a luminous, translucent bowl
the size of a big top,
drifting upside down
in an unbounded sea.


Surely this god, hung
with streamers and oral arms,
ruffled and lacy
as thousands of wedding gowns
and Victorian bodices,
created all the jellyfish of Earth.


Male and female, god created them
in god’s own image:
the cross jellies and the crystal jellies,
the sea nettle and the golden lion’s mane,
the sea wasp and the Portuguese man-of-war—


and gave them nerve nets instead of brains
to ensure their humility,
put statoliths like tiny pearls
in their sensory pits
to give them balance,
and placed spines on their nematocysts
so they could capture food
and would sting and burn any
living thing
that would harm them.


And the god of the jellyfish
gave them ocelli
that shine like the eyes on a butterfly wing
when they turn toward the light,
and now their god watches over them
with god’s own great ocellus
as they swirl and dive
in glistening cathedrals, and does not
expect worship or even praise:
the iridescence
of their umbrellas will suffice.

— Lucille Lang Day


From God of the Jellyfish, first published
in The Cloud View Poets (Arctos Press)



Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Sky's the Limit

'Skyworld' brooch, 3x4" sterling silver, moonstones;
Kathleen Faulkner



Early morning 
sun coming up over the Cascades 
another beautiful day here on the Salish Sea.  
This is the time of year when things change.  

A substantial shift is taking place in my world.

It is good to know that things change.  It is good to make them happen.  



Friday, September 9, 2011

Another beautiful day in Paradise



Jewelry in process;  Kathleen Faulkner


September has arrived and we are finally experiencing summer.  That autumn feeling is in the air, though.   It's a very creative time.
I'm in the midst of a jewelry mindset yet, looking out my window, I think about the light and I feel myself shifting gears..


It will be a good morning to head down to the beach.

Early morning looking East;  Kathleen Faulkner