Wednesday WrapUp Nature, Poetry, and Art

Welcome!

I’ve enjoyed sharing Wednesday Wrap Up— a wrap up of my project tips for the past week or something I’ve learned that may also help others with the same #warmup4art hashtag. Today I share a bit of nature and the poetry and art it inspired.

Nature

Every day, a photograph, a poem, a doodle. I searched my photos for places of awareness and change for my poetry and remembered this drive across Highway 20, a scenic and beautiful drive across Washington State. Beautiful views as in the image above, and my favorite little creature, the pika, lives there. The little creatures live high in the mountains because they cannot survive temperatures above 77.9° F— so they are in danger if global warming heats their mountain home.

I decided to write poetry and create art based on the photo above. I loved the sparse tree snag and the blue-green of the lake rippled from the fierce wind, which affected the usually crowded area. I chose to write about that windy day.

If you would like to learn about Ross Lake, WA, here are some resources and a video of the little pika.

Poetry

It’s National Poetry Month so I am writing a poem each day in April. The form of poetry for which I am writing today is the haibun— a combination of prose and haiku. For the prose, I wrote about the general area, trying to even get out of the car in the wind, and the lovely blue green Ross Lake with few people due to the wind. You’ll see at the end of both the prose and the haiku– the twist or change– hardly any people– just the wind and the pika! For a bit about the writing process, see my blog What Else Ross Lake, and this image of my revision of the haiku as well as writing with strong verbs:

The Haibun

Hymn in the Mountains
In the mountains of Highway 20 in the summer a green lake beckons travelers to stop and gaze at nature’s beauty, though the lake is a reservoir behind a large dam. On hot days, this highway— in the North Cascades —is a cool and scenic drive. Closed in winter due to avalanche danger, it draws visitors as soon as the road opens again. Lately, the highway has been closed in summer, due to the wildfires of global warming.
In 2017 we drove across in July, enjoying the mountain heights and forest greenery, breathtaking views and a respite from the heat of the valleys of eastern Washington.
Stopping at Ross Lake, we found no other vacationers in the usually busy highway rest area of scenic views. As we stepped out of the van, the reason for few people blew us, literally, back into the car. We pushed the doors against the wind and let them slam back closed after grabbing our jackets. We turned our backs against the wind and spun around to put on each sleeve, finally able to wrap the jacket tightly around and lean against the wind to walk the paths and stretch our legs after hours of riding.
At the edge of granite boulders, gazing down across the tops of pine and fir, we witnessed the wind surfing the emerald lake with waves and ripples easily viewed from our vantage point far up the mountain. And the whistle of the wind and the “EEEE” of the pika hiding in the rocks sang to us as the only evidence of other companions.
Emerald waves raced
forest shore to more, hymn
by wind and pika.
Sheri Edwards
040622 097.365.22
Poetry/Photography

Just the Haiku

Art

For the art I adapted Jennifer Nichol’s silk painting style and used Lisa Bardot’s Midcentury, Imperfect Patterns, and Texture Maker and Shader Brushes. My palette was created from the Ross Lake photo in Procreate. I’ve shared Silk Painting in prior posts.

And finally, so the lovely yet windy scene could be enjoyed by others, I created a video of the nature, poetry, and art– including the replay of creating the art in Procreate:

Try It

So, that wraps up this Wednesday Wrap Up. Take inspiration from the lovely places around you or where you have visited. Or perhaps take heart in the not-so-lovely places and represent that as well. Spends some time writing phrases about your work– and perhaps you will add poetry to your art!

Thanks to Lisa Bardot and Jennifer Nichols for their resources. Check out Lisa Bardot and Jennifer Nichols for inspiration on their Instagram to discover their YouTube channels, courses, and websites. I thank them for sharing their knowledge and inspiration so that others can grow as artists.

By learning from other artists, we build our confidence and learn to adapt and adjust without fear of being perfect— just make art every day!

I look forward to your sharing, and please continue to be a part of the #warmup4art series to learn and enjoy our work together! See my sharing at IG @42Sheri and Twitter @42Sheri.