Feather Lands

Slowly sailing

Down

   Down

        Down

And over

Back and

Forth

Falling slowly

A tiny breeze

Brings it over here

And back there

Again

Absentmindedly

You observe

Half interested

Your thoughts

Floating

Here

      There

And back to the feather

Slowly it lands

The dance ends



...merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream...

Thought for The Day - Tree

I want to be a tree

I want to grow where I'm planted

And dig deeper

And discover greater depth

I want my trunk to grow through obstacles and around them

I want to extend my branches up

out and over

I want people to bask in my height

Take comfort in my shade

In winter

I want my branches and twigs

To echo the crisp whispers of cold air

For people to respect the power of that basic element - Wind

I want the metal fences that should contain me

To be buried in between my trunk and some branches

So that I am a mysterious force

That defies the odds

When I and the wrought iron agree

I want parts of me to give in to the tenacity of the metal

And my life force to grow around it

I want to be a tree

Strong and tall and full of life

And when it's my time to be cut down

I want to leave a lasting impression

That years from now

People will remember

Thought for The Day - Searching for...

A new experience

Another nightmare

Lost Love

New Love

The quintessential song

The right words

Spoken in the right time

To the right person

That subtle moment when the colors on the brush

Convey your state of mind

And the state of your emotions

Thought for The Day - (Sharing) In This Cocoon

Study for Predawn Light - 18 x 24 Charcoal

Here

In this place

Darkness seems to rule

Shadows

From occasional flashes of insight

Place memory

And cognition

On high alert

I’m here

Developing

Alone

Then there are two

Not certain the roles 

Or the script to follow

Adlibbing

Improvising

To a beat

Rhythm and Blues

Jazz

And Hip Hop

Dictate the dance

And song

In this place

Two jab

And dodge

Not as foes

But sparring

Refining one another’s weapons

We’re together

But not really

Growing

Though never sure

Where we grow toward

Luminous

This safe haven

But form remains unformed

We learn

That a heart is not a solo act

And even when your step is out of sync with mine

And my drumming doesn’t match yours

We move

Strangely closer

At times

A Third party

Not a fifth wheel

But a companion

Unseen

But a presence as dense as the cloud, lights and uncertainty

Looms above

Below

Around

Bringing the beat

The lyrics

Together over time

A strange place

This soft and safe place

This place where not many find solace

They would

If they could pay the price for entry

Set up a chair in the corner

Lie in the bed

But this space is made for two

Slowly

Moving

Closer

The rhythm sounding

Concerto

And Symphonic

Moving

Closer

Thought for The Day - What Do You Do When...

Fire and Ice (in process) 8 x 11 colored pencils

Incomplete sentences

Delivered in parts

Fragments as I sit and contemplate

Communication

A theme

Subject matter - expert I am not

My pencil over the paper, will not render a well sketched portrait,

A bowl of grapes, a bottle of wine and a candle will not come forth

But a soul used yet full of life

Will tell a story

Share these fragments

Render you captivated

And provide food for thought

Thoughts

That come to mind years from now

Sitting at breakfast

An idea comes to mind

And you'll say "I remember when..."

Thought for The Day - Life is Art

I do this - the writing and painting - because it is as much a part of me as my race, height and love for God. I write because it is a form of expression easily understood. I paint because it's in my soul; it is a dance, a performance of joy and energy and truth.

My current work "Linen, A Storm's Coming, pulls out of me ideas and impressions that I need to sit down and document. The one thing that seems consistent is building layers of tone and color because that's how this world is constructed. "White" and "Black" aren't really that way, but layers of color - energy - built upon one another. So imagine a storm is coming...clouds move across the sky a little faster and depending on the time of day, the sun fights to display it's many shades and hues. Beneath that sun and cloud mix, wind moves or stirs whatever is around us. In this painting, the fabric is being stirred and moved. And for now, that's all you and I need to know.

Life is a canvas, a beautiful movement of dance and poetry. Observe, listen and taste it! While every part of it isn't pleasant, when savored, life can be oh so joyful!

Thought for The Day - Breeze

Many mornings and days

I start my journey headed east

Another day of repeated tasks

And familiar greetings

They drag from day-to-day

And though you are a bright spot in my day

Your clouds seem to be gathering

Like August hurricanes

I watch you becoming restless

Troubled as your feet repeat each step 

Hoping each day brings a distraction

A moment of release

But the dawn seems to bring more of the same

And each adventure

More storms and weight

There is a storm brewing

Greater than you and I

It’s disturbing the very atmosphere of this old world

Troubling life as we know it

It’s more than a change

It is a rockin’ shakin’ tremblin’ force

Sure to disturb

Anchored

We wont blow away

Steady

We’re held fast in hope

Though all around us seems blown away

And every wind seems to rule

Darkness surrounds

Light dissipates

But… 

Thought for The Day - When No One is Looking

A Rhythm of Her Own 18 x 24 pastels

It’s not a matter of who’s watching

When no one is supposed to see you

But who you are

In those unscripted moments

When your mind reflects your thoughts back at you

When you see you as a child

As an adult

And as so much more and

Yet so simple

Pure Human

Carved out of light and matter

Smiling

A private joke

A moment all your own

I’ve seen you in those moments

When no one is looking

A thousand faces and bodies hovering about

No one finds you in that moment

But me

And quite suddenly

And by accident

You aren’t self aware

Or other aware

Just aware of a world no larger than the body you inhabit

All images and expressions are the exclusive property of Eddie L. Hudson. Do not reproduce without permission.

Thought for The Day - Practice Session

I was nine or ten years old, living on the West side of Chicago. My mom and I decided it would be a good idea for me to learn to play the piano. I guess there's a musician buried beneath all of the other creative stuff I do comfortably. Initially, she would take me, wait in the entry area, while I had my lesson. But eventually, I had to walk the four or five blocks by myself. I used that time to imagine my playing the songs I learned in class. Of course, the teacher suggested that I practice at home, but we didn't have a piano and small Casio keyboards weren't available so many years ago. But we had a small organ, which, when I think about it, was a blessing. I would try to play the songs I learned in class and it seemed like I never got the sound just right. But I would practice.

I had an older cousin who was far more gifted in music than I and on the day of a recital, his mom and mine were there. My playing was simple and choppy barely getting through the song without too many errors, but my cousin, he played like a young concerto! He had the look and the confidence as he played each note. The music lessons lasted maybe a year before we moved and I never was that good at playing. I did learn to place my hands on a piano or keyboard properly and I can still pick out middle C.

A few years ago, I tried my hand at poetry and unlike the piano lessons, there wasn't anyone to guide me. It was on my shoulders, but the burden seemed light. To express myself with words, creatively, with flow, pitch and depth...it flowed easily. Now, I'm not one to appear on a stage and read it - at least not yet - and there's all this expectation that one does it with the swagger and confidence of the "spoken word" crowd...that's not me! but I continue to practice word creativity; this is one way to do so.

I guess, in essence, the painting and drawing, the writing and now reading up on guitar playing - yeah, trying that now - are my practice sessions. And it all meant to serve, inform and uplift.

Thought for The Day - Of the Beholder

Of the Beholder 18 x 24 pastels

 

In the eyes of the beholder

There is beauty before them

But in the eyes of the beautiful

What is seen

Behind the eyes of true beauty

What thoughts go unseen

What mysteries and decisions

Are hidden behind those beautiful eyes

In the eyes of the beholder

Eyes, face, neck and body

Are wonderful to behold

But behind the eyes of the beauty

A world unknown

Though traces slip out

Made concrete

Yet the eyes

That mind

                     Are shrouded in the mystical

Thought for The Day - At a Distance watching Time Go By

Dancing Against the Rhythm 12 x 16 Pastels

Look up

The clock changes

9:50 becomes 9:51

as though it were a flit of an eyelash

Too many times I’ve been the observer

At a distance from it ALL

Watching

Wanting to be involved

But at a distance

Held away from the heat of it all

When I’m close

A part of me

Plays the spectator

Like the drama around me

Was acted in a theater in the round

Around me, happening

But me

Sitting in the audience

Safely away from the blood to be spilled

A smile, inappropriately appears on my face

I’m watching and involved

But that spectator reflex knows

It’s 53 minutes past the hour

And the plot resolution

Even with a twist

Is coming to an end.

At a distance watching time go by…

Thought for The Day - The Centerpoint

That place of focus, the place where everything else revolves, begins and returns to. The center, the place of strength and highest acclaim. That place emotionally, logically, behaviorally and spiritually, where, when we operate, we exude our highest being.

I've read several quotes recently stating we don't live or appreciate "The Moment." Given my nature, I was ready to point the finger at myself, certain I was guilty. But at the moment, music is playing, my all-time favorite group Incognito; the song "Good Love" - look it up! That's at this moment. The music dictates appreciating the moment. I worked on a pastel piece this morning and whenever I work in this medium, "preconceived notions" are tossed out the window! Even when I stare at a work in progress and imagine colors and movement, when pastel stick hits paper, in that minute, at that time, it's only that moment and I'm guided by one hundred variables all at the same time. I could be troubled by the conflicting possibilities, but in that moment, I am at my center.

I have reasoned many times, my "work" remains small; I don't have a large audience for writing, painting, sharing a good word and especially counseling. But I have concluded "I've reached one." Did you hear me? Are you listening? If you have heard me, if an image rendered, gave you pause for reflection, then you found me at my center (and I reached at your core!). If my listening to your struggle and subsequent advice or just a nod of understanding eased difficulties for you, I heard you, I responded in the moment. I don't claim to have special powers, but as I learned from my father so many years ago, pray, seek and receive the answer in the instance. The best is given in the moment, with or without forethought.

Thought for The Day - Really? What is it?

It's a tremor, a quiver felt from shoulder to shoulder.

It's a picture, hiding just behind the stark white of the paper or the canvas

It's a color or pattern or texture, built by layer upon layer, pleading for expression in this realm

It's a theme, a subject, a title yet revealed...

The creative process; when intention takes me to the border of this world and the unseen,

My hand is the tool, carving out colors from that other place.

When I allow my mind to cross that line, to sit, to stand in front of those flat surfaces and scratch that paper, energy and light coming through, it is my pleasure to be the delivery man of this beautiful message.

Do you understand it? Is the message clear? Or do you need a name, a title or designation to handle the simple words your soul clearly understands?

I’ll say It (paint it, draw, put it in rhyme) – His Words

Been at this for a while now, and whether it’s put in electronic form, scribbled in spiral bound pages, sketch, spread in bright hues, I must say it. I have to express it.

I have often said it – mistakenly – to see what the audience will say, but when I say it because it’s in me, when I treat it as nectar and salve for the world, I am at my best. When I say it – express light – from the depths of my heart, it is the power of shaping, creating, and formation.

There are times when I get stuck, but that mental state is only control, trying to determine the reaction. I can’t determine the reaction; I can only deliver what is here, inside me.

This is me; this is my expression. Eddiehudson3, bringing the words and images that my heart ponders. In person, I am quiet, reserved, almost aloof, but in my images, the words written, I am a prolific, wealth of truth and light.

A Blank Page

Quite a few years ago I discovered I could write. Writing wasn’t my major in college and though I wriinge ‘theme’ and ‘term’ papers was part of school years, it wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to do. So when ideas for stories and poems begin to flow, it was a surprise. One of my earlier writings and one that epitomizes the creative process for me was the “A Blank Page.” Here's the poem:

I sit,
Watching the blank page
And its vast starkness tell stories.
Images take shape
Men fight their way through battles,
Swords slashing and hacking
Women love deeply
And embrace
As though giving away breath from their lungs.
In this ‘emptiness’ there are words
Some spoken below a whisper
Yet their power is felt by the soul
Stories pour from a space that seems to contains nothing
Yet there is so much there
It can be misunderstood or misread as writer’s block, or Artist’s cramp.
Yet it is there,
Dancing,
Active,
Waiting for you to peel back the white and reveal the flesh beneath.
Take an adventure with me as we push past the mundanity of our lives,
Let’s go where children are purposely conceived and planned for,
A place where a walk through meadows green is a journey to discover secrets.
Let’s go to a place where one’s name is rarely told because words are powerful and revealing a name is akin to revealing one’s soul.
Leave the land where pages are for numbers and the reporting of what we know already.
Mount your imaginations and let’s go!

Okay, that's it for now. Let me know what you think!

This is my introduction. A few years ago, I downloaded the song "A Change is Gonna Come." Initially, I listened, played it a few times and let it settle down in the list of rarely played songs. But something happen in my heart and soul. The impression is "a change is gonna come."

Well here I am, 'blogging!' Of course that's only part of the change. You see, for years, I've written poetry. I have a couple of novels in me somewhere, just haven't taken the time to do anything with them. Nothing is published and most of my efforts at writing have remained private. But the thing I always wanted to do is express mysself through visual arts.

I took classes at Columbia College and graduated in 1984 - a very long time ago! With a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) I immediately felt overwhelmed. Though I'm sure I was as creative back then, I didn't do anything with it. I couldn't envision myself drawing or painting, though I had developed quite a bit of talent. Still, call it cultural pressures, I did not consider myself capable of success.

Twenty-five years later, while 'success' is nice, expression, the exercise of my soul, the images that pour from my soul, is paramount! I continue to write, but it's mostly journaling and a blog is great way to express myself that way. Who knows? Maybe soon I'll have a website featuring art and writing! Any way, this is my introduction.