Category Archives: inspiration

: : Ode to Purple Lilacs

NEW HAMPSHIRE’S STATE FLOWER

Who doesn’t love the wonderfully fragrant bouquet of lilacs, wafting on the breezes across New Hampshire, in the month of May? Always one of my favorite flowers (so lacy and delicate, in varying shades of one of my favorite colors!), each spring I eagerly await the budding of the lilac bush outside our home. It was transplanted from a neighbor’s yard —24 years ago — in celebration of our first home and the birth of our first son.

There’s nothing quite like sitting out on the porch on a sunny day, and taking in that familiar fragrance carried on the warm spring breeze. My whole family looks forward to this small window of time (two weeks at most — and early this year!) when we can throw open the windows and let the heady lilac fragrance in; so we hack off a few glorious bunches for good measure, and bring them inside, allowing their luscious scent to seep from room to room. It’s a comfort, and a reminder — of family, of home, and of childhood memories.

NEW HAMPSHIRE NATIVES

I’m a New Hampshire girl (born and raised and forever true). When I was young, we used to sing a happy song about NH and lilacs at summer camp, which captures the feeling perfectly:

I want to wake up, in the morning,
where the purple lilacs grow;
where the sun comes a peepin'
into where I'm a sleepin'
and the songbirds say, "hello!"

I want to wander, through the wild woods,
where the fragrant breezes blow,
and drift back, through New Hampshire,
where the purple lilacs grow.

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

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ED. NOTE: This entry was first posted on Blogger, under the handle “ampersandblogger,” in May 2009. : : kf/&, 2/3/2021

» Find more Garden posts …

:: Winter, fare thee well

Welcome Spring: Winter Beds Awaken

WELCOME, SPRING

Tired gray piles
of granular snow
sit slumped by the roadside
waiting to melt
in the warm noonday sun.

Beneath them
the slender
and varicose
leaves of crocus
tentatively, cautiously,
poke their heads up
through the soil.

With each day,
the piles recede
and the grass-like blades
grow taller.

Eventually
(finally!)
the snow does melt
and the crocus do
pop out
to welcome Spring.

I was inspired by April’s being National Poetry Month, and by the crocus photos I took recently, and the unseasonably warm & sunny weather we’ve been having of late, to write and post this poem today — Welcome, Spring!

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ED. NOTE: This entry was first posted on Blogger, under the handle “ampersandblogger,” in April 2009. : : kf, 7/25/19

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:: Patricia Kaufman, master of energy and light

INSPIRING WORKS BY INSPIRING ARTISTS, NO. 2

Body of Water by Patricia Kaufman

I’ve already posted one piece in this series, on an artist who inspires me (see Lisa Reinke, artist extraordinaire), and I have plenty of others to include on this list. (That’s one of the best things about running a local gallery: you get to meet so many wonderful and talented people!)

MEET PATRICIA KAUFMAN

The wonderfully talented person I’m focusing on today is Patricia Kaufman. Her painting, “body of water” (below), actually hangs above the desk in my studio. (Lucky me!) She surprised me with it one day—as a gift and a thank you—for opening and running the “first-gallery-ever” in our small New England mill town. I am honored to have it—and to have Patricia as a friend and neighbor, as well. And also, to be able to contemplate the truly amazing energy this painting evokes, each and every day.

One can almost meditate to Patricia’s works, and feel the universal energy that flows from her mind’s eye, through her brushes, and onto the canvas. (I often get goosebumps when I look at her paintings.)

HER WORK IS SPECIAL, AND SO IS SHE

Patricia gives freely (both of herself, and her time) to many causes within our community, and children have always held a special place in her heart. Recently, she has made two separate pilgrimages to remote mountain villages in South America, bringing much needed school supplies to the children there. We’ve also had special shows here in my gallery, with 100% of profits from sales of selected pieces going to such causes. Inspired by the people she meets and the colorful cultures she experiences, Kaufman uses this imagery in her art to create an amazing body of work.

SEEING IS BELIEVING

Patricia’s most recent collection of paintings and collages (to which I and two other friends were specially treated to a private sneak preview, before it was exhibited publicly) can be found at the Bowersock Gallery in Provincetown, MA.

Be sure to check out her work, and see what I mean when I say her paintings show an incredible mastery of capturing energy and light. They are both radiant and humble at the same time—very much like the artist herself.

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ED. NOTE: This entry was first posted on Blogger, under the handle “ampersandblogger,” in December 2008. : : kf, 12/21/18

» Find more Inspiring Artists posts …

:: Lisa Reinke, artist extraordinaire

INSPIRING WORKS BY INSPIRING ARTISTS, NO. 1

Hymn to the Masses by Lisa Reinke

Here’s the first in a series of inspiring works by inspiring artists I’ve had the pleasure of knowing.

Meet Lisa Reinke, artist extraordinaire. I’m a huge fan of her paintings. I found this piece, entitled “Hymn to the Masses,” posted on her blog, and I hope she won’t mind me including it here. After all, Lisa was the very first Lamprey Arts & Culture Alliance (LACA) member-artist offered a solo show at Ampers& (my non-profit gallery space), back in March of 2006. Seems only fitting that I begin the series with her.

Lisa’s work is bold and beautiful. Visit Sun Drenched Studio, her online art site, and see for yourself!

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ED. NOTE: This entry was first posted on Blogger, under the handle “ampersandblogger,” in December 2008. : : kf, 12/14/18

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