The Quest

Before the work, the wonder... Autumn has arrived. On Sunday night (Oct. 13, the October full moon, the "hunter's moon,"  rose high over the river. It was a sight to behold. Small wonder that our ancestors worshiped her, and that the Woman Clothed in the Sun in the Book of Revelations—we call her Guadalupe in this hemisphere—stood between her horns, crowned with twelve stars. Ancient hymns describe Mary as " pulchra ut luna," pretty as the moon.  I missed last month's full moon entirely: clouded over every night. This month, hints and guesses, and dazzling little revelations between the trees. Patches of moonlight on the fields driving back from masses in Leavenworth on Saturday night. In the middle of the night, I awoke and the world outside my window, and the river, was pure silver. But silver isn't the only color in this season. The world is turning into gold in daylight. Last wednesday I woke early, and it was cold, really cold. T...

The Story of a Shoe (but first, a smiling sun, a solemn moon and a couple of dahlias...)   On Divers Arts : ( De diversis artibus, a title stolen from Theophilus Presbyter, who wrote a treatise on art and stained glass almost a thousand years ago).*   I place an asterisk here to refer you below (at the end of this post) to the publisher's notes on the Dover translation of Theophilus' fascinating and arcane work. The intro is worth looking at, if only to learn the secret of how to harden metal tools. This fascinating book itself is available on Kindle. Disclaimer:  You are forgiven if you are not willing to give up 8 minutes or so of your life for this blend of art and alchemy. So feel to scroll down if you want. I'm using one piece— the quester's shoe—to show you the process of getting a piece of glass from pattern to painted. This first video shows cutting. No narration, just Schubert. Not a bad background. Three more short videos foll...