Nature's Last Golden Glowing

 

Red Tree at Illif Commons

by Michael Hooper

October is Nature's Last Golden Glowing

Leaves are singing 

"look at me, look at me, before I die."

Red, brown, yellow and gold

Are the colors in my eyes 

Autumn is enchantment

with a creative vibe

Before it’s gone 

I carry my blanket and art supplies 

to the prairie, to capture

nature's magic moment 

I see foliage and trees dressed 

in orange, green and brown 

dancing in the wind around

a red crimson tree

A runner stops to take a picture

of this lovely oak tree

full of glory

This tree with its

intoxicating red leaves

is a poet's delight 

You raise me up 

like transcendent dreams

You take me away

from the madness of the world

Lying on this prairie

overlooking big skies

I see planes 

at 36000 feet

I see the chem trails of

passenger jets

criss crossing the sky

The light changes in October

The skies are more gray

October nights

are filled with mystery

and melancholy 

The turn of the earth

kills most of the light

By candle light I sit

A sad mystery 

is left behind

Why does my heart

feel so sad, so bad

Such a fleeting moment, 

October's golden glowing,

now it is already

November, the reining

month for gray

Michael Hooper

Nov. 1, 2022

Why Paris?

Notes for talk 6:30 pm Friday. Oct. 21, 2022, with Visual Artists of Topeka at Arts Connect, NOTO Arts District

Heather at Les Deaux Magots, Paris

It’s fantastic that you are all here tonight. Thank you. Some of the brightest minds I know in the world are here in this room. This should make for an engaging experience for all of us. Feel free to interrupt me at any time to make comments or questions.

Every artist has likely experienced some time in their life a heightened sense of awareness, a transcendental, meditative state, inspired by a place where they are at their creative best. For me it is a state of being connected to my subject, feeling a sense of the sublime. I'm furiously trying to capture this feeling, this message, this composition that is saying paint me, paint me, paint me.

In some ways the experience of creating art is superior to the outcome. Yet what remains is something startling to the eyes, a reminder of this magnificent state of transcendence. How do we sustain this artistic feeling? Sometimes you find it in a place. You go to this place, you feel this place, you draw and paint this place and suddenly your brain reflects this place and you see it in your dreams.

For three years I was working on my art in my studio, and dreaming of going to Paris. Why Paris? Because it is the art and literary capital of the world, there is a painting around every corner. I'm in love with its art and architecture, parks, food and culture, its people and their language. 

A year ago at this time I was there living in a hotel on the rue de Seine, making this dream a reality. I experienced Paris with my own eyes as an artist, it was a delight and a challenge and sometimes uncomfortable and even painful doing something I’ve never done before, meeting people I had never met, and experiencing conversations with other artists and writers. 

The outcome was actually pretty good. I feel very grateful that I painted a dozen paintings of Paris, most of them while I was there, and then produced a book about it three months later. I was in the Paris zone. I came back a better painter. This talk will focus on my 21 day experience in Paris and briefly in Puerto Rico and then back to Paris again over the summer with my wife.