no one takes you seriously when you wear polka dots

 

unless you are a woodpecker who has met an untimely end in mary jo hoffman’s back yard. then your polka dots get taken with the utmost seriousness, and kept in the sacred fallen woodpecker feather box. there are times when i could wish i didn’t empathize quite so completely with the animal world and its inevitable disappointments and minor tragedies. but on the other hand, i would never choose to be so impoverished as to lose touch with it. so my heart fills, and breaks, and gets put back together again.

woodpecker feathers

saint paul, minnesota

  • Katrina says:

    Same at our house. I can’t develop any sort of thick skin when it comes to wildlife fatalities – especially when I have an ongoing battle with the neighbor’s cats.
    I am thankful that there are other people in the world whose hearts still break over a woodpecker.

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  • Kerry says:

    The French do!

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  • I have been known to go out into our backyard and announce out loud ‘There will be no murders here’, especially when blue jays are hanging around the sparrows’ bird houses in the spring. I did a painting of woodpecker feathers I found on a walk with Meeko. A bittersweet find. A sad ending for the woodpecker but I feel lucky to have its feathers and to be able to admire them at close range.

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    • I love that..’there will be no murders here.’ I’ll have to try it!
      You are a kindred spirit indeed.
      Mary Jo

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  • Kim says:

    I also have a beloved collection of woodpecker feathers :-) I have taken a screen cap of this and many others of your posts – they make wonderful desktop wallpapers!

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flexibility equals strength

water lily stems don’t need to be strong. they need to be flexible. if you pull a lily pad from the water, the stem has no resistance or strength. but that’s not its job. its job is to stay flexible so that it doesn’t snap under the force of wind or current. and, astoundingly, its other job is to conduct oxygen from the leaf to the root, by means of pressure built up in the air spaces of the leaf tissue when the young leaf is heated by the sun. in other words, sometimes you need a soldier and sometimes you need a poet. thank heavens for both of them, but don’t put this delicate specialist into battle. let it float motionless, soak up the heat of the sun, and contemplate it’s very narrow conclusions on the meaning of existence.

dried water lilies

turtle lake, saint paul, minnesota

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circling in

i know i’m supposed to say something very thoughtful and eloquent and maybe even a little bit moving about this complicated assemblage that took so long to put together. but the truth? the truth is, it was just fun. i got to spend an afternoon with a friend i’ve known since colllege, who, like me, is nurturing a young creative practice, and we just played for a while with the materials we had, while i was supposed to be preparing my house for a photo shoot. that’s my thoughtful and eloquent and slightly moving defense of my afternoon spent in diligent work avoidance, making something beautiful that i love with a good friend. damn. good enough for me.

a collection of bits and pieces from the collector’s desk

saint paul, minnesota

  • Hi I’m following your blog for a while now. Congratulation to your really clean and goog pictures. I should take it as a goal to make the same quality :-)

    I was wondering wheater you like to link your “Natur-ART” Mandala you posted today at my collection on
    http://gartenkraut.blogspot.ch/2015/10/natur-art-im-oktober.html
    I’d be pleased and you could show it to some other people to.
    Grüess Pascale

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    • Yes, feel free to repost. I am flattered!
      Mary Jo

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  • Dede says:

    Okay a photo shot at the house. I remember that you said you had a surprise coming and would be able to tell us soon. Did I miss the big reveal? I’d love to have this image hanging in my house! How can we get copies??

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    • Hi Dede,
      No, that’s not the big surprise. Don’t worry, I promise you won’t miss the big reveal. Matter of fact, you’ll probably get sick of hearing about it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
      I’ll email you about getting a copy of this image!
      Mary Jo

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