Tales of autumn

Paintings: Mother and child

2012-01-22T10:39:00.000+01:00

"My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance

but understanding of illiteracy. That some people,

unable to go to school, were more educated

and more intelligent than college professors."

- Maya Angelou

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Juene Fille et Enfant mi corps

"I think, at a child's birth,

if a mother could ask a fairy godmother

to endow it with the most useful gift,

that gift should be curiosity."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Maternal admiration (1869)

"Children are a great comfort in your old age

– and they help you reach it faster, too."

- Lionel Kauffman

Hippolyte Camille Delpy - Mother and child in the garden

"A mother takes twenty years

to make a man of her boy,

and another woman makes a fool

of him in twenty minutes."
- Robert Frost

Frederick Warren Freer - Mother and Child Reading

"Insanity is hereditary;

you get it from your children."
- Sam Levenson

An interlude by William Sergeant Kendall

"If you’ve never been hated by your child,

you’ve never been a parent."
- Bette Davis

Gustav Klimt - Mother and child

"Children seldom misquote.

In fact, they usually repeat word for word

what you shouldn’t have said."
- Author Unknown

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Young mother gazing at her child (1871)

"There are no seven wonders

of the world in the eyes of a child.

There are seven million."
- Walt Streightiff

Frederick Goodall - Mother and child

"There are three ways to get something done:

do it yourself, employ someone, or forbid your children to do it."
- Monta Crane

William Adolphe Bouguereau - The Bunch of Grapes (1868)

"It is not that I half knew my mother.

I knew half of her: the lower half

- her lap, legs, feet, her hands and wrists

as she bent forward."
- Flann O'Brien

Leon Jean Basile Perrault - A mother with her sleeping child

"Women as the guardians of children possess a great power.

They are the molders of their children's personalities

and the arbiters of their development."
- Ann Oakley

Leighton - Mother and Child

"Whenever I'm with my mother,

I feel as though I have to spend the whole time

avoiding land mines."
- Amy Tan

Renoir, Pierre-Auguste - Mother and child (1881)

"The joys of motherhood are never fully experienced

until the children are in bed."
- Author Unknown

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Lullaby

"Before becoming a mother

I had a hundred theories on how to bring up children.

Now I have seven children and only one theory:

love them, especially when they least deserve to be loved."
- Kate Samperi

Frederick Richard Pickersgill - Mother and child with a poppy

"Motherhood brings as much joy as ever,

but it still brings boredom, exhaustion, and sorrow too.

Nothing else ever will make you as happy or as sad,

as proud or as tired, for nothing is quite as hard

as helping a person develop his own individuality

especially while you struggle to keep your own."

- Marguerite Kelly and Elia Parsons

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Rest (1879)

"What you teach your own children

is what you really believe in."
- Cathy Warner Weatherford

Marry Cassatt - Mother and child

Marry Cassatt - Mother and child (1900)

"Our children are not going to be just "our children"

- they are going to be other people's husbands

and wives and the parents of our grandchildren."
Mary S Calderone

Shriya Das - Mother and child

"Love your children with all your hearts,

love them enough to discipline them before it is too late...

Praise them for important things,

even if you have to stretch them a bit.

Praise them a lot. They live on it like bread and butter

and they need it more than bread and butter."
- Lavina Christensen Fugal

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Maternal admiration

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Young mother gazing at her child (1871)

"If I had my child to raise over again
I’d build self-esteem first and the house later
I’d finger paint more and point the finger less
I would do less correcting and more connecting
I’d take my eyes off my watch and watch with my eyes
I would care to know less and know to care more
I’d take more hikes and fly more kites
I’d stop playing serious and seriously play
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars
I’d do more hugging and less tugging
I’d see the oak tree in the acorn more often
I would be firm less often and affirm much more
I’d model less about the love of power
And more about the power of love."
– Diane Loomans

Photo: Winter I.

2012-01-10T18:49:00.000+01:00

"Earth teach me to forget myself

as melted snow forgets its life.

Earth teach me resignation

as the leaves which die in the fall.

Earth teach me courage

as the trees which stands all alone.

Earth teach me regeneration

as the seed which rises in the spring."

- William Alexander

"The color of springtime is in the flowers,

the color of winter is in the imagination."

- Terri Guillemets

"Nothing is more beautiful

than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise."

- George Washington Carver

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel

the bone structure of the landscape -

the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.

Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show."

- Andrew Wyeth

"Remember when old December's darkness

is ll about you, that the world is really

in every minutest point as full of life as in

the most joyous morning you ever lived through.."

- William James

"Reading about nature is fine,

but if a person walks in the woods

and listens carefully, he can learn more

than what is in books..."

- George Washington Carver

Villach, Austria

"Winter is the season in which people try to keep

the house as warm as it was in the summer,

when they complained about the heat."

- Author Unknown

Klagenfurt, Austria

Maria Theresia, Klagenfurt, Austria


Klagenfurt, Austria

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing,

wind braces us up, snow is exhilirating;

there is really no such thing as bad weather,

only different kinds of good weather."

- John Ruskin

"Of winter's lifeless world each tree
now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer's secret
deep down withing its heart."
- Charles G. Stater

"During winter my attention
was attracted to the changes
in the stars and planets in the sky."
- Paul Nurse

"Adversity draws men together and produces beauty

and harmony in life's relationships,

just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes,

which vanish with the warmth."
- Soren Kierkegaard

"Melancholy were the sounds on winter's night."
- Virginia Woolf

"A morning-glory at my window

satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books."
- Walt Whitman

"Let your soul stand cool and composed

before a million universes."
- Walt Whitman

"What we anticipate seldom occurs;

what we least expect generally happens."
- Benjamin Disraeli

Book: Colours of the sea - live presentation

2011-12-12T20:59:00.000+01:00

On January 9th 2012 at 19 o'clock I'll have a live presentation of my first poetry/photography collection. It will take place at Trubarjeva hiša literature, Stritarjeva 7, Ljubljana.

I'll talk about POD and e-publishing, my experiences with CreateSpace and Smashwords, and of course about the poems and photographs. I'll have a few hard copies of the book with me, available for sale (15€).

Hope to see you there ;)

And I'd just like to invite all the poets to join my poetry project about pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum, more info: HERE.

Videos: Midwifery and medicine

2011-12-02T17:34:00.001+01:00

Here are few of my favourite videos in midwifery/medicine field:

Alexander Tsiaras: Conception to birth -- visualized

Annie Murphy Paul: What we learn before we're born

Charles Limb: Building the musical muscle

What is Déjà vu?

Why Do We Dream?

Photo: Autumnal sunset

2011-11-03T20:15:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was my birthday and we had lovely weather, so in the afternoon (after baking muffins), I went chasing the sunset.

And if you haven't yet seen my dancing cat, here's the video:

Photo: Pokljuška soteska

2011-11-03T20:00:00.001+01:00

Pokljuška soteska, Slovenia.

As a photographer it might be better to go there in summer, when there might be more light :) I went there on Monday afternoon.

Poem: Hands, Fingers and Arms

2011-10-09T22:20:00.000+02:00

Photo: Paintings from October I.

2011-10-09T21:17:00.001+02:00

Birthday card I did for my boyfriend.

Water it.

Self-portrait

Childhoods dreams

Birthday gift I drew for my mother.

Photo: Walks in September II.

2011-10-09T20:36:00.002+02:00

First part: here

These photos are from a walk to Blegoš, Slovenia.

Blog: Update and the first snow

2011-10-09T20:28:00.000+02:00

I've had some time on my hands, since I only have a diploma to write and some other minor things (school related) and I haven't yet found a part time job. So here's what I did.

Pizza/tortillia: veggie; delicious and easy to make and improvise.

Veggie chilly. I used way too much chilli.

Cake with dried fruits - doesn't look like much, but it's delicious!! I baked it for my boyfriends birthday.

Aloe vera gel: my plant kind of died and I had lots of leaves, so I decided to make use of them. You add vitamin C and E (I only crushed a pill of vit.C) and pill the leaves and store in the fridge up to a year. It's perfect to use it for cuts and bruises.

I dried peppermint leaves to make tea.

My father found a cowboy hat..well, mushroom.

I planted ginger, still waiting so see it grow... I also bought extra so I'm now drinking ginger tea with honey - it's the best tea :) almost. It's great to relieve nausea and gas and it also helps fighting off colds!

Speaking of cold. We had a warm summer autumn, see it here:

But on Friday snow fell:

I took photos of a spiders web right outside my window, and this one was taken during the night, and I love how it came out.

This was the day after the snowfall, and it was so strange seeing snow melt away and the green leaves showed, usually you see bare branches after the snow.

And now for something completely different:

Guarding apples from ants

Walkin like an egyptian

Poetry: Poetry collection about pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum

2011-09-26T17:04:00.001+02:00

I have an idea.

I've already made three art collections here on the blog: pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. Now, I'm taking things a bit further. I want to make a Pregnancy & Childbirth & Postpartum poetry collection that will be available as a free e-book on Smashwords. So now I turn to YOU, I need your cooperation.

The collection will include three chapters:

About Pregnancy
About Childbirth
About Postpartum (including themes about breastfeeding, first few weeks after birth, poems about a child up to his/her 1 year of age)

The last chapter will include a short introduction of the participants

You can send up to 2 poems per chapter (which makes it 6 poems per poet - if there will be a lot of poems I might choose up to 3 poems per poet to be included) and you can also add a photo to the poem. I don't care if you are unpublished or published author, but it has to be in English language. Send me the poems (preferably in word document) and a short bio of yourself (few sentences) with a photo of yourself (not mandatory) and photographs that you'd like to include to the poems (they are not mandatory, but if you wish to have them please sent photos in high quality and seperate from the word document or any other).

I will be accepting your contributions up to Friday 20th April 2012. That gives me two weeks to put things in order and make the e-book available on 05th of May, which is international day of the midwives.

Send contributions here: nataska86 at gmail.com

Anymore questions, please ask.

And please spread the word! :) Let's make this something unforgettable ;)

Photo: Walks in September

2011-09-17T21:24:00.000+02:00

Blog: Peace in September morn

2011-09-17T21:17:00.001+02:00

Hiii there! :)

As you can see, our cat is doing fine, healthy and growing. Also my guinea pig, that had an operation in August is now doing good (he had a bone abscess).

Few days ago I woke into a cloudy morning and I felt lighter and relaxed. Autumn is here. I find it easier to breathe.

I went to a music festival and I saw The Wombats and Editors. It was great to celebrate the end of my practice work with a good concert. Editors played The weight of the world in acoustic, and .. you know .. when you hear the start of a great song, how it takes a breath away from you? Well, that's how I felt when Tom started playing the song. But the audience around couldn't stop talking! I mean, who the hell comes to a concert to talk?! And I felt like I was the only one screaming out the lyrics to the songs. I couldn't find a good video with acoustic version of the song, so here's the original (I'd really like to go to Glastonbury music festival once..or twice):

"Every little piece in your life
Will add up to one
Every little piece in your life
Will it mean something to someone"

I've read Khaled Hosseini's Kite Runner. And I watched the movie The Whistleblower (2010). Both with heavy stories.

I've been getting photographs ready for a photo exhibiton, if I get in.. we'll see about that. It's been awhile, quite a long while since the last time I participated in these things.

Still trying to figure out how the book signing should look like, how should I introduce the book... not a fan of these things, it's the hardest part. On another note: I saw my ebook available on Barnes&Nobles.

I've been looking for a job, something to work while I finish writing my diploma. I found a few interesting offers. I've passed all my exams, all 42 of them! :) Anyway, it's a bit disappointing to be honest. I expected more from this studies. But it feels good to be at the end, I thought I'll be more scared.

This summer didn't go as planned. But I did get to the sea again for a few hours. And since everything went wrong that day (regarding batteries) I only made two photographs of the sea. Here's one of them:

I've been enjoying walking around and I will share with you some of the photographs I've made.

How was your summer?

Bye!

Poem: Wearing Autumn

2011-08-25T14:25:00.000+02:00

This poem is included in my poetry/photography collection Colours of the sea (there are links to where you can buy it in print or as an ebook on the right side of the page).

I'd love to have someone who would make music for these videos. I know I could read the poems, but I think I'd give away the readers interpretation and besides, I don't really know how to read poetry. I thought I did, until I heard myself read it. Anyway, it'd be great to co-operate with someone, that would make music based on the each poem. Well, maybe I should dust off my guitar and start playing, huh? :)

I also wanted to draw to your attention, and if you're a poet, you really should read on! Willow Tree Press is looking for poets to publish. They make a collection of 20 poem/poets every month, and you can buy it in print. There's no fee to participate. You can read more here. There is an email address in the end, where you can send 3 poems of your choose, along with a short bio and a photo.

That's all, I'm missing autumn in this heat!

Poem: Willow twig

2011-08-23T12:01:00.000+02:00

A new poem and slideshow.

Photo: Polhograjska gora

2011-08-15T20:35:00.000+02:00

Since this summer isn't what I expected and I hate being too long in the same place, I started walking uphill...anywhere that takes me. These are photographs of a hill nearby, called Polhograjska gora or Sv. Lovrenc.

I forgot how much fun this is! Felt like a child running downhill.

Natašek

Poem: Silhouettes

2011-08-13T17:50:00.000+02:00

I've made a video with drawings, photographs made through the years and a poem - Silhouettes, written this year. So, here it is now, hope you like it.

Natašek

Poem: Remembering Imprints

2011-08-02T10:24:00.000+02:00

A video I did with my poem Remembering imprints and a drawing I made of it.

Video: Cuddling with a kitten

2011-07-31T14:00:00.000+02:00

Here she is, our new found kitten! :)

..getting fat and lazy.

Book: Colours of the sea as an e-book

2011-07-29T15:40:00.001+02:00

I've made Colours of the sea available as an ebook on Smashwords: click here to see it.
There is a special offer til July 31th - 75% discount.

It will soon be available on other online retailers, such as: Barnes&Nobles, Apple, Kobo, Diesel and Scrollmotion.

Looking forward for you to read it! :)

Natašek

Photo: Abandoned cat

2011-07-28T17:12:00.001+02:00

A few days ago we heard a cat "mjawing" and then we found a kitten hiding around our house. About 2 months old, I'd say and probably a female. Anyway, she got used to us quite quickly, loves to be in the lap or on a shoulder and licks fingers, hands, nose, cheeks... She's very playful and cute. I've never had a cat before, so this is something new to me, but I'm surprised at how adorable she is in looks and behaviour. Can't belive who would give her up.

Mjaw, til the next time!

Natašek

Photo: Summer edition pt. 1

2011-07-17T13:41:00.000+02:00

Photographs from this summer.

Enjoy!

Natasek

Book Trailer: Colours of the sea

2011-07-16T08:29:00.000+02:00

Made a book trailer for my poetry and photography collection, here's the link to youtube:

Prose: How to speak poetry by Leonard Cohen

2011-07-02T20:12:00.000+02:00

How To Speak Poetry by Leonard Cohen

Take the word butterfly. To use this word it is not necessary to make the voice weigh less than an ounce or equip it with small dusty wings. It is not necessary to invent a sunny day or a field of daffodils. It is not necessary to be in love, or to be in love with butterflies. The word butterfly is not a real butterfly. There is the word and there is the butterfly. If you confuse these two items people have the right to laugh at you. Do not make so much of the word. Are you trying to suggest that you love butterflies more perfectly than anyone else, or really understand their nature? The word butterfly is merely data. It is not an opportunity for you to hover, soar, befriend flowers, symbolize beauty and frailty, or in any way impersonate a butterfly. Do not act out words. Never act out words. Never try to leave the floor when you talk about flying. Never close your eyes and jerk your head to one side when you talk about death. Do not fix your burning eyes on me when you speak about love. If you want to impress me when you speak about love put your hand in your pocket or under your dress and play with yourself. If ambition and the hunger for applause have driven you to speak about love you should learn how to do it without disgracing yourself or the material.

What is the expression which the age demands? The age demands no expression whatever. We have seen photographs of bereaved Asian mothers. We are not interested in the agony of your fumbled organs. There is nothing you can show on your face that can match the horror of this time. Do not even try. You will only hold yourself up to the scorn of those who have felt things deeply. We have seen newsreels of humans in the extremities of pain and dislocation. Everyone knows you are eating well and are even being paid to stand up there. You are playing to people who have experienced a catastrophe. This should make you very quiet. Speak the words, convey the data, step aside. Everyone knows you are in pain. You cannot tell the audience everything you know about love in every line of love you speak. Step aside and they will know what you know because you know it already. You have nothing to teach them. You are not more beautiful than they are. You are not wiser. Do not shout at them. Do not force a dry entry. That is bad sex. If you show the lines of your genitals, then deliver what you promise. And remember that people do not really want an acrobat in bed. What is our need? To be close to the natural man, to be close to the natural woman. Do not pretend that you are a beloved singer with a vast loyal audience which has followed the ups and downs of your life to this very moment. The bombs, flame-throwers, and all the shit have destroyed more than just the trees and villages. They have also destroyed the stage. Did you think that your profession would escape the general destruction? There is no more stage. There are no more footlights. You are among the people. Then be modest. Speak the words, convey the data, step aside. Be by yourself. Be in your own room. Do not put yourself on.

This is an interior landscape. It is inside. It is private. Respect the privacy of the material. These pieces were written in silence. The courage of the play is to speak them. The discipline of the play is not to violate them. Let the audience feel your love of privacy even though there is no privacy. Be good whores. The poem is not a slogan. It cannot advertise you. It cannot promote your reputation for sensitivity. You are not a stud. You are not a killer lady. All this junk about the gangsters of love. You are students of discipline. Do not act out the words. The words die when you act them out, they wither, and we are left with nothing but your ambition.

Speak the words with the exact precision with which you would check out a laundry list. Do not become emotional about the lace blouse. Do not get a hard-on when you say panties. Do not get all shivery just because of the towel. The sheets should not provoke a dreamy expression about the eyes. There is no need to weep into the handkerchief. The socks are not there to remind you of strange and distant voyages. It is just your laundry. It is just your clothes. Don't peep through them. Just wear them.

The poem is nothing but information. It is the Constitution of the inner country. If you declaim it and blow it up with noble intentions then you are no better than the politicians whom you despise. You are just someone waving a flag and making the cheapest kind of appeal to a kind of emotional patriotism. Think of the words as science, not as art. They are a report. You are speaking before a meeting of the Explorers' Club of the National Geographic Society. These people know all the risks of mountain climbing. They honour you by taking this for granted. If you rub their faces in it that is an insult to their hospitality. Tell them about the height of the mountain, the equipment you used, be specific about the surfaces and the time it took to scale it. Do not work the audience for gasps ans sighs. If you are worthy of gasps and sighs it will not be from your appreciation of the event but from theirs. It will be in the statistics and not the trembling of the voice or the cutting of the air with your hands. It will be in the data and the quiet organization of your presence.

Avoid the flourish. Do not be afraid to be weak. Do not be ashamed to be tired. You look good when you're tired. You look like you could go on forever. Now come into my arms. You are the image of my beauty.

I found this through Poetictouch on facebook. I'm sharing it with you now, because it inspired me.

Cheers,
Natašek

Breastfeeding through art

2011-07-02T09:55:00.000+02:00

After pregnancy and childbirth collections, the next logical step is a breastfeeding art collection.

A newborn baby has only three demands. They are warmth in the arms of its mother, food from her breasts, and security in the knowledge of her presence. Breastfeeding satisfies all three. ~Grantly Dick-Read

Isis breastfeeding Horus (source)

Egyptian bottle showing breastfeeding (source)

Detail from a 15th century French manuscript illustration (source)

The Virgin Mary Nursing Her Child by Hans Memling (source)

The Holy Family by Rembrandt (source)

Detail of a wood engraving from the 15th century (source)

The Birth of Saint John the Baptist by Domenico Grihlandaio (source)

Holy Family by Francisco de Zurbaran (source)

Virgin of the Green Cushion by Solario (source)

The Storm by Giorgione (source)

Madonna & Child by Guido Reni (source)

Detail from cathedral in Lima, Peru

Nursing does not diminish the beauty of a woman's breasts; it enhances their charm by making them look lived in and happy. ~Robert A. Heinlein

The wet nurse by Mattia Pretti (source)

From British Museum, London

From cathedral in Madrid, Spain

Lady Mary Boyle by Sir Godfrey Kneller

Mother breastfeeding her child by Jean Baptiste Camille Corot

Hortense breastfeeding Paul by Paul Cezanne, 1872

The Breastfeeding mother by Marguerite Gerard

A detail of a painting from 16th century showing a wet nurse.

Before the Ball by Edouard Debat-Ponsan (source)

The Milky way by Peter Paul Rubens (source)

Breastfeediny by Pablo Picasso

Breastfeeding mother by Auguste Renoir

My nurse and I by Frida Kahlo, 1937

Negermutter by Ernst Neuschul, 1931

The mother by Gari Melcher


New Earth by Elanor Colburn (source)

Nursing mother (source)

Nesting (source)

(source)

Inuit woman nursing twins (source)

(source)

No one could give her such soothing and sensible consolation as this little three-month-old creature when he lay at her breast and she felt the movement of his lips and the snuffling of his tiny nose. ~Leo Tolstoy

There is also a picasa album open to public about breastfeeding madonnas, you can find it - here.

Next compliation... Babies? :)

Natašek