The Lost Nature Journal

and inevitable lost Art

Alas, one month later, and I’ve yet to polish up my three month project: recording the season that begins with the Vernal Equinox on March 21 and ends with Summer Solstice on June 20. I burned up in late spring heat and … then I burned out, all in the space of the last two weeks. I became the runner that collapsed on the last lap of a marathon, but it was the Penstemon that hamstrung me before I could exercise that last burst of insane detail required by the Whorled Loosestrife.

The WIPs:

… works in progress …

I’ll resolve this at some point, inking in the remaining paintings to improve accuracy; and figuring out how to photograph ALL SEVEN panels to reproductive advantage. In the meantime, I have no regrets over having experienced a three month window of discipline and perseverance.

It wasn’t just the heat …

I became deeply troubled by what has happened to my art mentor’s estate. On June 9th I received the news that her vast collection of framed and unframed pastel paintings would need to be moved again — where, I have not been informed — but I know from even before the last move that most of her frames were damaged and her larger unframed works on paper were piled into a too-small plastic tub because her flat file cabinets were sold. Although I managed the images of her work for fifteen years, I have no ability to assist with the management of the work itself, now that she is gone. That her magnum opus of magnificent work is lamentably now in limbo is ode-worthy. Perhaps I will write that ode and free myself of the funk that has overshadowed my own pursuit of excellence.

After having been involved making careful suggestions to no avail, I threw myself into flower and vegetable gardening for the next six weeks. The amount of work I accomplished beautifying the homestead has been impressive, and it’s still not done. The work is never finished in summer.

Ironic, isn’t it? I am grieving the loss of museum-worthy works of art and yet I’m perfectly happy investing in a landscape that will be gone by winter time.

Yes, the perennials will be back and many annuals will reseed themselves for another summer, but when I have moved from this happy place of rioting plant life I have birthed and nurtured, the next owner will mow over most of the landscaping and plant grass, in the same way my cared-for beds were abandoned the last time I moved from my home of almost twenty years to where I live and thrive now.

Is it that deep down, I understand much of God’s creation is temporal and I expect man’s creations to be permanent? Is that what makes the fairy-like delicacy of the flowers of Whorled Loosestife so amazing? The care of design and execution for a thing that will make seeds and die? Consider the lilies, Jesus said.

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? Luke 12:27-28 KJV

Whorled Loosestrife discovered along the power line on June 13th

There’s even a baby grasshopper in there!

“The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.” Psalm 65:8 NIV

It’s good to stay joyful. The restoration of all things will occur in the end. We shall finally realize the “telos” of God’s masterpieces we all long for, and these new creations will last forever.

And, like my mentor, I have a strong sense of peace that we will be co-creators of masterpieces with Him, giving Him joy in return, perhaps working on a “ten league canvas with brushes of comet’s hair” as Rudyard Kipling imagined, adding:

“And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;

And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame;

But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,

Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They Are!”

And please feel free to comment (as long as you are not using AI) or share the inspo.