We explore a silky summer evening, airbrushed with cool mountain air and golden sinking light. Newly arrived in Steamboat Springs, we wander west. The river is gift enough, flowing like laughter between us. One of those rare series of moments when you feel so alive, so present to where you are, so thankful to love…Read more A Secret Garden That Changed My Life (In Vietnam)
photography
Open Road
Opportunity curves gray beyond where eye can see, cleaves fields and hills, leaps into hazy purple clouds far far away. Red tractor shimmers in fading sun, what matters most blazes into sharp relief. Green stalks grow like dreams, with only an expanse of blue to touch. Spiral bales keep watch over those passing through. There are…Read more Open Road
I long to go…
tranquil night-drifts earth-sleep stirs trembling, probing, churning, melding massive emergence black iron forging onward rhythmic unconquerable cadence surging, surging into the unknown – midnight giant with haunting calls summons all restless wandering souls and I long to go I long to go and I long to go
Camera joyfully in-hand
When I traveled to Vietnam in 2009, the country's beauty simply stunned me. I shot multiple rolls of film with my trusty old SLR only to discover when I developed them that I'd had a setting off and my images were ruined. I played around with Photoshop and managed to salvage one of my favorite photos of a bike, at least in…Read more Camera joyfully in-hand
See differently
your offering like an orange petal cast upon the breeze surprises me glimmers in my heart - a web caught, held, examined I am dark and multi –faceted turning inward upon myself ever striving you are simple and unfettered enticing and free through you I see differently
Summer Will Come
Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m enamored with a single dying weed. So far, it has inspired five paintings in as many months! Click the following links to view the paintings in their original blog entries: (left to right) Songs in the Valley, Reach, Always, Loving You Still. There’s something about it – the pathos as it…Read more Summer Will Come
Texture and patina – in art and in life
I have grown to love texture and patina. My husband and I live in a 100 year old house with four active children and a dog, so perhaps it is simply a subconscious decision to accept the inevitable. But, actually, I think it might be rooted in wisdom. Earlier in life, I strove for pristine…Read more Texture and patina – in art and in life
Where true joy can be found
I know a place where unhindered joy pulsates. But you won’t believe it when I first take you there. Perched on the edge of desolation, humble and inconspicuous, a gray cement block building crouches behind ramshackle shops. Barefoot children play on a pile of rubble, and rusty-corrugated-roof shacks lean on either side. Before we go…Read more Where true joy can be found
Songs in the Valley
“It doesn’t look as bad as it did yesterday,” my ever-honest 12 year old tried to encourage me. I asked my husband, “Is it really bad?” “I like some of your other pieces better,” he conceded. I gave it one last look, and shredded it. Every piece of artwork, for me, seems to pass through…Read more Songs in the Valley
Colleen Briggs Images & Writing 