A seasonal cornucopia of Austintatious delights
click images to open gallery
Honoring Akwasi Evans, remembering old Austin
Akwasi Evans was an East Austin activist, publisher, warrior of the beloved community and an original voice for KAZI’s Breakfast Club. He launched a community newspaper, NOKOA, in 1987 to shine a light on progressive political action in Central Texas. Known for speaking truth to power, he advocated for people of color in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods of East Austin. I attended his tribute yesterday and found a heartwarming vestige of Austin’s Beloved Community at Kenny Dorham’s Back Yard, a venue for DiverseArts productions. While the condos are creeping, music is flowing and food trucks are circling this small fortress of cool on East 11th.
For those of us who remember Austin in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s, seeing an alley or a field that hasn’t been destroyed or a venue that has stood the test of time brings a rush of nostalgia. Yearning for the freedom of youth, good old days of cheap rents and eats is a way of life. Those were the daze my friends, we thought they’d never end. Glad to see a little left.
Blossoms, Bunnies and Butterflies
Very nice to be welcomed back to the Wildflower Center by this chill cottontail, who also said goodbye when I left.
June in Texas brings waves of yellow and purple wildflowers, a followup to the blues and reds of April and May. Pink is always in season.
barton creek 
tiger swallowtail 
rain tree seeds 
standing cypress 
aligator lizard 
rabbit ears 
cottontail 
bunny chillin 
skeleton flower 
milkweed boxelder bugs 
echinacea 
pink and whites 
variegated fritillary 
giant swallowtail
Sauntering into resilience
Sauntering integrates resonance, rhythm and rejuvenation – a walking meditation connecting us to our environment. As Lady Bird Johnson said, “My heart found its home long ago in the beauty, mystery, order and disorder of the flowering earth.”
spiderwart & buttercups 
evening prmrose 
blue wild indigo 
antelope horn milkweed 
wild iris 
goat’s beard
When we flow in rhythm with the trail, awakening our senses to the life around us, we are rejuvenating. In gratitude, we share healing energy with the earth. Spring flowers become dewberries in the fall, reflecting the organic process of unfolding and ripening that also applies to projects and resolving problems.
dewberry flower in spring 
dewberry fruit in fall
This wild onion springs forth from a hole in the rock – undaunted, zesty, pink, flourishing – resilient.
I felt resilient, resonating with the color and fragrance of so many, gorgeous wildflowers.
crabapple blossoms 
golden eye phlox 
agave in bluebonnets 
yucca in flowers 
indian paintbrush 
yellow poppy
These tough cacti pushing bright green shoots from their dry, winter skin speak to the power of regeneration. Resonating with the vibrant energy of Spring brings joy in the transformation of browns and grays into rainbows of red, green, blue, pink, white, yellow, purple and orange flowers.
lace cactus 
sprouting 
prickly pear cactus
As temperatures rise, our dormant friends come out to play. Athena the owl returns to her nest at the Wildflower Center to raise her owlets. To everything, there is a season.
Athena the owl 
Leopard Frog 
Ribbon Snake
Spring saunter on the hike and bike trail
Winter
Luminations at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
If it’s holiday enchantment you’re seeking, look no further than Luminations. Beginning with an ethereal performance by the Blue Lapis Dancers, thousands of luminarias and colorful mood lights illuminate the garden paths at the Wildflower Center. Dancers performing Oneness of Being.
Festive food and drinks are available for children of all ages at stations sprinkled throughout the gardens, including build your own s’mores. It was misty when I went, but that only added to the magic, evoking memories of snowy street scenes and hearth fires to warm the cockles of anyone’s heart.
One more chance to see this Winter Wonderland tonight and to support the good work of the Wildflower Center.
Art for the People lights up SoFi
Do yourself a favor and saunter over to SOFI for a shop and stop during the holidays. The welcome pugs highly recommend it and saunteringarts photo cards are available for a very modest sum. All the more reason to support this woman run, locally sourced enterprise! Fortlandia at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Sauntering the new Fortlandia exhibit at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center brought back memories of all the trees I spent my childhood in. Take your inner child out for a play date, the exhibit will be up through February. Opening Saturday, September 29th through February, 2019.
Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art at the Blanton
Walking into the Blanton, walls alive with Australian Aboriginal art, one enters into a multidimensional conscious, dreaming and ancestral energy landscape. The images compel the body to enter into the dreamtime. It’s one of the most vibrant collections I’ve seen, showing through September 9th. If you go to one art exhibit this year, see this one!
From the Blanton
“The word landscape, derived from the Dutch landschap (region or tract of land) and first recorded in 1598, describes a way of depicting the natural world developed by European artists. Australian Aboriginal artists offer an entirely different vision, in which they forgo Western conventions of horizon lines and figure-ground distinctions. Instead, they give form to their mental maps of sites. The new version of landscape painting was most famously practiced by artists in Papunya, a government settle for displaced Aboriginal groups. In 1971, artists there began painting walls boards, and canvases to educate outsiders about their land and the obligation of “caring for country.” This defiance of government policies that forced people into artificial communities and taught children to ignore their ancestors sent shock waves through Australia.
Papunya artists painted swiftly and retained a commitment to secrets embedded in their system of learning. Their innovation helped spawn a modern art movement in Austraila. The resulting paintings “represent” the desert in ways that maintain the artists’ control over what is seen and what can never be revealed. While many of the sacred symbols and stories in the paintings may be explained to audiences outside the community, some remain accessible only to the individual, kinship groups, or peoples who share a particular Dreaming, an ancestral realm comprising spiritual beings, governing laws, and their narratives.”
