• I have posted three new painting images on my website. These include "Cupid's Bow", a new image in my "Fairy Tales" gallery, plus "Mirkwood" and "At the Carrock", both in my Tolkien gallery. You can see all of these by going to http://www.JefMurray.com and clicking on the "Newest Works" button on the top of the [...]
Where now the horse and the rider? where is the horn that was blowing? Where is the helm and the hauberk and the bright hair flowing? Where is the hand on the harp-string, and the red fire glowing? Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing? These lines and more were chanted [...]
We are sitting on the back deck when we hear their call: strange, stricken, somewhat strangled. Dusk is falling and no birds should be out, but these are; and they are flying fast just above the treetops. “Sandhill cranes?” I asked Lorraine. She nodded. And so they must be. But their voices aren’t joyous as we’d [...]
I've been brooding over boundaries: fences, barricades, walls, dikes, moats, hedges and the like. I'm contemplating commodities that separate space from space and vista from vista. "Post-modernist" folk see such things as antediluvian artifacts that want shoveling out like so much muck into the maelstrom; they call for commons, bridges, networks, cacophony and community, not sanctuaries [...]
Greetings! I'd like to pass on some information about the new "Inspiring Middle-earth" exhibition in North Oxfordshire. The Banbury Museum will be hosting this exhibit starting 24 April and continuing through 19 June. It will feature original works by Ted Nasmith, Ruth Lacon, Peter Pracownik and myself. If you're in the Oxford area over the next couple of months, do swing [...]
I’m mulling over masks. This happens each year about this time, as Shrove Tuesday approaches. Mardi Gras materializes just as winter waxes full. Spring storms will stalk the weeks to come, but for now we are still Jack Frost bitten. Mardi Gras masks hang ‘round our house in preparation for a feast this Friday. Mountains of [...]
In the Roman Catholic Church, today marks the fifth day during which the "O Antiphons" of Advent are sung at evening vespers. These antiphons, seven in all, were the basis for the hymn "O Come O Come Emmanuel", although the melody is very different. Most importantly, the antiphon for today and tonight holds tremendous significance for [...]
I sensed the soaring sandhills today…at least, so it seemed. A distant discord…cockled calls above clouds. “Come along! Come along!” Would that I could follow that cry….But I am earth enslaved, gravity grounded. Freedom for me is fought for, not found in flight. I defend what is dear, beating the bounds. A friend recently rendered me [...]
I’m dragging the suitcase up from the basement. Each summer, Lorraine and I spend a week at the beach, usually with other family members. In previous years, I’ve notched up plenty of bruises and abrasions while body surfing with my great-nephews. Their decades-younger rubber bodies seem immune to the surges and slaps of tropical storm-tossed breakers; [...]
Summer is upon us. And aside from our customary charges (Ignatius the spoiled-rotten hamster and about 20,000 honeybees), we’re now managing our neighbors’ menagerie while they’re away. New wards include snails, guppies, tadpoles, three dinner plate-sized turtles, and Olive the Bassett Hound. The poignant part of caring for all of these critters is that we’re reminded [...]
