painted in dead leaves
October’s ghost is a face
dreaming of sunflowers
Art and haiku by Clinock
autumn
Ghost Ride
Sometimes,
in this season
of dying and farewells,
even the broken,
the rusted,
the rejected
are touched by magic,
garlanded in lights
and flowers,
resurrected
and honoured
among fallen leaves.
Hereabouts
autumn ghosts
still peddle summer,
wheeling and whistling
through
the tenuous sunlight
of October streets.
Photo and Poem by Clinock
October’s face.
October’s face
torn by wet winds
erodes and decays,
entering a deep
and melancholic
sleep.
It’s a worn and aging mask
painted with autumn
landscapes,
dreaming of sunflowers
broken by storms,
trees ripped into
spinning kaleidoscopes
of red and gold confetti,
and
tire marks
in the snow.
October’s face,
up against the wall of time
disintegrates,
fragments,
descends with the leaves
towards darker days.
Its beauty is short
but the fall
is long.
poem and photo by clinock (edited redux).
photo: found wall art, Vancouver. Thanks and Credit to unknown artist.
artratcafe CAFE – Pumpkin Time…
As the rain and clouds of autumn hide the sun from us here in Vancouver I am thankful for the appearance of the pumpkin, nature’s substitute for glorious summer sunsets. This glowing orange orb warms us under the grey and overcast skies of the season. At artratcafe CAFE we are, of course, familiar with the wide variety of foods that can be derived from the pumpkin, and because the temperatures are dropping to chilly we are offering the warm hug of comforting Pumpkin Soup to our visiting friends and we include the recipe in this post.
But also, because we are so closely associated with Mr Art Rat, we are interested in the artistic side of food, and when it comes to pumpkins this interest must involve the Halloween related carving of this seasonal fruit (vegetable?). In honour of this tradition we have put together an exhibition of some of our favorite pumpkin sculptures, along with some paintings of and on pumpkins and other miscellaneous pumpkin related art including pumpkin / Halloween poetry. (All due credits at end of post).
Theme in Yellow by Carl Sandburg.
I spot the hills
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins.
On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle round me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvest moon;
I am a jack-o’-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know
I am fooling.
The Witches Song from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and bling-worms sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
On a dark, dark, night
In a dark, dark wood
In a dark, dark house
In a dark, dark room
In a dark, dark cupboard
On a dark, dark shelf
In a dark, dark box
There was a GHOST!
Superstitious by Shel Silverstein.
If you are superstitious you’ll never step on cracks.
When you see a ladder you will never walk beneath it.
And if you ever spill some salt you’ll thrown some ‘cross your back,
And carry’ round a rabbit’s foot just in case you need it.
You’ll pick up any pin that you find lying on the ground,
And never, never, ever throw your hat upon the bed,
Or open an umbrella when you are in the house.
You’ll bite your tongue each time you say
A thing you shouldn’t have said.
You’ll hold your breath and cross your fingers
Walkin’ by a graveyard,
And number thirteen’s never gonna do you any good.
Black cats will all look vicious, if you’re superstitious,
But I’m not superstitious (knock on wood).
Pumpkin Soup – Ingredients:
- Small pumpkin (remove the seeds and stringy bits, cut into large chunks, peel). You can sub for 2 med size acorn squash if you don’t have pumpkin.
- 2 sweet onions, chopped
- 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- 2 tbsp organic coconut oil
- 4 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 2-3 cups hemp or almond milk (this makes it creamy)
- 4-6 cups stock or filtered water
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
Method: Preheat oven to 365F. Place pumpkin chunks, onions and sweet potato into a large baking dish with 1/4 water in dish.
Bake until fork-tender, about 45-60 minutes. Remove them from the oven and set them aside to cool.
Once cooled, place all the roasted ingredients into your food processor and the raw garlic. You may need to do this in batches depending how large your processor is.
Add in some hemp milk or filtered water to help blend. Once blended, move the mixture to a large pot on your stove. Add the remaining hemp milk, water and spices. Allow the soup to simmer for 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally on low to medium heat.
Sprinkle some raw sheep’s milk cheese and arugula on top. The natural sweetness of the nutmeg is warming and lovely. If you let it sit overnight in the fridge the flavours will mingle and be even more smashingly delicious the next day. Serves 6-8.
Image Credits – from first to last – Pumpkin painting by Ulrike ‘Ricky’ Martin – ebsqart.com / Next three pumpkin carvings by Ray Villafane – ama-zing-arts.blogspot.ca / Scary Halloween Pumpkin, artist unknown-librariansquest.blogspot.ca / Witch Face Carving, artist unknown – worthstar.com / Tribal Face by Mina Braga – plumk-artwiththepumkins.buzznet.com / Old Postcard from Google Images / Pumpkin Soup from Google Images / Pumpkin painting by unknown first grade student – mrstsfirstgradeclass-jill.blogspot.com / Painting on Pumpkin by Susan Dupont – blogs.windsorstar.com / Quasimodo carving, artist unknown – thechive.com / Spider carving, artist unknown – thevine.com.au / Old postcard from Google Images.
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Q: What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter? A: Pumpkin pi.
art rat cafe 