An invitation from Raven and Coyote

Raven  Carrying the Compass of  My Heart

                                    www.listeningtoraven.com

Raven, Coyote and I walk together often, 
discussing who really created the Milky Way.  

Come with us. 

Breathe in the desert that sits in your mouth in the middle of the night, begging for water.

Listen to that moment when the compass stays in your pocket and you are, like all else,

a mote of dust sparkling in the sun. 

With ravens as the catalyst, the non-fiction essays, shared stories, and intricate drawings in Listening to Raven invite readers to observe, with unbounded curiosity, the wildlife that flies, crawls, and skitters along with us in our changing environment.

Share your stories. We love to hear them.

You can support the project by purchasing a print.

An informative interview about my work and award winning book-in-progress aired on Arizona Public Television March 3, 2014

https://originals.azpm.org/p/on-azill/2014/3/3/30806-award-winning-artists-expresses-admiration-for-ravens/?c=1501 and this radio piece aired March 7 https://radio.azpm.org/p/kuaz-featured/2014/3/6/30926-arizona-spotlight-for-march-7-2014/

          

 

Conniving, vindictive and terrifyingly intelligent

The Gathering  of  Ravens  by Beth Surdut

A neighborhood association in Santa Fe county let loose a hawk and an owl to keep the ravens away because they were busily destroying roofs. I know the neighborhood-- it's one of those places where you can't paint your door in a color not approved by the neighborhood association. They vetoed the traditional turquoise blue that keeps evil spirits away.  Enough said.

One of my collectors in Alaska sent me this: According to the Anchorage Daily News, landfill workers are distraught by their inability to out-think the raven, "It’s the ravens- the conniving, vindictive and terrifyingly intelligent ravens- that really wreak havoc. These are the same ravens, everyone swears, that somehow picked out the personal truck of a worker who had been on harassment duty and proceeded to eat all the black rubber off his windshield wipers." When the harasser changed his truck for a red one, they did it again!

The Ravens of Truth and Memory

The Norse God Odin sent two Ravens out each day--one named Thought (Hugin), the other Memory (Munin).

Here, I've changed Thought to Truth.
Memory allows Truth to gently pick through her feathers until both birds shine.
While I was creating Truth and Memory (paper size 15" X 22") with pen and colored pencil, heart and mind, two tiny Zuni fetish ravens carved by a married couple into black marble and bound together with turquoise and coral perched on the paper's edge. I found them through the grace of the White Raven who owns Keshi in Santa Fe.
My thanks to kind-hearted Cordova Raven, who cares for ravens and eagles in Alaska.
For the beginning of the Raven story that brought this mermaid to the desert, start with Drawing Raven.

Milky Ways

Truth be told, a blood feast turns my stomach. Raven and Coyote keep inviting me to eat with them, but in the moonlight, when Coyote turns to me, his eyes bright and unreadable as the Milky Way, he stands and stares--you know how he does--and I hesitate.
At night I leave the window over my bed open so I can hear him sing wild tunes with his buddies like liquored-up barflies.
During the day, Raven, Coyote and I are compadres. We play tag in the desert and discuss which of them really made the Milky Way.

When I'm not drawing Ravens and weaving their stories, I'm listening to yours...
Hear a discussion on storycatching that aired April 7 on Radiocafe at http://www.santaferadiocafe.org/podcasts/

Professional writer and artist Beth Surdut has written for newspapers, magazines, radio, and the web as well as produced an oral history funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Harvard Historical Society. She has facilitated real-life commentary/creative non-fiction workshops for professional writers and anyone else who has something to say.
The world being an expansive place, the mind being an expanding organ, she has covered just about everything from sewers to senators, beekeepers to Buddhists, and, so as not to get lost in alliteration, here is a random selection of topics--
a plane crash, Pakistani terrorism expert (unrelated to the plane crash), ignominious Cardinal, homophobic teacher,
a psychic tearoom, bird banding, mycology, grave robbing, wildlife management, sludge plant (not the government, the real thing), pollution, adoption, tzedakah,
an unsolved murder, small town government and all the boards, committees, and complaints,
theater, music, visual art, books, and countless profiles celebrating the creative spirits who bring us all that magic.

The Reason Why

When I first came to New Mexico, I breathed in the landscape to see what I would breathe out. I wandered the giant's playground of Tent Rocks, ascended the laddered cliff dwellings at Bandelier, tasted the Gila wilderness, gazed open-mouthed at the sky, and took photographs that I called The Reason Why. As I showed them to Eastern friends, I knew I had to return to live in the Southwest's many-layered palette of colors, micro-climates, and stories.

As I create the Listening to Raven drawings and stories that called me here, I also continue my work as a colorist. These silk Abiquiu scarves (8”x 54”) in Winter Sunrise and Summer Sunset are individually drawn freehand and painted, so each scarf is as unique as the person who wears it. $140 each. Clients may also order shirts, larger sizes of scarves and triangular shawls, including Chamisa Rain and Aspen Vista. Just ask.

Telling Tales in New Mexico

Critter Tales:
Yours, Mine, and Ours
Feb 18, 2009
9:30 AM - noon

There's nothing as fun as winding people up and watching them go, so I'm facilitating this workshop at the Georgia O'Keeffe museum. Come join a round robin of your nature stories, where I bet we'll learn more about the humans telling the tales than then critters we talk about.
Here’s a great opportunity to foster concise storytelling. Bring your wild critter stories—off the top of your head is just fine—and share them with neighbors who have lived in New Mexico forever or for just a little while.
Professional writer and artist Beth Surdut, aka Gator Girl, will assist you in telling a good tale for radio—short and sometimes not so sweet. Participants will write their stories, read them aloud, and hone them for radio. Education Annex, 123 Grant Avenue. $35; Members $26 (25% discount).Reservations required by February 16: 505.946.1039.
For a few bites of the wild life, meander through my blog. Drawing Raven explains why I've come here. In Gator Girl , terror masquerades as aplomb, and join me in Raptor Rapture-- an owl prowl and oh my, what big teeth you have. There are gators and mermaids swimming through my stories here and at http://www.bethsurdut.com/

The Art of Rain Barrels

The new accessory to a green life seems to be rainbarrels. So what do I offer my clients, my muse mused. Create the equivalent of lawn art--those tacky fiberglass clowns and animals or one or more of the seven dwarves? Instead I offer Ambient Rain Cathchers.

Some have litle bit of a twist and shout, like my homage to Man Ray with those big tears; or Monet, now living in a Florida garden.

In Santa Fe, Desert Rain is an earthy camouflage of southwest shadows

Desert Sage, laced with the purple and violet of New Mexico, nestles in with Russian Sage and Butterfly Bush

Whether you have existing barrels or want to add to your eco-system,

Contact info@bethsurdut.com to commission your own elegant utilitarian design. Prices start at $250 for the artwork.