Love story from the Sonoran Desert

Today I sang to this raven. 

I started out with "Songbird," which got his attention, but his favorite seemed to be "I'll fly Away" because he raised his wings every time I sang those words, which are repeated in the chorus.

 I ended with this verse by Jesse Winchester

 

How far to the horizon

I'm in a rush you see

We were to meet by the western sky

My love must be waiting on me

And then, Raven being my one true north, 

I asked him to marry me.

https://www.bethsurdut.com/listening-to-raven.html

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/

          

 

Ashes to Art-- Support Colorado Firefighters

The  Survivor by  Beth Surdut for The Ashes to Art Project

I am one of more than 70 artists nationwide participating in The Ashes to Art Project, creating artwork to raise funds for firefighters. Incorporating charcoal collected from the 2012 Colorado wildfires, the artworks are being sold October 7-21, 2012 via an online auction at Bidding for Good http://www.biddingforgood.com/auction/AuctionHome.action?vhost=theashestoartproject2012

The Survivor, http://www.biddingforgood.com/auction/item/Item.action?id=180442959,  is a three-dimensional shadow box  featuring a pigment print of a young raven standing on branches drawn with charcoal from the Colorado fire. In front of the raven is a collection of charred wood taken from the forests devastated by the flames.

The people in Colorado are my neighbors. The firefighters are my heroes. I just want to help.

The fight to save lives, homes and forest took a tremendous toll. Three lives and more than 600 homes were lost, including several belonging to firefighters. More than 250,000 acres were burned. Proceeds from the online auction will be used to replace equipment for the Poudre Canyon Volunteer Fire Protection District in Colorado, near the worst fire damage and the area where the charcoal was collected.
By nature's power and whim, I could just as well have been in their situations.

I think speaking up,  stepping out in some way is important. I watched the Las Conchas fires encroach on Los Alamos last year here in New Mexico and wrote about the habitat destruction in Orion Magazine.

For my ongoing Listening to Raven series of drawings and collected stories of science and spirit, one of the myths I've come across is that Raven was a beautiful white bird who brought fire to humanity.  While carrying the burning firebrand across the skies, Raven's white feathers became irrevocably blackened by the smoke as he flew. Other stories, especially the trickster tales, put Raven in dire circumstances that he really shouldn't survive. Yet he sometimes literally suffers terrible wounds, puts himself back together, and goes on, as we do-changed, but anticipating the next phase of life.I  hope a  viewer sees and  feels a  piece of  their own story in The Survivor. "

 To view and bid on original artwork, including The Survivor by Beth Surdut, visit BiddingForGood.com/TheAshesToArtProject2012. Bidding will take place October 7-21, 2012.

Raven Walks in Orion Magazine, Roosts at the NM State Land Office

The wind comes up cold in August.

Coyotes bark in the valley

I sit on the mountain

Raven wings brushing my hair

Pay attention to me, says Raven.

I will. Tomorrow. 

Right now I’m distracted

Tied up. Tied down. 

Raven sits in the juniper

Watching me as I draw him

Looking at me

He swoops in to untie a knot

He talks to me every day.

Light glancing off his feathers

Six drawings later

My eyes are reflected in his

As I walk in the desert morning

Raven lands in front me

Listen, he says

     And finally I do.       

©Beth Surdut  2011 

Nov/Dec  Orion Magazine--Walks Like a Man and my thoughts about habitat and wildfires
Meet the  raven  clan  http://www.listeningtoraven.com

Ten Generations

Ten Generations by Beth  Surdut 2011

Listening To Raven series

In Alaska, Mark has been caring for ravens and eagles for the past 16 years. Although there are certainly professional nature photographers with admirable patience, skill, and talent, this man’s love is uniquely communicated through his actions and photographic documentation of his avian friends. His photographs and the stories he tells me gave flight to this newest drawing as well as  The Ravens of Truth and Memory which nods to the Norse God Odin’s raven.

Mark writes: I must say I think your drawing of Raven is the best that I have seen yet...

 Raven flew over the office of the apartment complex where I worked. I put some meat out for him and soon he came down and got it. Next, he brought his partner and although she was much more tentative they both started stopping by each day. I started to develop a call that sounded like when the male Kushka called the female Feathers. After time, when I called, they would come down off the mountain. That summer, I noticed that they brought their fledge down to my truck and from that time on I became their babysitter.

  After 10 generations of fledges, I believe the original couple moved on and now all their children come back in the winter to live nearby cause they know I will have food for them if times get bad. 
Come meet Ten Generations and the rest of my raven family at the Randall Davey Audubon Center exhibition opening July 9, 5-7 pm in Santa Fe, New Mexico

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.

Drawing Raven

from the series Listening to Raven

Raven comes here to find me in the cool desert morning, announcing his presence in an apricot sky. I see myself reflected in his blue-black eyes and feathers.

According to Native American lore, Raven is the bringer of magic. He is my birth month totem and  for  three years we've engaged in an ongoing dialogue of  art and  story.
I saw no ravens in my three years of river paddling with   alligators and birds in Florida, but once I made the decision to move to New  Mexico, Raven came to see me in my  tropical  garden. Always chased by a noisy escort of mockingbirds and blue jays, Raven would perch on the turquoise-colored wood railing of my front porch to watch me draw. If he couldn’t find me, he would caw and dance on the little tin roof covering back stairs. I'd come out and he’d cock his head to get a good look. That bird never missed a day for weeks.
A friend of mine who is a lay minister tells me that somewhere in the bible a visit from a raven can mean prosperity and the Medicine Wheel offers the same possibility. Here is a place for people to unbind themselves, to expand their hearing and seeing, both inward and outward, in the vast beauty of a limitless sky.
For another glimpse of Raven, look at Listening To Raven- Drawings,Myths & Realities
This drawing is on 10" x 14" paper using pen, pencil, heart and mind.