Coming to an end

Summer is coming to an end and saying its last hoorahs. The leaves are changing colors. The days and nights are starting to get shorter and cooler. Its almost time to put away the shorts and tank tops and bring out the sweaters and gloves. Soups and casseroles are cold weather staples in our house, and I’m always trying out new recipes along with making my old favorites.

I too am coming to the end of my outdoor art shows and turning towards the indoor ‘holiday’ art fairs and scuba diving shows.
I will be heading to the West Palm Beach, Fl. Convention Center for the 4th annual Florida Dive Show on November 15 and 16, 2008. A week later, Nov. 22 and 23 is the MPTV Holiday Art show in Milwaukee, Wi. Then a few shows pending before going to Chicago,Il, for Our World Underwater in Feb. 2009.

I hope I see some of you at these shows. Please stop by and chat.

Four Lakes Scuba Club

While I was manning my art booth at Our World Underwater scuba diving trade show in Chicago this past Feb., a business card was left in my “win a Turtle print” jar from a woman in Madison,Wi.
A few weeks after the show I received an email from her asking if I would like to be a guest speaker at one of their Four Lakes Scuba Club meetings to talk about how I combine my scuba diving and my art. Naturally I was flattered that someone thought my life story was of interest enough to talk to a group about it. On August 13 I made the two hour drive up to Madison and had a great time with the 20+ people who gathered to hear me talk. I showed them examples of my art and the sketchbooks that I use on my diving trips. I explained how I take underwater photographs, compose a painting and use either watercolor or oil paints on the decided subject. Being that the majority of them are also scuba divers, they could appreciate the beauty I see in the squirmy body of an octopus or the sweet face of an Angelfish.
An interesting question and answer session followed. It totally amazed me that what I think of my life as mundane and boring was fascinating to this group. I was very flattered.
I left them with a poem that I wrote and is posted on my Sept. 8th blog entry, “The Oceans Cry.”

I hope to see some of them when I am back in Chicago next February for the 39THAnnual Our World Underwater, the midwests largest consumer scuba diving trade show.




To purchase "Angel" or "Orange Octopus", email me at dvrbon@wi.rr.com
These paintings can be seen on my website : http://www.bonnielynnsart.com/OceanColorsFishes.html
http://www.bonnielynnsart.com/OceanColorsCritters.html

The Oceans Cry

Since so much of what I write about is the oceans, I wrote a poem about them and the way I feel about what we are doing to them.
It is a little lengthy, but worth the read, I think. I hope you will enjoy it.

The Oceans Cry

Don’t you hear the oceans cry?
Can’t you see them weep?
Their creatures are being infringed upon
In shallows and in deep.

Garbage and fuels are dumped in them
They’re clogging up the reefs
Ocean liners spill their oils
Into the abyss it seeps.

Hurricanes and tropical storms
Of these we cannot help,
But long lining and trawling
Are stirring up the kelp.

They drag along; these miles of line
The dolphins and the whales
Are trapped in them, they can’t get out
They try but only fail.

The sponges and the coral
Are bleached and almost dead,
The food supply is dwindling down
What will they eat instead?

The parrotfish are talking
They have so much to say,
Can’t someone save our oceans?
Can’t someone find a way?

The sharks are getting angry,
Their numbers are starting to droop,
They’re being caught and cut upon
Their fins are used for soup.

The turtles they are eating on
The plastic bags we throw,
They think they are munching jellyfish
But its actually a foe.



The octopus gets a somber look
And bows his head in sorrow.
“Please clean it up and make it right,
Don’t take away tomorrow.”

Our children and their children
They have to see the oceans.
The chemicals are ruining them
These ugly deadly potions.

We must not stop, we must not waste
A minute of our time.
The oceans cannot mend themselves
We have to stop this crime.

Don’t you hear the oceans cry?
Can’t you see them weep?
Their creatures are being infringed upon
In shallows and in deep.


Bonnielynn Brankey ©2007