Step into Nature—Patrice Vecchione
Recently I attended Patrice Vecchione’s Monterey book launch for Step into Nature, a personal journal of solitary walks in and their influence on her art (as a collage artist and painter) and on her poetry. Step into Nature invites the reader to join her on a quiet and unassuming spiritual journey, a discovery of the symbiosis we share with plants and animals as thinking, feeling creatures. Her book soothes the imagination and brings a Zen-like equilibrium to the reader.
The book launch was jointly sponsored by the Carmel Art Association and Pilgrim’s Way Bookstore and Secret Garden. Vecchione read excerpts dealing with a world of surprising relationships: with a rat, a fox, a puma, an owl, a hive of bees. Her reading exuded her enjoyment and connection with the sheer beauty of mother earth. As Patrice states on her website blog: “I think of collage as a visual poem. Poetry distills experience into language. Often disparate ideas and emotions coalesce. Collage unites images from varied sources to tell a new story….—we retain a ribbon of memory from that day and another from years before. There in that mix are the stories of our lives.”
I look forward to co-authoring an article with Patrice over the summer on the symbol of the rat in Buddhism and evoking empathy.
Tracey Adams
Love what Patrice says about collage and look forward to reading the article you co-author! Thanks, Diana!
Pat Hanson
Knowing both this blogger’s and Patrice’s work, I am so sorry I missed this opening in such a beautiful setting in Carmel by the Sea. We local authors need to support one another and the independent local bookstores that remain. I will be stopping at Pilgrim’s way sometime soon to pick up Step into Nature. Writers, if you haven’t read Patrice’s Writing and the Spiritual Life: Finding Your Voice by Looking Within … get it!
Patrice Vecchione
Diana, Thanks for this! Great to see you there the other night. I’m looking forward to writing something together soon.