In the Studio With Stephen Herrero

Sacramento CA : International Sportsmen’s Expo ISE : California Sportsman Show : Hunting Fishing Outdoors

2012-01-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

Sacramento CA : International Sportsmen’s Expo ISE : California Sportsman Show : Hunting Fishing Outdoors

Poem by Wendell Berry

2011-10-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

By Wendell Berry

June 22,2010

2011-06-22T22:01:00.000-07:00

As usual I have multiple projects going today. I am finishing up a wolf head study that I kind of like, and because I like the way it is looking I am going to start a new cougar piece in the same vein.

Across the room from me in my studio I have two larger pieces that I should finish, they are two of my favorite subjects, a wild stallion and a pair of wolves. I guess this is because these two species so strongly represent the untamed west that longer exists.

Summer officially began on the 21st of June and like every summer my thoughts quickly turn to the Sierra's. Every year our family makes a pilgramage to June Lake and the surrounding wilderness "to be restored" as John Muir would have said, "climb the mountains and get their good tidings,natures peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves"

all this makes me restless......I think I'll quit for the day and get out my fishing gear!

2011-05-09T13:49:00.000-07:00

As we planted in the garden this past weekend Wendell Berry, as is often the case, was present in my thoughts:

"Participate in food production to the extent that you can. If you have a yard or even just a porch box or a pot in a sunny window, grow something to eat in it. Only by growing some food for yourself can you become acquainted with the beautiful energy cycle that revolves from soil to seed to flower to fruit to food to offal to decay, and around again. You will be fully responsible for any food that you grow for yourself, and you will know all about it. You will appreciate it fully, having known it all its life."

I am often struck by the parallels between family, community, gardening, and health. The health of our families depend so much on our Mothers, acquainted as they are with our cycles of life, and having known us all our life, no one appreciates what we are more fully.

A belated but sincere "Happy Mother's Day".

Blessings Stephen

today is John Muirs birthday,( and mine ).

2011-04-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

"All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters but little where we go, to highlands or lowlands, woods or plains, on the sea or land or down among the crystals of waves or high in a balloon in the sky; through all the climates, hot or cold, storms and calms, everywhere and always we are in God's eternal beauty and love. So universally true is this, the spot where we chance to be always seems the best." John Muir

John Muir has for a great while now been one of my favorite and most inspiring authors and naturalists taking a well earned place alongside such a worthy as Henry David Thoreau. I'm a sculptor because I can't articulate my thoughts and feelings about the natural world as they could, so I will let their eloquence speak for me.

Happy Easter

2011-04-08T17:08:00.001-07:00

This morning we woke to find a blanket of snow had quietly fallen across our landscape; a beautiful, pure and undisturbed covering. The snow brought with it an unexpected quietness, floating softly from the heavens without sound, and settling peacefully on the earth below. The creek behind our home has become quiet as the rain further up the canyon has turned to snow, no longer allowing torrents of water to rush past and on towards the ocean.

Yesterday the birds were quite industrious in the morning hours. I sat in my favorite chair by the window and watched amusedly as the blue jays gathered pine needles for a future home. A little beyond, in the side yard, the mother quail gathered food for her newly hatched chicks with her mate standing guard. The bright yellow orioles have returned to our part of the mountain to build their nests, have their young, and sing their songs. But today it is quiet. This morning they have all remained in their nests waiting to return again to their industrious lives of building and gathering.

I feel we too have been under a blanket of sorts but will soon return to our own tasks of building and gathering. Cold will yield to the warm promise of spring, and the sun shining on our faces. Even now as I write the snow has stopped and the clouds have parted, giving way to the first few rays of a glorious, bright morning sun.

We pray you have a glorious Easter Season!