Architectonic

Inserting nature on the structural...

These are not my usual style of photographs and I'm uncomfortable with them for several reasons although I think their composition is somewhat decent. My discomfort lies in I have always disliked the architecture of this building finding it rather cold, fortress like and foreboding especially since it is a hospital. Also I am not drawn to photograph direct line structures preferring irregular buildings that have been grooved and changed by time and that have some landscape intertwined lending an element of nature. Here is an image with blemishes, flaws and all, of the best I can imagine a minimalist black and white photographer might take that is definitely not my customary photograph.

Fundamentally with the exception of utility poles and wires I much prefer to have natural objects as the subject of my pictures that I then post process into visual art. Most of all I suppose the real reason I am not comfortable with these photos is I have spent a good part of the week at this hospital visiting my sister who is a patient there. It is normal for me to always take pictures of what catches my eye around me but this time it was very often a mechanism of stress relief. Nonetheless here is the image of a cold stark building that I felt compelled to insert an element of nature to somehow make it seem a little more earthly with some sense of humanity.

The Spirit Never Dies

Even as the house burns down and is abandoned...

Physical disease and illness can lay waste to human body just as wind and fire can tear a house apart. A metaphor arises if you consider the physical being of a body as a house to the spirit and soul. One interpretation of the analogy is a house may be destroyed and vacated but the former inhabitants live on earth somewhere else. This can happen also in a very real sense to a person living with a chronic disorder that is disabling and usually fatal. The person you see, visit and talk with is visible in front of you but if you're discerning and know them for who they really are you're not seeing the shell left of their physique. They have in a very real sense moved their spirit into another anatomy although not visible to our myopic vision. For them their spirit, soul and personage inhabit a different place. One they have created with their internal strength and vision that allows them to be as mobile as they are able and keeps their mind from dwelling on physical limitations.

This happened to me once decades ago when for a long period I was in a physical state that confined me to a hospital bed and after that took time to restore my body to its previous condition. Others I've known are not able to do that since their physical condition is unchanging or deteriorating. I see in my sister who braves Scleroderma that as her body changes and becomes less functional and confining that she has already moved into another body that I recognize as being one similar to the one she once had but above all functional. Her spirit hasn't died and needs a house that it may dwell if only in the mind it resides. I recognize that to a skeptic and hard realists this is all specious and suspect and for them I am sorry since their coping mechanisms always seem to be at a minimum tinged with anger and bitterness. All I can vouch for is my personal experience where I inhabited a different being I imagined as like a tree, with roots, trunk, branches and twigs nourished by the warmth of the sun and feed by living water.

This is why I photograph a lot of trees and create visual art with them.

Sun Burnished

Palm trees copper tone in the sun...

Life Is Unscripted

Although being aware and prepared is a choice...

Events that occur seemingly unexpectedly or dramatically often build up over time with smaller occurrences that portend a sudden one. That is how it is with me currently as we approach summer and just as quickly as I was wondering when the next shoe was going to drop in a situation it did. In this case I am referring to my sister who has suffered with the rare disabling autoimmune disease Scleroderma for a very long time that has escalated the past few years. Last summer she took a sudden turn making a very long hot summer weather wise even hotter and longer in the soul. This past year has been a period of rises and falls in her medical condition and recently circumstance have foreshadowed that another major turn was due. Without going into personal detail it now has and the disruption is not unexpected any more than it is welcomed but nonetheless it has occurred. The time has arrived to calmly go into critical situation mode with my head and wits about me in full control over what I am able to direct and let happen what I cannot.

We are prepared for these things if we pay attention to signs that attune us to what it going on around us externally and internally. This awareness has many names including intuition, discernment, instinct, gut feelings, perception, premonition, hunches, foreknowledge and some would say clairvoyance. In many ways it is a result of experience and age bringing wisdom that gives us insight into what is most likely to happen given certain circumstances. In this instance signals were beaming at me that alerted my senses to be aware and begin to prepare for some possible difficult and unpleasant scenarios. Fortunately I paid attention to them and awkwardly started groping for coping tools to hone and let those who help me through uncertain situations know what my perceptions were telling me. This evening a defining event arrived and over the next few weeks and quite possibly months will need to marshal the resources I have gathered and as wisely as possible implement them. The readiness will guide me through although it will not necessarily make it easier or comfortable.

Clay Art of Living

Within the vessel creates outer cracks or strength...

We are formed much like clay art molded by our genetics, past and current history and how much water we retain before we are glazed and blazed. Kneaded by external forces we are wedged and prepared to face the fire and how we are built up results in the strength of our physical vessel.  Fired in the kiln of life, we are either strengthened or weakened depending on our reactions to the changes we experience. How we weather the tempest of living ultimately is dependent on what resides within ourselves and although affected by our earthenware our internal choices determine if we crack or hold ourselves in place.

Houseplants Still Life

Enriching us life still moves around them...

Blow Me Away

Rush of air propelling afternoon dust storm in...

Communication and Power Lines

Which connections to make and which to break?...

Lately I've been reminded of the power of communication and doing it well and the price of not paying attention to presentation of what you're intending to convey. I'm well trained by upbringing, personal experience and professional education and for many years earned a living as an instructor, writer and speaker in various situations. The power of words both spoken and written, how they're connected into phrases and sentences along with expression is one thing I'm highly developed at doing. As everyone knows about anything they do well it can be easy to take the skills for granted and also let them fall into disuse. It demands being constantly aware to not fall into bad habits and become lax and lazy with a key competency I am well equipped with.

We live in a world that is connected as it never has before and whether we are exchanging ideas, thoughts, instructions, feelings, with the tools of the digital age or in person, how we conduct the interchange is more important than ever. It is no longer acceptable to be an excellent programmer, engineer, shop mechanic, carpenter without also being able to communicate well. The ability to transmit information succinctly and articulately with simplicity and tact is no longer in the province of customer service, sales people, leaders or any of the traditional roles that required it. Everyone now needs the ability to interact with other people on multiple levels; it is no longer a choice in this new economic and technological world. To be able to engage others in a meaningful way is a requirement to stay employed in any occupation, run a business of any kind, be an entrepreneur, sole proprietor or free agent.

For many years I was able to communicate well in the sphere of instructing classes, writing non-fiction policies and procedures, white papers or historical articles and dealing with difficult customers over the phone, through email and instant messaging. My face to face interactions were largely in group settings or training people one on one who were sent to me as a last chance to learn something they needed to know to stay employed. I am now challenged to learn how to deal for the first time with clients in a face to face, very often public setting and am quickly discovering it requires a nuance of the skills I possess. A nuance yet a very different one that requires rethinking how I approach a situation, respond to one to resolve differences and the subtle power of how it is conducted. The task is not daunting but nonetheless requires paying attention and working at refining the existing knowledge I had become too casual with.

Jeepers Creepers

Where did you get those peepers?...

The Sun Rises

Bringing a new day to paint our own way...

Life is more art than science although knowing facts in life are part of the science of living. These facts are realities that help us understand how to interpret what is happening around us. If we have spent time building firm foundations to structure strong qualities in our character we are able to create a world we call our own rather than the world owning us. This gives us control over our sense of self so when a tough day comes along we have the sensibility to call things as they are to move beyond them and look forward. Rather than dwell on where we are now we make an assessment of what we would like to happen next. The choice is to recognize what is destructive and turn it into something finer and superior with an act of behavior. For many of us that action is bringing into existence a change in our outlook through some form of artistry of our choosing.

We allow ourselves the freedom to create art that expresses what we have thought and felt, what we are thinking and feeling and further what we would like to think and feel. The parallel to life with art and science is we learn some techniques that are factual and scientific, for example the technicalities of photography and post processing, using those as a basis for our art. If we construct art that articulates our interpretation of life we have an opportunity to compose artwork that speaks to both the tough moments of life and the great ones. For me it is writing and visual art that documents and expresses the stark moments of life alongside crafting works of elegance and symmetry to make things right in my world. It is an act of healing that is beautiful and meaningful not only to me but also to those who view and appreciate it.

With a nod to Mike the writer, artist, blogger Rock and Confusion.