5/28/12
5/27/12
5/26/12
The Artistic Eclipse
Silver dollar moon passing over gold coin sun...
In the partial solar eclipse in Phoenix on May 20 the moon blocked 83 percent of the sun at it's peak. What made this eclipse special for me is that in my lifetime I have had several opportunities to be in a location when there was a total or almost total eclipse of the sun or the moon but I was away from Arizona. At every other opportunity for these events I happened to be in places notorious for gray skies and rainy weather and never even got a glimpse of them for that reason. It's difficult to avoid the sun in Arizona and this time was no exception.
Since I didn't bring even a point and shoot camera because I literally went "in the moment" unexpectedly to see the event somewhere other than I originally intended, I used my mobile phone camera with several different apps and achieved some interesting effects. As I pointed out in my post on May 8, The Artistic Supermoon I knew that displayed all over the web would be technically perfect textbook-like photographs of that event, the same would apply with this eclipse. If you want technically perfect or beautifully crafted pictures of this solar eclipse there are plenty to be found on the internet. These are mine created to turn a classic phrase using "the best camera you have is the one you have with you."
What was more important to me at the time was to experience the event with someone close to me at the spur of the moment while also meeting strangers doing the same thing. It was the classic circumstance of an unusual event where people unknown to each other and unlikely to meet again shared and experienced with what equipment they had hurriedly brought along. Newcomers with little in common that ordinarily might not mingle in a public setting but caught up in the excitement of a unique moment in time created by nature. In the course of it I was able to capture some moments that make for visual art interesting to me that I am now sharing.
What I find interesting about some of these photos is after-the-fact I noticed that I had captured the reflection of the crescent of the moon that was not passing over the sun. Although I didn't get pictures that technically showed the actual eclipse of the moon passing over the sun in the moment I caught images with which I was able to create visual art. They serve as memories of I was there that more than made up for the times I wasn't able to witness the phenomenon.
Since I didn't bring even a point and shoot camera because I literally went "in the moment" unexpectedly to see the event somewhere other than I originally intended, I used my mobile phone camera with several different apps and achieved some interesting effects. As I pointed out in my post on May 8, The Artistic Supermoon I knew that displayed all over the web would be technically perfect textbook-like photographs of that event, the same would apply with this eclipse. If you want technically perfect or beautifully crafted pictures of this solar eclipse there are plenty to be found on the internet. These are mine created to turn a classic phrase using "the best camera you have is the one you have with you."
What was more important to me at the time was to experience the event with someone close to me at the spur of the moment while also meeting strangers doing the same thing. It was the classic circumstance of an unusual event where people unknown to each other and unlikely to meet again shared and experienced with what equipment they had hurriedly brought along. Newcomers with little in common that ordinarily might not mingle in a public setting but caught up in the excitement of a unique moment in time created by nature. In the course of it I was able to capture some moments that make for visual art interesting to me that I am now sharing.
5/25/12
Ennui and Me
It ain't heavy it's a bother...
Wherein I muse about life in hope it helps others who relate similarly.
The best that can be said about the past few weeks is that they happened. Without periods of disruption in life we are never challenged to overcome them nor are we able to appreciate the better times in life. For those of us who are creative types mood swings of some form or another are a way of life, periods of bursts of creativity followed by moments of doubt we will never have a new idea again. Everyone suffers bumps along the arteries of life and for some it is far worse due to physical health or geographic and economic circumstances. For me it is recalling what I have been trained and learned about not being able to control circumstances but being able to control my attitudes and behavior regarding them
Fundamentally two simultaneous happenstances have bounced my normal disposition out of whack that I have had to get a grip on my attitude and work to turn things back to normal. Two weeks ago my sister was in a small city hospital she has been in more than out of in the past year with a seemingly losing battle against an unforgiving autoimmune disease. Fortunately she was brought under emergency circumstances to the major city where I live and put in hospital here for care and the turnaround in her health has been remarkable. She will never recover from Scleroderma but the key factor is her quality of life has been returned to her and has turned her around from being in chronic critical condition and restored to a somewhat functional pleasant life. Quality of life for the chronically ill is directly related to mental well being and length of life. She has been able to return home hooked to a lot fewer medical devices and less reliant on external equipment support with an improved outlook both medically and psychologically.
Coupled with her adventure is that for me during the past three weeks as a result of high winds, dust and wildfire smoke the pollution has caused a constant low grade migraine headache that even during normal conditions skews my entire disposition. What I dislike most of these episodes when they occur every few years are what everyone who also endures them is the cure is almost as bad as the ailment. There is not a person I know or am aware of that has problems with pollution, whether it is respiratory (the most common) or bad air induced episodic headaches is making the choice to function as best as possible with low volume medication or taking prescription drugs with side effects. Generally I function as best I can and reserve the medication until I can no longer stand it and then expect to become even more moody, hyper-sensitive and a sense of insecurity.
The psychology of this is irritating at best since logically I know that "this too shall pass" and that it requires mustering up the forces to implement the behavioral change techniques that I know will turn my emotions around. Still it is hard to get motivated to write and create visual art when feeling less than inspired but I also know that it will keep the worst possible condition, depression at bay. Therefore I've been creating and interacting with other people as best I could with in my mind mediocre results but it has resulted in my staying functional. The point is that it takes work to chug along and keep the train moving but now it is paying off, I am beginning to see the light again even if it is a pinhole at the end of a tunnel.
5/24/12
5/23/12
5/22/12
Hello Yellow
Sun messaging summer's arrival...
We bend our head to avoid
the blaze glinting in our eyes
that's also baking our shoulders.
As wafting heat surrounds us
shroud blanketing us in warmth...
In the desert summer needs
no signals it has descended.
5/21/12
5/19/12
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.
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.
5/18/12
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.
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 is why I photograph a lot of trees and create visual art with them.
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