Garden Party – Coneflowers Aside the Path

Coneflowers in Olbrich Garden

Aside the Path © 2013 Bo Mackison

When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our hearts, the circle of creation is completed within us, the doors of our souls fly open and love steps forth to heal everything in sight. ~ Michael Bridge

I paged through one of my older journals this morning, looking for a quotation to pair with this photograph. I thought perhaps I’d find something related to the idea of walking on the journey and noticing the flowers along the way. I filled this particular journal several years ago — lines from poetry that resonated with me, notes from the books I was reading, quotations I’d cataloged for future use, scribbled ideas and plans and lists.

Instead I found the above quote by Michael Bridge, and after I read and re-read it several times, I realized that it truly resonated with me, with where I am traveling on my personal journey.

There are early mornings when I lose myself in these often studied journal pages. Today I also found myself in awe at the ending of a poem — which happens to be about the everyday and transcendence. The poem is “Initiation II” by Nina Bogin. I once called it my “Calming Down Poem”. Here is the ending, though the entire poem is delicious and worth reading/absorbing:

I climbed the pink stairs, entered
the house as calm and ephemeral
as my own certainty:
this is my house, my key,
my hand with its new lines.
I am as old as I will ever be.

I spent an hour yesterday contemplating the first half of 2013, and marveling at the distance I have traveled. Not only the distance on a cross-country trip from Arizona to Wisconsin, but also the distance I have traveled on my creative path.

I set up first solo photography exhibit this past weekend, and its opening was yesterday, the first day of the second half of the year. A solo show was once a goal I thought out of my reach, and now it is no longer a wish or a dream, but reality.

I hold many dreams, still. Dreams that once seemed impossible, but as I keep adding new skills and venturing into places I have never before dared, the dreams are no longer dreams. They are achievable goals.

There is still much work to be done, but as I complete each new step, I get nearer to my goal of providing on-line and in-person workshops to complement the Desert Wisdom Cards I’ve created.

This month I finish Jen Louden’s TeachNow course. I complete advanced training in Creativity Coaching in mid-September. I’ve discovered a wonderful resource for in-person workshops on book structures in Madison, and these supplement my book-making activities in Tucson. And so my art career is in transition.

Though photography remains an passionate piece of my daily life, I’m adding new techniques, expanding on current themes, and my photography practice evolves as I add creating artist books to my repertoire. Each step completed leads to the next step, and the momentum continues.

I look forward to amazing things in the last half of 2013.

Life is good.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.   Her exhibit, Garden Party – A Celebration of Botanical Photography, is at the Alicia Ashman Branch Library Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin and runs through September 5, 2013.

 

Life Cycle of New England Asters

Life Cycle of New England Asters

Asters Life Cycle © 2012 Bo Mackison

… in gardens, beauty is a by-product.
The main business is sex and death …
–  Sam Llewelyn,
The Sea Garden

Oh, that quote seems so appropriate for many of the botanical photographs I shoot.

I am either shooting the reproductive parts of flowers or I am shooting the flowers that are no longer beautiful flowers but on their way to brown and crispy, or the parts that are left standing to produce the next flowers, the seed heads. But the by-product of all those seeds and reproductive parts make for some pretty fine floral displays in the flowering seasons.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is catching up on photography work at the computer today, after a weekend of weddings and birthday celebrations.

A Bit of Enchantment

Behind the Green Curtain?

A Bit of Enchantment © 2011 Bo Mackison

I do not understand how anyone can live without one small piece of enchantment to turn to.
~ Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Another visit to the botanical gardens, another morning with time enough to notice textures, patterns, colors. The sunlight’s reflection on the large leaf of the elephant ear plant, the sun still strong, still a summer’s sun although its strength wanes each day as we add a few night minutes onto out 24 hour allotment, subtract a few light minutes.

I sat on one of the many benches in the gardens, closed my eyes, and noticed the many ways I am aware of the sun without opening my eyes. Warm on my arms, warm enough to cause me to break into a sweat under my hat band, a glowing feeling, a feeling of well-being. All is right my my tiny garden world when the sun shines.

I found a small piece of enchantment today in the garden.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Loving the gardens these days, prime garden time in Wisconsin,  and the gardens bring out so many beauties.