6th Annual Photo Alphabet – Quilt to Trees

Q is for Quilt.

Crazy Quilt ©2013 Bo Mackison

Crazy Quilt ©2013 Bo Mackison

This quilt was sewn my great-grandmother and her sister in the 1890s.

There is a good deal of feminine ancestral energy in this quilt. Unlike many crazy quilts of this age, this quilt was sewn using scraps of velvets, satins, and other more decorative fabrics.

Two of the older sisters in the family, and their husbands, owned the millinery shop in town. The four younger sisters had access to all kinds of fabrics, not just the more common muslin and woolen cloth.

This quilt is decorated with embroidered flowers, animals, mini landscapes of hillsides, trees, and lakes. Some of the pieces are painted — more flowers, ferns, intricate baskets, rabbits, storks.

This is my inspiration quilt, a quilt that encourages creativity.

In a time when farm families were large, and all of the family members put in long hours of work, my great-grandmother and her sisters spent their free evening time sewing quilts. They sewed not only the practical, utilitarian quilts, but each also worked on their crazy quilts, their art quilts.

~~~

R is for Red Tail Hawks.

Soaring

Soaring © 2013 Bo Mackison

The red-tailed hawk is a messenger bird, the catalyst, stimulating hope and new ideas. It reflects a need to be open to the new or shows you ways that you may help teach others to be open to the new. It teaches the balance necessary to discover your true purpose of life.
~ Ted Andrews in Animal Speak

I first noticed the constant presence of red-tailed hawks last spring, sipping my mid-morning coffee while standing at the edge of my back arroyo.

A soaring hawk would circle, round and round, over the arroyo, and I would admire it as it swooped, caught the thermals, glided, swooped again. Later that same week, I set up a temporary writing space at a picnic table in the Tucson Mountains, overlooking Brown Mountain, a mountain side of saguaro cacti. Again, a single red-tailed hawk did its swoop, glide, swoop as I write, and watched, in the desert.

Over the next months, I saw these hawks constantly. They are a common bird, the most common of hawks, and I enjoyed watching them in their aerial performances or as they perched on a pole or in a tree.

It was not until I began my 2,000 mile drive across the country, though, that I began noticing the hawks in more atypical circumstances.

My first day of travel, when I had not yet developed my traveling routine, a noticed the shadow of a large bird on the highway surface.

It hovered a few car lengths in front of me. The bird followed the road quite a distance, then flew off. I caught a glimpse of a red-tailed hawk from my window. Several hours later another hawk appeared, flew in a low circle near the road ahead of me, then disappeared.

Over and over, I would see red tail hawks. I felt as if hawk energy was accompanying me on my northeast journey. I saw red tails in the Badlands. I saw them along the interstate through South Dakota and Iowa. As I crossed a bridge over the Mississippi River, finally heading into Wisconsin, a red tail hawk dove in a head down swoop from the edge of a limestone bluff, then skimmed the river.

After crossing half the country in the company of red tails, I researched hawks in Ted Andrews book, Animal Speak, The Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small.

The entry for the red-tailed hawk totem spoke of energy and vision.

It spoke of the need to seek beauty and harmony. It spoke of the need for balance and the expression of a fully creative life. It spoke of being open to new experiences.

What an inspiring message as I journey into new territory!

~~~

S is for Seeded Earth.

Seeded Earth

Seeded Earth © 2009 Bo Mackison

Seeded Earth.

The little blog that started everything. A little blog of photographs, with much of its focus on photographs and descriptions of living things that grow from the earth. I have added to the blog as the years have passed, built a small business on the foundation of the contents of the blog, yet one of my main focuses continues to be on nature and her many gifts.

~~~

T is for Trees.

Redwood Abstract

Redwood Abstract © 2013 Bo Mackison

“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” ~ Pablo Picasso

Trees.

Compelled to stop, I am unable to walk past this tree without pausing, walking through the brambles and understory until I stand next to this giant. Rest my hand on its bark. That’s all. Just rest my hand upon it, and connect my pulse with its pulse. Sap beat. Heart beat.

I think. I wait. I breathe. I peer into the uppermost branches.

My feet are grounded on the earth, the tree is grounded in the earth. I run my finger through along the ridges and the valleys of the wood. I discern messages in its trunk lines. I listen the woodpecker’s drumming. I stand in tree shadow, and the breeze swirls.

I am filled. I walk on.

~~~

Prior post, Part IV: Metaphors to Place.

Next post, the Finale: Universe to Zip a Dee Doo Dah.

My 4th Annual Alphabet – Part I

As I have done for the last three years, I again end the past year and welcome the new year with a Photographic Alphabet Post.  The very first one (2008-9) rhymed and had a Wisconsin theme. In 2009-10 I didn’t get my Alphabet post done until the second week in January, but I made up for the short post with a photograph that looks quite Arctic-ish! Last year I posted a single photo and wrote a short paragraph for each alphabet letter in four parts.

This year I’m featuring more photographs and fewer words, though something about the end and the beginning — it encourages my tendency towards verbosity. (See?) I’ll watch my word count…promise!

BO’S PHOTOGRAPHIC ALPHABET — 2011

A IS FOR ART AND ART FAIRS.

Seeded Earth Photography Booth at Agora Art Show 2011

Agora Art Show 2011 © 2011 Bo Mackison

Art Fairs were a significant part of my life during 2011. Sherpa and I took Seeded Earth Photography to fourteen shows beginning  in February and ending the weekend before Thanksgiving. We did shows in six states – Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Arizona.

Great Dogs at the 57th Street Art Fair Hyde Park Chicago

57th Street Art Fair © 2011 Bo Mackison

This was my second full year exhibiting my photography on the art show circuit. In 2010 I did local and area shows in Wisconsin, and learned the art business. By the end of 2011, after a total of 24 completed shows, I felt less like a novice and more like an artist. That was a grand feeling.

Seeded Earth Studio Booth at Winter Art Festival

Winter Art Festival © 2011 Bo Mackison

In a few weeks, I will be heading to Arizona. My upcoming shows in the Tucson area will be the first ones I’m doing solo. No Sherpa to grab a drink for me or tend the booth while I walk to stretch out muscle kinks. No Sherpa to help me set up the tent or the booth interior, or hang the art. I’m excited and nervous, both.

 

B IS FOR BOOJUM AND BOTANICALS

Boojum

Boojum © 2011 Bo Mackison

I love photographing botanicals. A boojum is a botanical. Therefore I love shooting boojums. But I would love shooting boojums even more if I could attach my camera to a crane, because the part I want to photograph with my macro lens is not in a convenient place.

 

C IS FOR CACTI AND CONSEQUENCES.

Cactus Portal

Cactus Portal © 2011 Bo Mackison

Ah, now cacti are also botanicals, and they grow in a more convenient size than the boojum. Or at least many of them do. There are many a saguaro or an organ pipe cactus that are far beyond my reach. But I still have plenty of macro opportunities with the smaller cacti crowd.

Cactus Catch

Cactus Catch © 2011 Bo Mackison

I love to take photographs of the mighty cacti, and the smaller varieties, too. But I’ve decided that the entire cactus family has been introduced into my life to teach me a big lesson.

Saguaro Spines

Saguaro Spines © 2011 Bo Mackison

They teach by consequences. Almost every time I photograph cacti, I am so focused on getting a photo that I inch closer and closer to the plant. And each time the cactus teaches me a lesson about their boundaries by poking me with a sharp thorn, or by attaching a cluster of spines to my clothing or shoelaces. If I didn’t have a camera up to my eye, perhaps I would learn the cactus lesson much quicker.

 

 D IS FOR DELIGHT AND A DOODLE-DOODLE-DOO.

Pottery Chickens

Pottery Roosters © 2011 Bo Mackison

It is quite common for people to imagine that an artist’s life is filled with creating and traveling and meeting new and interesting people. True, true, and true. I can’t think of a thing I would rather do than take my camera out on a photo exploration and I love to bring home the filled memory cards and watch the photographs ‘develop’ on my computer. And now I am adding what I consider to be the frosting on the photographs – post processing so that the vision I saw when I took the photo can be captured in my studio.

But I work long hours, many more hours a week than if I had a 9 to 5 job, and so I’ve learned to add delight into my day whenever I find it. These roosters, rows and rows of roosters on an outside stand, made me laugh so hard I could hardly hold the camera still. I was waiting for one of them to begin crowing at me.

It’s those bits of time that add the ‘extra-extra’ to the unpredictable life of an artist on the road.

And a doodle doodle doo to you, too!

————–

Today’s post has been brought to you by the letters A,B,C, and D.

Part II is brought to you by the letters E, F, G, H, I and J.

An Alphabet in Four Parts – III

Cosmos at Sho-Low

Cosmos and Bokeh © 2010 Bo Mackison

Continuing with the third installment of my alphabet, my year-end/beginning musings:

N is for NEST.

NEST. Nest is simple and symbolic. It’s a comfort word for me. I hold it as a quiet space, away from distractions and other people. Sometimes I curl up in my nest, real or imaginary, to recharge my batteries. Doesn’t take long, and then I’m ready to go on and meet the world again.

O is for ORDINARY.

ORDINARY. When you get right down to it, there isn’t much that is ordinary. If you look closely and examine ordinariness, you often find that the ordinary is truly extra-ordinary. For example, drinking a steaming cup of tea, a simple experience, can be made extra-ordinary with intention, mindfulness, and appreciation for the good things in life.

P is for POTATO.

POTATO. The potato provided me with a powerful lesson. Yes, the potato. A basic food, everyone loves potatoes – mashed, smashed, french fried, baked, even raw and crunchy. Everyone I know eats potatoes – except for my older daughter who has taken only one bite of potato in her life. She decided that she despised the texture and taste and she swore off potatoes as a two year old. Twenty-eight years later, she continues to stand by her choice.

Here is the interesting part. Whenever a new person enters her life, and they discover that Jeanne does not eat potatoes because she  chooses not to eat them, they almost always go out of their way to trick her — to get her to unknowingly take a bite of a potato. It becomes a challenge for them.

Interesting, hmm? She tells people she doesn’t like potatoes, that she doesn’t eat them, and because that doesn’t fit squarely with other people’sapproach to food, they want to convince her to join their side. Now, we are talking about potatoes here. I’m always amazed that this happens repeatedly.  It makes me wonder.  If people react so strongly to a different eating style, just how far will they go to make people conform to their way of thinking about the important topics in life. Now there’s a potato for thought.

Q is for QUESTIONS.

QUESTIONS. I love asking questions. I love searching for answers to questions, too. And researching for answers to questions, too. To me, searching and researching are two different methods of knowledge seeking. In searching, I look for answers in my head and in past learning experiences. In researching, I look up what other people have discovered about the subject. Search and research–I think the two methods balances the quest for knowledge quite nicely.

R is for RELINQUISH.

RELINQUISH. I relinquish the story I hold dear. The story of why I am like I am, of how I can’t change because this experience or that exchange marked me for life. Bull hockey. Change isn’t easy. It’s damn hard work. But change is possible. And I am dealing in possibilities from this day forward. Tabula rasa. A clean slate. I can deal with some leftover chalk dust or a few wayward chalk smears, but I am erasing that complicated story. No more worn out explanations that stand in my way of new explorations.

S is for SURVIVOR.

SURVIVOR. I am a survivor. Survivors develop a deep strength within themselves. Sometimes I forget I have this strength. It takes a big challenge to remind me that I can draw strength from my past experiences without dredging up those experiences. A valuable lesson.

T is for TREASURE MAP.

TREASURE MAP. I made a treasure map a few days ago while thinking about leaving 2010 behind and entering 2011. I didn’t write resolutions, but I did choose a single word as my focus for the year – POSSIBILITIES. Then I drew islands on my treasure map. I filled in one island with my dreams. I filled in another island with my desires. I filled in a third with my goals for the next three months, six months, and year. I added a few favorite quotations for inspiration and motivation and a few words clipped from newspaper headlines for guidelines. Then I hung the map in my studio where I can see it everyday as I work. I love treasure maps!

The Finale — Underwear through Zest.

An Alphabet in Four Parts – I

Straight as Soldiers

Don’t Fence Me In © 2010 Bo Mackison

This is the third annual edition of my End of the Old Year-Beginning of the New Year.  An Alphabet.

It’s another mish-mash of ideas, dreams, reflections on both the past year, and on past lessons, some learned, some learned not so well. There are a few to-do’s, some to-hope-for’s, gratitude for the many blessings in my life, and heartfelt good wishes to all for the coming New Year.

An Alphabet, 2010 – Part I


A is for ABRACADABRA.

ABRACADABRA.  Do you believe in fairies and in magic? I would LIKE to believe in magic, but I’ve learned over my many years here on earth that, in most cases, it’s hard work that works, not magic.

B is for BUMBLEBEE.

BUMBLEBEE. A few years I was told a story about how a bumblebee is a most unlikely insect, too heavy to fly with its tiny un-aerodynamic wing set-up, and yet it does. Later, I read this was all hogwash, that a bee most certainly had the proper body parts for flight. I rather like to believe the first story though, believe that life and living does exist on the very edge of possibility.

C is for CANYON.

CANYON. Once upon a time, a couple decades ago, I went camping with my family. We stayed in Colorado National Monument in western Colorado. Sherpa, and my teen-aged kids wanted to go on an ambitious hike descending to the canyon floor, starting at above 6,000 feet of elevation and dropping to near 5,000 feet, with a series of switchbacks that made it seem like the crookedest trail in the world. Not too many problem going down, of course. But coming back up was a totally different proposition. The kids skipped ahead, leaving Sherpa to toss me words of encouragement as he hiked 30 feet further up the trail. I was not a happy camper, nor was I a happy canyon climber. But no one was going to get me out of that canyon except ME. One laborious step at a time. I do admit to saying more than a few cranky words as I hauled myself up the switchbacks, but I eventually hauled myself to level ground. Yep, the old one-step-at-a-time tale.

D is for DUMPSTER.

DUMPSTER. I carry a “dumpster” in my pocket. All those negative thoughts, all those words that hurt my feelings because I am way too sensitive? They get tossed in the dumpster. If I run into a really difficult streak, I write down all those thoughts that twirl in my head and ceremoniously stick them in my dumpster pocket. And, no, I do not re-read them. When I’ve had a run on negativity, and my dumpster is getting full, I do a ritual to get rid of all those cranky thoughts. Sometimes I “throw out” the contents of the dumpster by gluing the paper pieces upside down in my journal, and then writing or making art right on top of them. Poof. All those thoughts transformed!

E is for ENERGY.

ENERGY. This past year I have found a huge well of energy I never knew I had. All because I am doing something I love to do – photography. And the amazing thing,  as I do more and more with my photography, I find I have more and more energy to get things accomplished. It really is true. If you love what you do, if it makes meaning in your life, it makes the doing easier. Not easy. Just easier.

F is for FEATHERS.

FEATHERS. As in impossible. Take a feather pillow, unzip the cover, and shake all those fluffy bits from a third story window. In a tornado. (The Midwest is well-known for its tornado tendencies.) After the feathers have flown halfway across the continent, word comes down from the Big Boss that the pillow needs to be re-stuffed–with the ORIGINAL feathers. Impossible. Life is like that sometimes. The task ahead of you is utterly impossible. You study the available courses of action and pragmatically decide, no matter how hard you work at the solutions, a re-stuffed pillow is simply not going to happen. The problem has to be re-examined and either solved a different way–perhaps acquire NEW (improved) feathers – or the problem has to be set aside and not solved at all. Sometimes, there is wisdom in knowing when to change courses, back-up, or simply stand still and take deep breaths.

Part II,  Gardens through Minute Rice

A Wisconsin Alphabet – The Beginning

A is for Apples, Fallen on the Ground

A is for Apples, Ripened and Round

B is for Barn, No Walls to be Found

B is for Barn, No Walls to be Found

C is for Chicken, a Scrap Metal Find

C is for Chicken, a Scrap Metal Creature

D is for Dome

D is for Dome, a Capitol Feature

Next: Elephant through Harley