An Alphabet in Four Parts – III

January 2, 2011 by 12 Comments
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.

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An Alphabet in Four Parts – II

December 31, 2010 by 10 Comments
Red Yucca Flower

Red Yucca Flower

Continuing the second annual edition of my year-end musings:

G is for GARDENS.

GARDENS. I seem to be naturally attracted to gardens of all kinds. Greenhouse gardens. Perennial gardens. Tropical gardens. Rain gardens. Wild gardens. And desert gardens, too. The photograph of the red yucca in bloom was taken at Tohona Chul Park in Tucson, Arizona, an amazing desert urban garden. I’ve spent many, many hours wandering in gardens, sitting in gardens, working in gardens, and now taking photographs in gardens. I’ve taken so many photographs in all these gardens, when I take Seeded Earth Photography on the road, my art show booth almost looks like a garden.

H is for HOURGLASS.

HOURGLASS. Time passes, second by second, just like the sand passes in an hourglass. How many of those seconds, minutes, hours, have I missed by not being mindful, by not paying attention to the present? Not saying that there isn’t time to goof off, to day dream about the future, to watch the wind blowing in tall grasses or a single leaf flutter to the ground. But I want to keep reminding myself that it does no good to live in the past, to question what might have been, to second guess decisions already made. So – living in the present, noticing the details? Good. Dreaming and planning about the future? Good, too. But…I want to keep the past in the past. Learn from the mistakes I’ve made, but not live in the past with regret.

I is for INKLING.

INKLING. I love inklings, just the briefest grasp of an idea. I love taking that bit and turning it over and over in my mind, letting it gather more and more bits until it’s a full fledged idea. I love ideas. I love mulling over ideas. Sometimes I love the idea more than the implementation of the idea. Sometimes that’s OK. Sometimes I need a push to take my ideas to fruition, to make them real. Seeded Earth was an inkling of an idea for a long time. It came to life as a blog, a place to store a photograph a day for a year. And after that year, I wanted to do more than post photographs on my beloved blog. I wanted to make them real (in print) and I wanted to share them with others. Sometimes those inklings really do turn into reality!

J is for JUICY.

JUICY. I like juicy living. Full of flavors and textures and bright colors, and a certain amount of messiness, but with such glorious rewards.

K is for KINDNESS.

KINDNESS. Being kind to others, yes, but more than that. Also practicing the art of kindness towards myself.

L is for LONG SHOT.

LONG SHOT. Sometimes it’s wise to go for the sure thing. Dribble the ball across mid-court, closer and closer to the hoop. Get your defensive lines all in place. Move in close, focus on the goal, and then make the shot. That’s usually a good plan. But sometimes, you have to go for the long shot, the Hail Mary shot at the end of the buzzer. Once in awhile, it just feels right to take a long shot. Might not make it. But then again, you just might.

M is for MINUTE RICE.

MINUTE RICE. Actually, I don’t eat the stuff–prefer brown rice or long grain white rice or wild rice. But I do have a sock filled with it. I use it for a makeshift tripod when my regular tripod is too heavy to carry while hiking for miles, or too clunky to get past museum guards. These are the kinds of projects I love – the whole DIY craze where you can give one object a completely new use. I use a string and a metal washer for a tripod when desperate. Wax paper or copy paper or aluminum foil achieves different lighting properties. I’ve been accused of using my camera bag as a lunch bag on more than one occasion. Not true. I never put my sandwich in my camera bag!

Next post – Nest through Treasure Map

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An Alphabet in Four Parts – I

December 30, 2010 by 7 Comments
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

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My Bliss – A Guest Post by Debi Bradford

October 8, 2010 by 9 Comments

This is the fifth and last of the guest posts from some of my blog visitors who  answered the question “How has photography, no matter your expertise or experience, had a positive impact on your life?” (This was a question I’ve been exploring in my recent series Why Photography?)

This guest post was written by Debi Bradford and accompanied by two of her favorite photographs.

American White Pelican Flying © 2010 Debi Bradford

Long ago I fancied myself as an amateur photographer.  As a young lass armed with a 35mm Yashica I dabbled in nature photography and took portraits of friends and family.  Tons of early, mediocre images lie fallow and fading in Tupperware boxes on a shelf.  My hobby took a backseat first to career and then family before being forgotten altogether over time.

Quite unexpectedly interest sparked once again when we moved to the lake away from subdivisions and concrete, traffic and rush hours.  Suddenly, I was exposed to fantastic sunrises and sunsets, wild storms and wildlife.  Simultaneously  I discovered the immediate gratification of digital photography.  Hooked, I began exploring the wilds of our area and discovered the joy of writing about my experiences.  Sharing about nature in blogs and in magazines I have found a joy, my bliss.

However, as to Bo’s Question, “Why Photography?”  some points come to mind:

Photography is an activity within which I can both find myself and lose myself at the same time.

Literally focusing on something other than myself opens my mind toward reflection of larger things.   Contemplation of nature and its creatures, its cycles, its seasons, observing the earth and the heavens keeps me grounded.

Sensory Experiences

The peace and quiet; sound of water, wind, insects and birds; smell of woodsmoke and flowers, riverbanks and mosses; observing the  intensity of clouds and storms, enjoying a golden late afternoon light playing across bark and leaves, diamonds of light twinkling on water; the joy of discovering creatures and places.  In nature all my senses come into play for there’s no competition.  Have you ever watched a praying mantis hunt?  The mantis slowly begins to sway in tune with the surrounding foliage, becoming one with the leaves and branches, matching the natural movements around it.  It blends in; becomes part of the scene.  That’s what I do, oftentimes walking and sitting for an hour before ever picking up the camera.  Soak it in and breathe it, become it, enjoy it, embrace it before trying to capture that special feeling given by Spirit creates a visceral memory with each frame.

Solitude and Spirituality

It’s very Zen and meditative; calming.  When my soul is at its most restless and unhappy I seek being outdoors by myself, just me and my camera.  For it is there, outside, where  I feel great peace and the full measure of Spirituality flows through me like warm honey.  Disengaging from the mindless busyness of the day-to-day and engaging in the clear, focused reality of Life through photography is when I feel Spirit intensely.

Atkeson Cypress Trail © 2010 Debi Bradford

Magic and Joy

The normal person might see a white pelican and simply be gladdened by the experience, if that.  However, when I see a white pelican I want to capture the experience, record the bird’s essence, upload it, look at it a thousand times and broadcast it to the heavens.  It’s my way of shouting for joy … Look!  A WHITE PELICAN!  Isn’t that amazing?!  It’s photographing frame-by-frame the immersion of a butterfly from its cocoon and feeling that wonder deep, deep inside every time I see those images.  Photography is sheer magic to me.  It’s the joy of sharing the wonder of our earth and its creatures.   It’s a visual journal of a life experience.

Photojournalism

Photography has become even more than just capturing an image.  It’s sharing it with others of like minds through my other two passions – computers and writing.  Blogging combines all three and connects me with other like-minded individuals around the world.  Many photographers are content to let the photograph tell the story as that’s what works for them.  However, describing nuances that the photo simply cannot convey – how I found the shot, sharing about a particular place or telling the story of how the event changed my life – fulfills me.  There’s a story to every photograph, and those are the details that make the image rich and meaningful.

Giving Back

It is through my photography of nature that I give back to non-profit organizations whose mission it is to preserve wild spaces.  Nature preserves and wildlife refuges are important to me.  Photographs taken on nature preserves and/or wildlife refuges grace the cover of greeting cards and I give a percentage of sales to the corresponding non-profit.  It’s my way of saying Thank You, my way of helping and giving back.

So for me photography isn’t just a hobby, it completes me and takes me full circle.  I take pictures because I cannot NOT take pictures.  I am simply, blissfully, a photographer.

Debi Bradford lives in Alabama and is a photographer, blogger, and lover of nature. She shares her photography and writing on her blog Giraffe Head Tree.

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Art Jobs are Jobs, Too

September 20, 2010 by 2 Comments

This post, was originally written by Jeffrey E. Salzberg, a lighting designer for theatre, dance, and puppetry troupes in New York City and throughout the United States. It is reprinted here with his permission.

“Recently, I had dinner with some lovely people and the conversation turned, as it so often does these days, to politics and economics.  I mentioned the importance of arts funding, and one of my companions — an artist herself — said something like, “I care about arts funding, too, but jobs are more important.”

Whoa.

It’s time we stopped thinking of ourselves as charity cases.  Arts jobs are no less important just because we make theatre (or music, or sculptures, or ballets, or….) than they would be if we sold cars or built computers — in fact, they have even more impact, proportionally, on our local economies. The arts are huge consumers of materials, which  must be manufactured and transported and, of course, artists and other employees of arts organizations buy the same groceries, clothing, automobiles, and other goods as do those in other occupations.  People who attend arts events are likely to dine out before, and go to bars afterward.  In the United States, more people attend professional arts events than attend professional sports. I’ve seen estimates that every government dollar that goes to arts funding has between six and seven dollars  of economic impact.

I’m writing this in September of 2010.  In 7 weeks, we’ll be electing senators, members of Congress, legislators, and governors.  This is a time when our elected officials — and those who want to be our elected officials — are most likely to listen to us.  Ask…no, demand…that they tell you their positions on arts funding.

Send your opinion to the candidates of your choice.

Let your message be loud and let it be clear: “Arts funding is jobs funding.”

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