Seeded Earth Photography at Madison’s Audubon Art Fair

Turkeys "Hiking" in Owen Conservation Park in Madison Wisconsin
“Hiking” © 2011 Bo Mackison

These turkeys were hiking on the same trail that I was traveling in the woods at Owen Conservation Park. Not that I don’t appreciate the wild turkeys, but these guys have gotten a bit too self-confident and maybe even a tad too aggressive as far as I’m concerned. I walk the trails in search of wildflowers, my eyes on the ground,  my ears attuned for any hint of a gobble gobble.

I came nearly head to head with four toms when I turned a corner, and felt a bit silly gobbling back at them while stomping my hiking stick on the path. They stared me down for a while before meandering off. Hmm, these are some birds! They sure do love hiking the trails at Owen!

I’m a big fan of the smaller birds, actually, and if you are a bird lover and in the Madison, Wisconsin area, the Audubon Society is holding their Annual Art Fair this Saturday, May 7th, 2011. It’s a great way to support the Audubon Society. And the show is perfectly timed on the day before Mother’s Day–if you are looking for a special gift for a special mom.

32nd Annual Audubon Art Fair
Saturday, May 7th, 2011
9:30 am to 4:30 pm
Warner Park Community Center
1625 Northport Drive
Madison, Wisconsin

Look for Seeded Earth Photography at the Audubon Show on Saturday. My booth will be INSIDE the community center.  Come and enjoy the work of many talented artists–what a great way to start the weekend.

Post Note: Photographs of the Madison Audubon Society Art Fair 2011, including the venue Warner Park, outside booths along the path, and several inside booths including my booth for Seeded Earth Studio.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.

Sitting on a Blue Bench Amidst Powder Puff Magnolias

"Powder Puff" Loebner Magnolia, Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin II

“Powder Puff” Magnolia © 2011 Bo Mackison

Ask yourself, “Why am I seeing and feeling this? How am I growing? What am I learning?” Remember, every coincidence is potentially meaningful. How high your awareness level is determines how much meaning you get from your world. ~  Ansel Adams

On my visit to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison early this week, it was a pleasure to see so many of the trees and plants in bloom. I let my imagination soar a bit while I was sitting on a bright blue bench, taking in the blooming beauty of a nearby magnolia tree. (If you follow my blog, you may recall I try to take at least 10 minutes out of each shooting hour to sit and capture the atmosphere in my body and mind, not only with my lens.)

I think it is making me a more aware photographer, perhaps it will eventually make me a better photographer. But today, this quiet time interludes give me many gifts not associated with photography at all.

Perhaps it is a plot, I thought as I sat quietly — a benevolent plot arranged by nature to cheer the many humans who are running around on this planet feeling over-worked, overwhelmed, unfulfilled. Those who are thinking, hopelessly, “I will never reach my goals, I will never find true happiness.”

Perhaps for the last month–this record-breaking cloudy, cool April–nature held back her beauty, anticipating a great unveiling. For it does seem that many of the flowers–whole gardens of flowers–popped open, bloomed, spilled their bright colors, all timed perfectly.

One week it was cloudy, rainy, icy. And then–poof–it was spring.

As I sat on the bright blue bench (of which I have grown very fond–everyone should have a bright blue bench to sit upon) I watched two cardinals darting about the magnolia. I don’t recall ever seeing cardinals interacting in such a way before, but they were swooping into the dense flowers and swooping out again, circling the trees, up and down–like a game of follow the leader or a spontaneous dance. When they stopped to rest on a branch, they began a back and forth chirping contest, louder and louder, calls were startlingly clear, cheerful. I laughed to hear them, it was so spontaneously beautiful.

It was as  if the two cardinals were calling to everyone in the gardens–and there were many of us walking the garden paths. And they were saying,

“Here. Look. Here is this gift for you. Take this experience and hold on to it. Enjoy it now. Enjoy the sun casting colorful shadows on the pink magnolia blossoms. Enjoy the orange tulips nodding into the ir yellow neighbors. Enjoy the fresh air and the cheerful callings of the birds. Be open to the joy of these myriad gifts, take that joy home, and tuck it in your heart. Keep it safe. Then, when the clouds and storms return, pull out this memory, this sunny day feeling of the garden filled with glad tidings of spring, and be thankful.”

 

Journal Writing at Seth’s Cottage

Wright Inspired Accessories at Seth Peterson Cottage on Mirror Lake, Wisconsin

Writing by Lamp Light © 2011 Bo Mackison

I spent several hours writing by the light cast from this small lamp while I was staying at the Seth Peterson Cottage. Whenever I paused, I could look out the many windows and gaze at Mirror Lake, which wasn’t much of a “mirror” while I was there. It had a slate gray appearance that evening, no resemblance to a reflective mirror.

While I was there, I photographed some of the details of the interior. These particular photos do not show the rooms so much as the accessories in the rooms. (In the next and final post on Seth’s Cottage I’ll include photographs from the individual rooms.)

I also wrote and sketched in my journals while I was there. A few excerpts follow:

Flickering Fire, Fireplace designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Seth Peterson Cottage

Flickering Fire © 2011 Bo Mackison

A lesson learned from lighting the fire. When lighting a fire with a full box of matches at your disposal, one doesn’t pay much attention to the number of matches it takes. If the fire doesn’t start with the first two or three matches, just keep trying until the fire catches. But when there are only six matches in the only box of matches, one plans carefully for the lighting of the logs. The kindling is laid just so, I stuff a bit of paper between the twigs for a bit of insurance, choose the smaller logs from the woodpile outside. Lots of planning goes on before I strike the first match.

I think of an analogy, comparing the starting a fireplace fire to caring for the earth. While the natural resources of the earth seem inexhaustible, there seems little need to use the resources wisely–lots of matches in the box to start the warming fire. But when the resources become threatened, endangered, the prudent thing to do would be to use them wisely, carefully, with great planning–don’t want to run out of matches before the logs are burning.

Star Floor, Radiant Floor Heating System, Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Seth Peterson Cottage

Radiant Star Floor © 2011 Bo Mackison

I spent way too much time trying to find patterns and pictures in the random lines of the flagstone floor. Above is my interpretation of a “radiant” star — radiant because underneath these flagstone slabs are hot water pipes that provide floor heating. There were also pennies embedded in several cracks. I fully intended to get down on my hands and knees and check out the dates on the coins, but I never did find a flashlight and the areas were rather dimly lit.

From my journal:

I am quite loving this hard stone floor. Not because it is a comfy surface to stand upon in stocking feet, but because it is toasty warm. Even though it has dropped to the low 40s and will probably hit 35˚F by early morning, the warm floor is quite special in that it is so unexpected. There are no rugs, only this unending expanse of carefully matched stone slabs.

It is so quiet. Now, nearly six in the evening, and the skies are dark with heavy, threatening rain clouds. I expected to see and hear birds, but the birds are silent. There is no radio, no television, no neighbors, no motor boats on the “no motor” lake, no internet. It is quiet, except for the popping of the fire and the occasional  cloud burst.

One gets lulled by the quiet. I intend to write, but instead I find myself passing long periods of time watching the logs burn, watching the raindrops plop in the puddles on the back stone patio, listening for sounds that don’t exist. We have learned to live in a noisy world, and often pay little attention to the constant background noises that surround us. But when there are no sounds, only silence, then I notice the silence.

I hear the silence.

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This is the second part of a three-part series written and photographed while I stayed at the Seth Peterson Cottage.

Dutchman’s Breeches

Dutchmans' Breeches, Ephemeral Wildflower in Owen Conservation Park, Madison, Wisconsin

Dutchman’s Breeches © 2011 Bo Mackison

I finally discovered a few ephemeral wildflowers in the woods near my home. These tiny white flowers, hanging on a bright red stem, look a bit like the britches worn by men, so the story goes. I do not personally know any man who would be caught dead wearing this type of white and yellow breeches, but then again, the names of many wildflowers show a lot of creativity on the part of the people who named them.

The ephemerals–early spring flowers that bloom on the woodland floor before the trees leaf out and shade the ground–are finally blooming. I saw only bloodroot a week ago when I walked the forest trails. On my last walk in the woods, two days ago, quite a few other species were in bloom–hepatica, violets, and Dutchman’s breeches were in abundance.

Nice to see the earth coming alive with greenery and flowers.

The spring flowers are blooming and the sun is finally shining after the last days of April faded into May. Last month went on record as the cloudiest April in Wisconsin since the late 1800s.

Pink Magnolia

Pink Magnolia, Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin

Pink Magnolia © 2011 Bo Mackison

I finally found a sunny time to drive across town and see how the flowers were faring at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens. I had a nice surprise. Even though many of the flowers are several weeks behind their normal blooming time, the entire garden in filled with flowering beauties. The magnolia trees are in bloom. I think the magnolia has one of the more interesting flowers.

Scientists think that the magnolia is one of the older flowers on earth, believed to have evolved before bees, for the magnolia is designed for pollination by beetles. (The magnolia is not the oldest of flowers, that distinction goes to the water-lily.) The magnolia bloom has many primitive features including a large number of both pistils and stamens–the reproductive parts of the flower. In comparison, most flowers have only one pistil and five stamens. The magnolias’ large number occur in spiraled rows and cluster together above the petals.

The magnolia has between six and twelve petals plus an additional three sepals. Typical of primitive flowers, the petals and sepals are nearly identical in shape and color. This magnolia, the Loebner magnolia, has a purplish hue. Other magnolias range in colors from pure white to yellowish-green to pink to lavender.

The trees, when planted in groupings, are quite a marvelous sight–twenty five foot tall trees covered with thousands of almost translucently tinted flowers.

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I am back home after spending the first part of 2011 in Arizona. It has taken some time to adjust to life in Wisconsin, but now that the spring flowers blooming and the sun is finally shining, life is good.