Filling Containers in the Desert

Pottery Row

Containers © 2012 Bo Mackison

In ancient times wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to their inner struggles at work within them. The desert became a place to enter into the refiner’s fire and be stripped down to one’s holy essence. The desert was a threshold place where one emerged different than when one entered.  ~ Christine Valters Painter

Last year I traveled to Tucson, urban civility at the edge of the Sonora Desert, and ventured into the wild spaces, a bit at a time, a few steps from my safe haven. I had many goals, and I achieved many of them, but they were more a to-do list of photography related exercises, learning the routines of running a fledgling business, and practicing the ins and outs of living on my own.

I considered my first solo experience in Arizona a successful venture, but now I’m in a different place than I was in early 2011. I have new plans, new goals, new business ideas I want to put into practice. And I have a totally different agenda, too. I want to take specific steps to assess what I am doing, who I am, and who I want to be as I approach a transitional time in my life.

I will be going to Arizona in a few days. I will be asking questions, and hopefully discovering many answers and possibilities and options. When I come back to the Midwest in three months, I hope to have symbolically filled at least a few of the empty containers I am bringing along.

I’ll be working on this part of my journey – my desert days – and writing about my discoveries on my Seeded Earth blog. Maybe the seeds I planted last year will sprout, maybe even bloom, with the care I bestow on them this year.

I love the above photo. I photographed the original in March of 2011.

The photo reminds me of many things. First, these are containers for necessities. This pottery were photographed in the ruins of a granary at the Tucumcacari Mission in southern Arizona. Several hundred years ago, clay pots like these were filled with the autumn harvest and stored in the granary. The mission inhabitants relied on their stores of grains and other foods to sustain them through the winter months.

The photo reminds me of the simple things in life. Since I now have a place of my own in the Tucson area, I’ve made a commitment to maintain a minimalist approach while living there.  It is a small place, so I am making some no cluttering ground rules from the very beginning.

And finally the photo reminds me of change and the need to keep an open mind. When I re-discovered photography five years ago, I had never used a digital camera. My first camera with interchangeable lenses was a Pentax K-1000, a film camera. I knew film. I knew how to develop photos in a darkroom. I knew nothing about digital photography.

But photography is an amazing art medium because there are so many levels of expertise and so many options. There is never only one way to take a particular photograph. One can take good photos with the simplest of cameras and with a minimum amount of practice. But add reading about new things, trying new techniques, exploring the advancing technologies of photography software, and shooting thousands of photographs a year, and then the opportunities become inexhaustible.

When I first began taking digital photographs, I thought I would never use Photoshop — partly because I didn’t have access to a Photoshop program and partly because I had no idea how to use Photoshop. Anyway, I was busy enough learning the basics. It was actually a good move, though I didn’t realize why at the time.

The first year I went digital, I shot my photos, then posted them straight out of the camera (SOOC). Gradually I learned how to adjust the simplest components – color, contrast, sharpening, cropping. Finally I bought Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop Elements (the easy Photoshop) and began to explore the mysteries of post-processing.

And now?

Now I’ve discovered the amazing world of seeing a subject, taking photographs, and then bringing the files back to my computer where I manipulate them — without rules or limitations — until I again see what it was I originally saw. I explore the idea that what I see is unique and worthy of creation.

I’ve opened up a new world of digital photography and I’m learning anew by study and practice, practice, practice…while having a great deal of FUN!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  In a couple of days, she will cross the threshold and begin her desert experience.

 

 

Blue Doors

Evening Time

Evening Time @ 2011 Bo Mackison

I’m taking the day off from the computer – substituting a day of quiet, time for reflection and long hand writing, time for reading and aimless walking, and filling the empty well.

C is for Cactus

C is for Cactus

C is for Cactus © 2011 Bo Mackison

“The spines have been used as phonograph needles, fishhooks, awls, needles, and for tattooing. The cactus was used as a cooking pot…cut off the top, scoop out the pulp, put hot stones and food in the cavity. The Cactus is precious and has difficulty surviving with humans.” ~ Pat Holtz

I love the desert. I love the living things I observe in the desert. I especially love the plants in the desert, including the many cactus species.

I was going to write a blog about photographing cacti and other plants in the desert, but after reading the above words ascribed to an artist and ethno-botanist, I no longer felt like writing about the desert today.

I only want to think and ponder that last line of the quote. “The cactus is precious and has difficulty surviving with humans.”

Hmmm.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She misses the desert.

Garden Door in Late Autumn

Garden Door - Autumn

Garden Door in Late Autumn © 2011 Bo Mackison

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile is the source of your joy. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

I am smiling at the memory of the many hours I spent in the gardens and national parks in Arizona. The waning sun often cast a golden glow before it quickly set for the evening.

The quote that I used today is one I repeat often to myself. I found it easy to be filled with joy when I was strolling along the garden paths at Tohono Chul or the Tucson Botanical Garden. A smile came readily to me. Back in Wisconsin, I find the conditions outside are not always conducive to outside shoots. And when the temps are below freezing and the skies are gray, I have to work a bit harder to reach that feeling of joy.

I find that the simple act of smiling while preparing a cup of tea, or sorting through photo catalogs brings me joy. My smile can be a source of joy — for me and for the people around me.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She has returned to Wisconsin from the Southwest to celebrate the Holiday Season with family and friends. Bo’s first show back in Arizona will be in early February – the Tubac Festival of the Arts!

Sculptures for Bees?

Sculpture for Bees?

Sculpture for Bees? © 2011 Bo Mackison

As I was walking through the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum last week, I noticed a new sculpture exhibit. Attractive elongated wood sculptures in varying heights decorated the bee area. There was another matching piece that was an inviting bench for a resting place.

A Bench as Sculpture?

A Bench as Sculpture and More © 2011 Bo Mackison

When I investigated further, I learned that these wooden and steel sculptures are the art work of Tucson sculptor and artist Greg Corman, and were made from recycled materials.

This is one of the multipurpose pieces he designed for the Desert Museum. It is a bench for humans, a rock pile for lizards and a habitat for stingless, pollinating bees. (The elongated sculptures have tiny holes that aren’t visible in this photo.)

The artist notes that the front of the bench is enclosed so the lizards enter and exit from the rear space, safely away from feet and other potential hazards.

Sculpture Doubles as Bee Hive

Sculpture Doubles as Bee Habitat © 2011 Bo Mackison

In this photograph of a sculpture/habitat in the Pollinator Garden, the holes are easy to see in the yellow painted wood. The bees who use these nests are solitary bees, and are found throughout the US and in other countries.

They build their nests in dead wood, however this habitat is disappearing because much dead wood and limbs from gardens and parks are removed.

Rocks and Wood?

Rocks and Wood? © 2011 Bo Mackison

Corman’s colorful sculptures provide natural spaces for the bees to nest while adding eye-appealing art to the garden spaces.

A wonderful concept!

Corman’s blog at  Zen-Industrial is well worth a visit. According to his site, he specializes in creating sculptures, bee habitats,  garden furnishings, and functional wood pieces. His blog features plenty of photos of his recent works.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Even though Bo has never met Greg Corman, she has carefully explored his bee habitat sculptures and she is smitten with his functional art!