A Day for Celebration

Red Tulip

Red Tulip © 2013 Bo Mackison

 Celebrate the day, the hour, the minute, the moment.

Celebrate the sunshine, the blossom, the greening of the spirit.

Celebrate life and beyond.

Thanks to all the women in my life who love, live, and make a difference.

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

Blooming Poppies

Mexican Poppies

Mexican Poppies © 2013 Bo Mackison

We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts. ~ William Hazlett

In the seed.

Creation explosion,
Mystery  and heritage.

Sacred place; festive space.

Sensory sanctuary.
Rejuvenation.

In the garden.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  Season of joy – poppies blooming in the Sonoran Desert.

Exploring — My Lawn as a Metaphor

Fully Floral

Fully Floral in Black and White © 2012 Bo Mackison

“Think of your free time, and how you spend it. Are you fighting your inner geography and planting a lawn? Are you going with the ambient climate and keeping it simple? Do you want to do work that is intense and may not fit the popular climate, or do you want to go with the flow and keep your work suited to an easy schedule? Or, do you want to create an environment that’s exotic for you or do you want to explore your nature as it is?” – Quinn McDonald

There are just so many options for spending my free time, and I always pack more ideas into my brain than one woman could do in a lifetime.

But that doesn’t stop me from adding to the list constantly. When I factor in my penchant for change, I need to consider several options for my front lawn if it is to be a metaphor for my free time.

At first thought, I liked the idea of a tall sunflower field.

I would be surrounded by eight foot high plants, all topped with giant yellow sunflower heads. Hidden in the glory of all those waving flowers, spending my free time wandering without being seen. But when I thought about the upkeep and the crispy brown remains of sunflower stalks once autumn’s frost paid a visit, those glorious sunflowers lost their appeal. Maybe I would get tired of being surrounded by a jungle of bright yellow flower heads the size of dinner plates. Too much intense color, over a long period of time, it might be too bright. Or too lonely, hidden away in the flowers.

What about a mass of low growing, take-care-of-themselves-flowers?

And while I’m imagining what I’d really like my free time to look like, in lawn form, I’d like a black and white flower yard where I can change its colors on my whim – like the original movie version of The Wizard of Oz which begins in black and white, and then magically transforms into resplendent  color. That would satisfy my preference for quick change – white to match a pristine day, red for a passionate mood, multicolored when I’m feeling  festive.

Of course, I’d need a magic wand to keep the flowers in tip-top shape, growing lush while remaining an easily tended ground cover.

And the magic wand would come in handy when it was time for a color change, too. My flower lawn requires a bit of magic – is that because I don’t want to do all of the work that fun sometimes requires (such as the wild rush that comes before and after a planned vacation.)

Perhaps I’d like a magic wand because I’m not the quick change artist I wish I could be in real life.

One day I yearn to be a landscape photographer tramping through the wilds of red rock country or the Southwest desert; another day I’m the artist curating her photographs for a museum or gallery show.

One day I am a photographer who is demonstrating the simple workings of a pinhole camera to a group of excited children; another day I’m an urban photographer documenting form and shape in the architectural details of abandoned buildings.

Maybe I’d even be in the mood for some meticulous, creative work. I spend much of my free time doing just that when I am in front of the magical computer screen processing my photographs.

What a changeable yard…um, photographer…

 

 

 

Waiting for Silence

Prairie Rosinweed

Prairie Rosinweed © 2012 Bo Mackison

Waiting for Silence – A Poem

i listen
for the noise of daily life to subside;
for the voices in my head to quiet;
for the busyness of business to halt.

slowly i discover

silence is not…

absence

nothingness

absolute

Sun Salutation with Black Eyed Susans

Sun Salutation © 2012 Bo Mackison

silence is…

presence

cosmos

completion.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She takes photos constantly, and shares them daily. She writes poetry often, but shares it infrequently. Today she is on her way to the prairie again – her muse for both photography and words.

Art is What We Call . . .

Spotted Lily, Olbrich Gardens, Madison Wisconsin

Spotted Lily ©2011 Bo Mackison

“Art is what we call…the thing an artist does.

It’s not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it.

What matters, what makes it art,
is that the person who made it overcame the resistance,
ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making.

Something risky. Something human.”

~ Seth Godin

I read Seth Godin’s words this weekend, and thought, “Oh yes, spot on.” This weekend I’ve been working non-stop on a photography project – a project that means a great deal to me on a personal level. It is my hope that the portfolio I’m assembling will also speak to other people. But what really matters, has already taken place. My photographs speak to me, make meaning, explain life.

What other people think is interesting, and I am always curious to hear what people truly think about a photograph I take and process. But another person’s opinion won’t change my thoughts. I’ve taken the photo, chosen it, looked at it carefully, even listened to it, and  – this is the biggest discovery – I’ve heard the photo speak to me with love.

It took time, and some learning, but finally, I’ve discovered my opinion about my photograph is the most important opinion. Not to say I don’t want to know what others think. I do, but with a caveat.

As Seth Godin so astutely said, in the last line of the above quote:

“Art is not in the . . . eye of the beholder.  It’s in the soul of the artist.”

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is currently assembling two portfolios for portfolio reviews — 5 reviewers, 5 reviews, 20 minutes each — for when she attends the Filter Photo Festival in Chicago in October. She is terribly excited about the coming experience!