Prairie Color Mandala

September 7, 2022 by
Prairie Color Mandala © 2021 Bo Mackison

see Art making inspired by prairie walking.

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I find walking in nature and paying attention to the details awakens my desire to create. Thankful that there is a daily walk in my pandemic routine. Thankful that some of the time I actually get out my paper and pencils and let the flow happen.

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What inspires you? And what do you create from that inspiration?

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I invite you to consider what might happen when you combine 1) a walk in nature with deep attention and 2) the intention to create a patchwork mandala.

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I went for a long, unhurried walk through the University of Madison’s Arboretum, the nature preserve that pioneered prairie restoration in the 1930s. I noticed the layering of colors, rather like a patchwork of greens and purples, reds and yellows, and took a photo so I could consider the elements of the composition once I returned home.

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Paper and colored pencils and a few hours in the company of Netflix…and this happened. October Prairie is not my normal type of mandala — I like fast and no plan — but I am well pleased with the results.

enter When creating the mandala, I let myself be guided by the patchwork of muted color with less emphasis on the details. I do hope you might be inspired to give this sort of practice a try. Take a walk in nature and then create a patchwork mandala, the marriage of attention and intention.

click We create all sorts of mandalas in my online workshop Contemplative Creatives Journey. If this sort of creative practice appeals to you, you may want to check out my seasonal offerings. We begin at the turn of each season and create together in an online community for 13 weeks.

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A Morning Walk in Owen Conservation Park

June 9, 2013 by 2 Comments

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Parking Lot Nursery

https://www.thoughtleaderlife.com/qub7ibup Bucket Nursery © 2013 Bo Mackison

source site A picture of many colors proclaims images of many thoughts. ~ Donna Favors

Buy Diazepam Pills I took the opportunity on a recent sunny morning to walk in Owen Conservation Park, a park only a few minutes from my home. When I began making photographs in a serious way – by that I mean making photos as a daily practice – Madison Wisconsin’s Owen Park was one of my first haunts. I recall those early mornings in an October six or so years ago, when I struggled with light and exposure, aperture settings and shutter speed.

go here Often, I had no clue what settings I might prefer to use for a certain feel, and so I simply took pictures, hundreds of pictures. Every day. And after many months of making photographs and studying them, I began to l get a feel for my camera and what it could do. It was almost a surprise to me, several years later, when I realized I could work my camera’s settings without much thought. What a glorious discovery that was!

here It is my plan to walk this park every week – note the changes as the summer season approaches and the days warm. I’ll post the photos from my weekly explorations, but I’m not going to write much, except to add a few quotes. Mostly, I want to keep a record of my weekly excursions throughout the park, throughout the summer. And see what there is to see.

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Bones of Sunflowers

source Prairie Bones © 2013 Bo Mackison

enter site “Solvitur ambulando.”

https://marcosgerente.com.br/h755zo5lqr Latin translation — “It is solved by walking.” ~ Diogenes

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White Flowering Shrub

Buy Liquid Valium Online White Flowering Shrub © 2013 Bo Mackison

watch In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous. ~ Aristotle

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Owen Park

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click Change is inevitable. Accept the old and embrace the new. Blend the two and that is you. ~ Anon

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Sumac

https://vbmotorworld.com/2vka9f8p Sumac © 2013 Bo Mackison

https://ragadamed.com.br/2024/09/18/g41is1g7hq3 Beauty surrounds us. ~ Rumi

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Indigo

source Indigo Blossoms © 2013 Bo Mackison

https://www.drcarolineedwards.com/2024/09/18/yvc1up38gv The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

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Spring Trees

go Spring-Green Trees © 2013 Bo Mackison

I wish the days to not be cheap, but sacred.
I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Owen Park

More Prairie Bones © 2013 Bo Mackison

He who wishes to explore Nature must tread her books with his feet. ~ Paracelsus

Spindly Petals, Spring Yellow Flower

Spindly Petals © 2013 Bo Mackison

All of nature begins to whisper its secrets to us through its sounds. Sounds that were previously incomprehensible to our soul now become the meaningful language of nature.
~ Rudolf Steiner

Spirea

Spirea Blossoms © 2013 Bo Mackison

He who sees into the secret inner life of the plant, into the stirring of its powers, and observes how the flower gradually unfolds itself,  sees the matter with quite different eyes — he knows what he sees. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

These photographs of Owen Conservation Park on Madison’s Far West Side are from June 7, as the hour approached noon. The days before this day had been rainy and so the park was lush and green. And a bit damp, too. The temperatures were in the mid 70s, and the skies were mostly clear, the most blue the skies had been in many a day.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She explores wherever she goes, with and without her camera.

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Walk and Wonder

May 30, 2012 by 4 Comments

Peonies in Pastels

Peonies in Pastels © 2012 Bo Mackison

Seeing form with the whole body and mind,
Hearing sound with the whole body and mind
One understands intimately.
~ Eihel Dogen

I walked the perimeter of a nearby pond this morning. I have been walking it weekdays for the last few weeks, and it is my intention to continue walking the pond path until the snow flies and the way is no longer negotiable.

I continue to be surprised by all the activity that takes place near the pond. The American Lotus are gradually emerging from the water, first as mere bits of green, now many are flat pads floating on the surface.

An egret and a blue heron – I suspect both are males – eye each other from a safe distance. I have not seen any large nests except for the geese, so I surmise those mama birds may be on the other nearby lake.

The male red-wing blackbirds are also out in force, alert and watching the passers-by for their mates and nests are in the above trees. These blackbirds are the main reason I always walk with a wide-brimmed hat for protection. After experiencing the males swoop at my head on several occasions serving me with warnings to “move on,” I keep my head covered. I do not enjoy their startling game of “scare the humans.”

Today I had to make a detour through the woods as a papa goose was giving his seven babies some play time on the path, and since he eyed me wildly and threatened me with his wide-opened beak, I gave in and turned around. I was in no mood to take on an aggressive father.

Then while passing through the trees, I saw a snapping turtle, maybe two feet long including tail, digging at the side of the trail. She was preparing to lay her eggs, and had dug a hole four or five inches deep. Since I purposely do not bring a camera on my early morning walk, I have no photographs, only the memories I stored in my mind, and a few sketches I penciled in my journal when I returned home.

I am experimenting with the camera free walk. I have well learned the habit of close observation in the last five years of carrying a camera almost everywhere, but there are times when it seems the need for a photograph interrupts a train of thought I would like to follow, or a time of quiet I am enjoying. I will try it for a month, and then choose whether to carry my camera again or continue with a camera-free hour first thing in the morning.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is spending the rest of the day in her studio, matting and framing photographs for her first summer art fair — this weekend.

(57th Street Art Fair in Hyde Park, Chicago – June 2 and 3. More info to follow)

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