Faith and Nature

Archive for the ‘art’ Category

On May 2 as part of Dance-A-Rama I staged a performance piece involving dancers, the audience and the panoramic camera. My intent was to create some hope and inspiration amidst all the statistics we see about the effects of climate change. You can read more about the event and see the resulting images by clicking here.

I’m on the train to Bakersfield. Grey skies, and light rain when I boarded at Martinez. From Bakersfield I’ll rent a car and spend a couple of days looking for wildflowers. Word is that the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve is looking the best it has in a few years.

Normally I’d say that the scenery from the train is not all that interesting, but today I find everything interesting, like a little kid seeing the world for the first time. We’ve just left Modesto; non-descript housing tracts, levees and farms, abandoned vehicles in yards, grain elevators. I see photos everywhere. Perhaps just the act of traveling without the distraction of driving leaves me open to see more possibilities. And most of the architecture is mundane, agrarian or industrial; not subjects I would normally look at for artistic possibilities, but they all make a statement. Life is artful, Art life-full. It’s not about what’s happening outside, it’s about what’s happening inside. It’s about having an open heart and an open mind to see the world with a new possibilities. I think that in itself is artful living. Or perhaps I’ve just had too much coffee. What do you think?

(Written on April 24,  posted on May 2)

One thing I haven’t done much lately is sit still, which is probably why this image I intended to post for Saint Patricks Day is just now getting posted.  This image by the way was captured in Killarney National Forest in Ireland.

And as for sitting still, today though, I’m laying on the couch with a bag of ice on my right knee and doctors orders to be a “couch potato.” It almost a blessing in a way.  But then, here I am with my laptop, preparing work for clients, and catching up on some of my marketing tasks.  It seems my right knee has been giving me some discomfort, so let’s hope the arthroscopic proceedure will get me back on my feet in short time. Meantime, I’m going to permit myself to be waited on, I’m going to slow down and count it a blessing to have quiet time.  And just for good measure, here’s  link to some photos of a recent snow camping trip with a panorama of Lake Tahoe .

So here it is for those of you that missed the cake cutting on Saturday. I asked a friend of mine, Kuczynska Kuczynska of What the Cake, to create a cake that would represent a mountain scene with a stream, trees and a campsite. I think her creation was quite amazing. I’m calling the mountain Mount Fondant. What do you think? I cut the first piece with trepidation. It seemed a travesty to destroy a piece of art, but once we got to munching on the moist fluffy cake it was hard to stop. And for those of you who were here, I want to thank you for joining me in rolling the “odometer” over to a new year. Can I stop counting now? I’m still in denial that I’ve reached the 60 mark. This past year has been challenging on many fronts, and I feel like I’ve been thrust into the crucible, where one is forced to examine what is of value and what is not. And what shows up is that when I stop and give up my own selfish desires and ambitions and pay attention the world around me life works. For most of my life it has been about me. My photography, my goals, my ambitions, my desires to travel and see the world. Now it’s time to stop and listen. To listen to friends, to listen to family members, to listen to the trees, to listen to the mountains, to listen to the weeds growing in the yard. Like Brother Lawrence who was content to practice the presence of God.

I walk before God simply, in faith, with humility and with love; and I apply myself diligently to do nothing and think nothing which may displease Him.

A new year brings with hit hope and determination for change. I’d like to think that we can begin anew at any moment in time. Tomorrow, today, right now. And then why not embrace change now? Why wait for an event like a new year or a new decade. As part of my own renewal I received a book for Christmas, Earth Gospel, A Guide to Prayer for God’s Creation.  I’ve been working through this book, following the daily prayers and meditations.  For December 31 the meditation includes a familiar hymn:

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love,
and do what thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
until my heart is pure,
until with thee I will one will,
to do and to endure.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill I am wholly thine,
till all this earthly part of me
glows with thy fire divine.

I offer this hymn as a meditation for the new year. And the picture that I’ve chosen to go along with these words was captured on December 31 also, while exploring “The Bulb,” a local open-space area which has become a location for artists to create artwork from found objects and recycled junk. You can view more photos of The Bulb here.

With the Bay Bridge out of commission we opted for alternative means of transportation to make our way to Hunters Point today where a friend of ours was holding an open studio, along with hundreds of other artists. Here’s a photo of painter Carol Aust, Larry Hatfield and my wife Joann with one of Carol’s paintings. The painting shows two people on opposite sides of a chasm. I thought this was symbolic given the fact that the Bay Bridge is out, and we found alternate means across the chasm. Normally with three of us heading to San Francisco we would hop in the car and drive, but our mode of transportation today was BART to San Francisco where we picked up a City Car Share car to drive the short distance from  the Glen Park BART station to Hunter’s Point.  Traveling by train seems much more relaxing than driving and it’s more conducive to conversation, although sometimes the screech of the trains makes conversation difficult. Hunter’s Point is an old naval shipyard with some of the facilities now serving as artists studios.  I took a series of photos along the way. You can click here to re-enact our trip.

There is something about moving water in a stream that fascinates me.  The fluid motion, the reflections, the colors.  And to enjoy it as it exists without alteration or interpretation. I think there is much to learn from simply meditating on such small wonders. They teach us more about God’s creation than we might want to admit. In more worldly affairs it often seems we want to re-make, re-create, reform in our own image.  We’re never content with what is and we filter everything through our interpretation of how we would wish it to be. With this in mind  I was struck recently by a few words in the August CIVA e-News.  The editor Linda Stratford, in following up about a recent conference quotes the plenary speaker, Miroslav Volf  saying that:

we must resist the temptation to reshape society in the image of the heavenly Jerusalem. Instead, according to the model of 1 Peter, we are to live out Christian difference within our given environments.

The temptation to “hijack Jesus” in the process (to borrow a phrase from Volf) is real; so is the temptation to disconnect from the environment.

What are your thoughts?