The little building had a single door with a turquoise frame and a narrow barred window. A few of those details provide tension and context for a reflection on this small piece of the urban landscape. In contrast, “Hooked”, below, is purely a landscape of the mind, with no detail left to link it to reality. That level of abstraction is disturbing to some,…
When the image above first began to take shape, it seemed as though the weight of the air was pressing down, creating a pocket of intense heat. But that vision transformed itself and soon the calming blues were bubbling up out of that spot as if out of a cauldron heated by the earth itself, bringing light and a peaceful clarity. Letting the work…
Cloudscapes from the Heartland are two more examples from a series of abstracts begun about a month ago. Originally meant to be evocative studies in color, texture and motion, some have become suggestive of landscapes and other scenes. Both of these images began as landscape photographs — one of Sarasota Bay in Florida, and the other of a wind generator in the flat lands…
After the darkest day has passed, it feels right to celebrate the light. Just as the return of the sun will bring spring, honoring the light within can feed our sense of wonder. May this season and the New Year bring wonder and light to everyone.
There are days, in the afternoon especially, when the sand can burn your feet and the heat rises into your face. Closer to the water the sand is damp and cooler. Looking down at the shells deposited along the waterline one can contemplate the spiral structure that is home to many creatures of the sea.
Looking out over the calm gulf waters at the distant horizon, the bands of colors across sky and sea are gently meditiative. Objects in the foreground may come unglued and seem to float. It can be worth a few minutes to let them.
The qualities of a built environment have a lot to do with how people feel about a place. The alley behind the new Palm Avenue parking garage is wide, clean, new, and bordered on each side by towering walls of concrete. Looking down this oversized tunnel one is greeted with a surprising view of the run down and graffiti-graced backside of a Main Street…
Two singular items. Their colors and shapes speak. Does it matter what they are, or is it better just to wonder what they might be?
The cross is one of humanity’s more ancient and ubiquitous symbols. An early interpretation was as a representation of the intersection between the divine (the vertical line) and the earthly (the horizontal line). In modern times this has been trivialized in our use of the cross on road signs to signify an intersection of roads ahead. The cross has also represented the division of…
The land and sea meet gently along Siesta Key on Florida’s Gulf coast. A wide expanse of white sand tapers gradually toward the water, and the water subtly deepens as one walks away from shore. And sometimes, land and sea intermix when heavy rain, or waves during a falling tide, leave channels in the sand where shallow pools linger until filled in by the…
People enjoying a festival are one of the many things that help define a place and a community. The two men standing next to each other, one in red festival garb, look up the street and communicate as men often do — by standing next to each other saying nothing. And the young girl concentrates on her performance as a majorette, baton in hand,…
These are two of a series of images from the Adults’ Parade — the culmination of the Christmas festival on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. If you enjoy a party, can find the shade, drink beer in the afternoon, and move to the earsplitting sounds of reggae, soca and calypso, you will like the Adults’ Parade and its genuine atmosphere of a…