Labyrinth at Mt. Washington

Estate Mount Washington in the lush tropical hills of northwest St. Croix contains the ruins of an old sugar plantation and rum factory. The current owners have cleared the bush from around the ruins and invite visitors to come explore the park-like grounds. Amid the ruins is a labyrinth. All are encouraged to walk it in contemplation and thanks. A labyrinth is an ancient…

Pointers in Red and Green

If there were such a thing as compass points within the picture frame, both of these images would be pointing off to the north-northeast. But they seem to be pointing to something else, too.

A Blood-Red Sea

Living so close to and surrounded by the sea, one develops a relationship with it — probably not unlike the relationship desert dwellers have with the desert, or forest dwellers with the forest. This awareness of place can help us be more attuned to messages from the world around us, and sometimes even feel its joys and pains.

A Feast of Fruit for the Eyes

Each summer, the local botanical garden hosts “Mango Melee”, a festival focused on mangoes and other tropical fruit. Many of these fruits are unusual in their texture and flavor, and unfamiliar to those of us used to the apples, grapes, peaches and pears more common in the temperate regions. Some tropical fruits are a bit sour, others cloyingly sweet, some firm and crunchy, some…

Visual Sorbet

The newly painted walls of Fort Christiansvaern beg to be abstracted. As I worked with these pictures, I began to view them as visual sorbet, or palate cleansers for the eyes that appeal to the senses without carrying any other message. Abstractions that lack any implicit social or emotional message may be a cop-out, or art-lite. On the other hand, perhaps their straightforward appeal…

Tethered

To be tethered is to be restrained, tied down, prevented from moving about freely. And that can feel uncomfortable to those of us whose moving about is usually unrestricted. However, some actions, when totally unrestrained or untethered, can trample the rights of others. So being tethered can also refer to being grounded, in touch with reality, one’s actions balanced by consideration for others and…

Head to Toes

People can be interesting from all angles. I was listening to a scratch band playing at a benefit in the forest when the man in front of me removed his hat. The graphic image created by his orange shirt and glistening scalp totally distracted me from my intended goal of getting some images of the musicians. A similar thing happened with the dancing woman…

A conundrum of sorts

The past few months I’ve been puzzling over the tension that sometimes occurs between the content and subject matter of an image, and its more abstract qualities of composition, color and design. Ideally, the two should complement each other, with the design qualities strengthening the emotional impact of the subject matter — and vice versa. However, I have found that is not always the…

Almost abstract

These two almost-abstracts are a little change of pace. The first started as a door in a yellow stucco wall, and the second as a broken guardrail near one of my favorite beaches. But those reference points are largely irrelevant now. It is interesting how non-representational art can demand both more and less of the viewer. Abstracts have the potential to become eye-candy —…

1961 Plymouth

This classic was built at the end of an era of unusual excess in automobile design — the period of flamboyant fins, rocketship tail lights, and copious chrome. This had been a police cruiser, and was restored in that manner with one of the dual headlights converted to a red flasher. Even in this earlier time, cars had become such an integral part of…

A suburban maze

What is at this glass corridor’s end? Is it the door to the vault where the secrets are kept? Or is it a way out, and with the right spin of the red dial the door will swing open? Or, is it the secret red button that when pushed will launch next wave to resolve the crisis? Whatever it is, I am not sure…

Carbon Seam and Palm Lights

The dead trunk of a palm plant washed up on the shore. At one end was the tangle of roots joined to the base of the trunk. At the other, the spiraled remains of where the living palm fronds had been attached subtly tailed off into fibrous strands. These two semi-abstracts are interpretations of each end of this single object that had washed ashore.