Taking Wing With The Spirit

Thursday, August 22, 2013

August 22, 2013

August 22, 2013

(All photos are mine unless otherwise noted. Click on any photo to enlarge full screen.)

It's quite possible that this week's post could be considered to be a form of mindless abuse to all who view it. My apologies in advance as I woke up this morning feeling somewhat idiodic, but smiling to myself at my thoughts. You are most gracious in your kind understanding of this diversion from my usual posts of more serious content.

I have been ruminating on cows this morning and have come to the conclusion that they are part of the wildlife here in Maine, along with all our moose and squirrels, both red and gray. What has impressed me is the 100 year study of the evolution of a small group of cows that have occupied a field some five miles from where we live. The photographic record below clearly shows forward movement on the evolutionary track that cows as a local species have been following, as change, both physicial and social have occurred.

I offer the following first:

From the Merriam Webster Unabridged Dictionary

evo·lu·tion

noun \ˌevəˈlüshən also ˌēv- or -vəlˈyü-\

plural -s

1 a : a series of related changes in a certain direction : process of change : organic development : unfolding, movement, transformation <it should be remembered that even in the biological world, evolution is not always in the direction of progress — A.B.Novikoff>

>b (1) : a process of continuous change from a lower, simpler, or worse condition to a higher, more complex, or better state : progressive development : growth, progress

5 ……..

a …. the process by which through a series of changes or steps any living organism or group of organisms has acquired the morphological and physiological characters which distinguish it : the theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types, the distinguishable differences being due to modifications in successive generations — (AKA phylogeny)

:compare darwinism, heredity, mutation, natural selection, variation, weismannism

Related to EVOLUTION

Synonyms:

elaboration, development, expansion, growth, progress, progression

Antonyms: regress, regression, retrogression, reversion

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Photo from 1885:

Photo taken June 29, 2013

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Cows On Parade

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Here are two video clips - the first has cows telling their own take on evolution, the second has all barnyard animals in agreement with the cows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_EsxukdNXM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfmxx_72Coc

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"That's enough Bill! Your killing us!"

"Okay, as soon as I take a left into A Little Humor,

our weekly diversion."

Cows Evolving (These photos are from the Web)

Humans evolve also

Peace,

Bill Lagerstrom

Friday, August 16, 2013

August 14, 2013

August 14, 2013

Today I am pondering the relationship between visual clarity and suggested images that can be taken into myself as something being closer to the truth that exists in the wordless places deep within my core existence. A mouthful to be sure, but as I am applying these thoughts to what at times emerges as a different direction of interior sight, that place where only a felt sense of what is seen by the eyes is expressed and may perhaps only be described as abstraction takes place. I am thinking of the century and a half of impressionist and abstract art and photography we have been exposed to in our lifetimes.

Lately as I sit in front of the computer screen working on an image I find myself trying to express something more than just another finely crafted image. The tools for photographic imaging that are available are as vastly complex those available to any artist working in the many mediums of artistic endeavor, and I have moved out of a place where technique is overwhelming, it is becoming simply available to me. The learning process is endless and will always continue, and at this time taking in digital technique as applied to photography has become comfortable and most importantly, usable in trying to express what is emerging from my interior self. Let me say rather, emerging from the space where God's Spirit lives in the unknown but felt pockets of Light that are in all of us.

What follows in this post are recent photographs taken over the last two weeks which express for me something of what I sensed was my insight into what was visible in that present moment of time before the camera shutter was released. Abstract thoughts are impossible to express with clarity. How can one use words to describe an impression, a moment of seeing with the heart, a felt sense of what the Spirit's Wind brings as it blows through in a single moment of insight.

So, enough of words that are totally inadequate to describe what I am sensing as being a place of viewpoint that may be expressive in some way to you the viewer looking at my attempts to taking abstract feelings into a visual medium.

These thoughts are only mine and are in no way put forth as having any weight to speak of these things in a concrete way. Your patience with my meanderings is greatly appreciated.

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"Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world."

Rudolph Arndheim, Visual Thinking

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Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, August 2013.

(Something of a memory of pictures taken as a child with a cheap camera that had a plastic lens. Tourists run to this vantage point which does offer a magnificent view.)

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The inner self I believe mirrors the external five senses we use to know the world. The inner sense of hearing is one. Here is a tone poem by Jean Sibelius called The Swan Of Tuonela from Finlandia. Take a listen and allow the music to be heard with a different set of ears.

Click here:

https://app.box.com/s/em6e4wlnyb6el9n2stus

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Some Humor:

Peace and Serenity,

Bill Lagerstrom

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

August 7, 2013

August 7, 2013

(Please Read: Google has reintroduced the thumbnails at the bottom of the photos after you double click on any image. All photographs are mine unless otherwise noted.)

Below are photos taken this last Sunday at Acadia National Park during a late day visit somewhere around four PM. I will let them and the Akathist speak for themselves. The last photo is from the Farmsworth Museum in Rockland Maine taken in a hall staircase while I was waiting for Lee to come out of the gallery she was in. I believe it is a painting by N.C. Wyeth. Sunday was a good day for us.

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The Akathist Hymn: "Glory to God for All Things"

Kontakion 2

O Lord, how lovely it is to be Your guest. Breeze full of scents; mountains reaching to the skies; waters like boundless mirrors, reflecting the sun's golden rays and the scudding clouds. All nature murmurs mysteriously, breathing the depth of tenderness. Birds and beasts of the forest bear the imprint of Your love. Blessed art You, mother earth, in Your fleeting loveliness, which wakens our yearning for happiness that will last forever, in the land where, amid beauty that grows not old, the cry rings out: Alleluia!

Ikos 2

You have brought me into life as into an enchanted paradise. We have seen the sky like a chalice of deepest blue, where in the azure heights the birds are singing. We have listened to the soothing murmur of the forest and the melodious music of the streams. We have tasted fruit of fine flavor and the sweet-scented honey. We can live very well on Your earth. It is a pleasure to be Your guest.

Glory to You for the Feast Day of life
Glory to You for the perfume of lilies and roses
Glory to You for each different taste of berry and fruit
Glory to You for the sparkling silver of early morning dew
Glory to You for the joy of dawn's awakening
Glory to You for the new life each day brings
Glory to You, O God, from age to age