Saturday, March 19, 2016

March 20, 2616

March 20, 2616

   All images are mine unless otherwise noted.

   To see photos full screen click on any image.

   There is always another avenue of exploration as we express our creative nature. Since my last post I have been working on images and introducing texture in a new and for me different way. Working with digital photographs and moving toward bringing to life images that have their origin in the camera has been a challenge, and of late a satisfying way to work at this point in my creative growth. 

    This approach, as will working with any vehicle of creativity, brings with it a new set of problems and pitfalls that need to be be at least partially resolved. This is a gift as thinking I have reached any goal with the medium would inevitably bring boredom or an overly inflated sense of accomplishment. 

    I just saw a documentary about Beethoven's Nine Symphonies done by Simone Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Sir Rattle stated that the way he thought of these symphonies twenty years ago is not how he interprets them today, and twenty years from now it will be different as well. Things in the digital image realm move a little faster, but the approach is the same. As we mature so does our viewpoint as new insights arrive from the heart, the vessel that holds our creative and artistic nature. We become more comfortable and secure within the process that unfolds as we exercise our powers of observation, paying attention to what is emerging from our interior life. 

   Let me know what you think of the images.

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All Winter the seemingly dead trees hold a secret,
inside each hard case that will become a new leaf in Spring,
life waits for its time to explode into the miracle 
that is birth, a reincarnation arriving again in a new Season.



As tugboats move from their moorings 
to retrieve the waiting ships and bring them into port,
Spring starts Her engines, heads to all that is waiting
to emerge and become the arriving beauty of new life.


A partial reveal of Spring is its beginning.
Slowly the countless leaves, flowers, show their faces,
as we welcome old friends back into the world once again.

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"Sunrise On Mars"

"Everyone's moving to Mars,
we're going to get a house and a car."

                                                                             From a song by Kiss.


Mars is not the only planet in the solar system.
(Or is this a billiard ball?)


Tulips, some of Spring's first arrivals,
are beginning to illuminate their petals
before pushing through the soil
in blazes of glory!

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   The following two images are a variation on the same photograph originally taken of an abandoned tractor engine a few days ago. I am hard pressed not to identify these images with the heart surgery I had last summer when I received a new ascending aorta. I am tempted to send these to the surgeon and ask if this is what he saw once my heart was in sight. 






Full recovery of vitality and heart's blazing passion for life
along with surgeries scars. 

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Spring infiltrates Winter's barrenness with abandon.




This one is for you the viewer to give a name.

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   A pair of bald eagles have taken residence in Washington D.C.'s National Arboretum and two cameras were put in place at their nest site. Mom and one chick so far are visible both day and night (special lights for night that do not disturb the birds.) 

   Please take a look as this is a special "good news" item for a change.

          Click here - http://www.eagles.org/dceaglecam/

   
      Some Humor:

  The well-appointed eagle nest with child

Until next post,

    Peace.   Bill Lagerstrom














Thursday, March 3, 2016

March 3, 2616

March 3, 2616

All images are mine unless otherwise noted.

To see images full screen click on any photo.

   This week we had a particularly foggy day so I went out and took most of the photos in this post in this weather with the exception of the first two which are in Acadia from last weekends trip. The first three images are a part of my interest in painting in Photoshop using photographs as the base from which to create something from. I am enjoying this new direction where using the camera and software as tools to produce images that invoke something that is perhaps mysterious in nature, and painterly as the overall effect. 

    Once again I am moved by the endless versatility of the digital medium to create something more than mere snapshots. We live in a remarkable age where so much is available for use in being creative in whatever medium we choose. It is somewhat scary though as I consider I have really only utilized a rather small portion of the tools available to me. Then again, I have all that I need for where I am and where I am going at this time. It is far better for me to pick up a new avenue of approach and become comfortable with its effects before I look for something else. 

                    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    "Creativity, as it has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know, Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted." 

                                                                                                                 George Kneller

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One tree in the forest each time I visit stands out -
 a display of personality perhaps ....
The lesson is clear, when we have something beautiful to offer,
let us not hide it in a musty closet
unseen by anyone including ourselves. 


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The house stands on the edge of the ocean,
protected by trees playing Nature's music
as the wind blows through their branches.
The sound of wind in the trees 
pleases the ear that stops and listens.





 "Out of synch"

(Left leg, right leg are the only clues I offer.)


   It was bound to happen - living in the most heavily treed state in the country
I was due to find one of the ugliest trees anywhere. I won a prize for catching the ugliest fish on a fishing trip once (my buddies gave me a mackerel), so do I get a prize for spotting this beauty? 

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                   Four images of fog taken on my return from Belfast, Maine.

   






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Some humor:


   Peace until next post,

                  Bill Lagerstrom










Saturday, February 13, 2016

February 14, 2016

February 14, 2016

All photos are mine unless otherwise noted.

To see images full screen click on any photo.

     It has been a month of busyness which is my only excuse for not sending out a post earlier. We had a week of intensive training to start the process of becoming docents at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville Maine, and a week's trip to NYC to see the family there along with our granddaughter Maddie who is now 1 1/2 yrs old. 

    I am adding numbers to each of the photos for identification to be used as I send a few people a different slant on the images then I dialog here. Please ignore them unless you want more info in which case please email me. 

   Photos 3-8 were taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art during our trip to NYC. Then there are two images of Queens, the borough where we visited family. 

                                                -----------------------------------------

    Here is a listening refuge called "Returning Home." Take a listen"

                     https://app.box.com/s/e44b032ab4c2ab7f4d03



1.               Flight Time

Beyond the borders of the Turning,
In the pivot point of here and There,
Lies the Truth We Seek.
Go to that Center, draw a line though its axis,
Then unfold the wings of your soul,
And soar to the Arms of Love.

The home of departure to the Heaven’s,
Lies midway between our soul and self.
All maps that lead to Love’s Embrace,
Are there, in the center of the heart,
          in the core of the soul.

                                                  Bill Lagerstrom 
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2.                                                    "Painting the Museum"

Taken at Colby College Museum of Art.



3.                                                The body pose is the same,
one a stance of beauty the other one of boredom.
(The start of a long day at the Museum.)



4.                                                              Illumination

All these canvases, painted in the 1300's,
still, after so many centuries
are illuminated from within
with a sacred light that continues to shine.

The Eternal Light has been caught by a graced few -
it flows through their hearts into willing hands
holding brush and paint to reveal Creation's Gifts, for all time.
Look carefully at this rare quality of light
not seen too often in this age of busyness.



5.                              The sources of illumination take many forms.



6.


7.                                   Wonder and awe without the overlays
that the world imposes without stopping for a breath. 



8.                                                 "Coming out of Egypt"

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9.                               "Abandon all beauty all who enter here."

Instead of paying the ferryman at the river Styx before entering hell,
here one buys a Metrocard at a machine in order to ride. 

(AKA, The Jaws of the Great Subway Monster.)



10.                                             Highway - Queens, N.Y.C.




11.                               One of our granddaughter Maddie's toys. 
We made a flower during an enjoyable moment.

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Some humor:

  In this age it might be worth considerations before marrying a concept artist:




Peace until next post,

            Bill Lagerstrom