Photography as Metaphor

Reaching higher

i love metaphor

like when rilke says “one moment your life is a stone in you, and the next, a star”

or mary oliver talks about “the fires and the black river of loss”

or “the generous pocket of his silence” that billy collins refers to

beginnings

balance

i’m always struck deeply by these creative comparisons and when i write poetry i’m always hoping that some powerful metaphors will be gifted to me.

clarity

looking up

 

photography is full of metaphor as well.  a single image can convey so many levels of meaning.  i’m practicing with this more and more as i post images on instagram and try to find just a few words that will deepen the meaning that is communicated 

life's journey

direction

next week i am teaching the 2^nd session of my contemplative photography class and it’s all about metaphor.  i’ve put together a presentation that contains some of these images, but i know i am only scratching the surface here…. i can’t wait to see what the other ladies come up with with their own images.  very powerful stuff!

reaching out

power

 p.s. we are slowly getting things back together over here, but still have projects to do... definitely cuts into my creative time, but it's all good!

 

Looking Beyond Chaos

are you organized??  i am by nature a pretty organized person.  i like things in their places.  i like lists.  i like to know where everything is.  i like to know what’s happening next.  basically, it makes me feel good to be on top of things.

 a kitchen remodel (partial, mind you!) wreaks havoc with all of that.  i knew that going in, but opted to do it anyway, so no one to blame but myself!  we thought about just leaving while all of this was going on, but that wouldn’t have worked at all.  every day issues come up.  decisions have to be made.  work needs to be examined.  work needs to be redone.  supplies have to be purchased.  it’s almost like a job.  so, no, not a good time to leave home! 

 i do find myself getting out of the house more than i normally would, however.  just to escape the noise and dust and constant presence of someone in my kitchen, limiting access to my familiar routines.  consequently, i feel totally removed from and behind on all the projects and creative work i am involved in.  not a happy situation for the inner organizer! 

 and all the mundane things that we do in a day take at least twice as long.  because nothing is where it should be.  and everything is a mess.  it’s a little déjà vu to when we had our flood 2 years ago.

so…. it’s a good time to test myself.  see if i can stay focused on my intentions, stay calm and present.  it’s a minor blip in the scheme of things, a temporary situation, and as everyone keeps reminding me… it will all be worth it in the end!

OK, here are some pics (but i so much prefer posting pics of the ocean....)

oops - didn't know I had to remove everything first!

 

 

  

 there's my light at the end of the tunnel....

Desert Magic

sometimes nature

does a little showing off

no holds barred

really lets it all hang out

 and every once in a while

we find ourselves lucky enough

to be witness

to such a show

 there’s something about the desert…

in winter

before, during or after a storm

it’s one of those special shows

 how grateful i am

to have been part

of such a performance

(pure magic....)

Outsider-ness

amongst the thorns, beauty can grow….

 have you ever felt like an outsider?  i’m pretty sure there is not a person on the planet who could answer no to that question.  for some it may be a rare experience though, while for others it may be much more pervasive.  and the associated emotions may run the range from slightly uncomfortable to heart-wrenching and everything else in between. 

 my friend soraya has some familiarity with this feeling and choose to devote a whole art journal to exploring it.  what she created in the process of doing that was something so special that, upon serious consideration, she decided to submit to art journaling magazine as a means to share with others.  apparently she struck a chord with her expression.  her work was gifted with the magazine cover as well as a 6 page spread inside.  you just never know! (gorgeous magazine btw!)

Way to go, Soraya!!

 as i was reading through her thought-provoking article i started thinking how we are all outsiders in one way or another.  it’s definitely part of the human experience.  we all have our issues and areas where we feel we don’t fit in.  take me for example.  while on the surface i appear pretty average.  caucasian.  middle class.  american citizen from birth.  ancestors from europe.  grew up in the midwest… 

 but i left that culture almost 40 years ago.  so when i visit i definitely feel like an “outsider”.  even more impactful though for me is the fact that i never had children. this often puts me in the category of outsider.  get a group of women together and what do they want to talk about?  well, nowadays it’s more grandchildren than their own kids, but you get the idea. 

 there are a lot of other things that put me in this position as well. as a child i struggled greatly at times with trying to fit in with the group.  i wasn’t as social as so many others (still am not) and at times that caused me a lot of grief.  (i sometimes just want to have a good heart to heart with my little girl self!)

 i really love the idea of exploring and even embracing our outsider-ness.  in some of my workshops we do an exercise called “i’m a little different” which is an attempt to isolate each person’s unique-ness (or outsider-ness) and then build that into some form of creative expression. 

  it’s cathartic.  and healing.  i plan to follow up on this idea in my own journaling and pass it on to the girls i am working with.  thank you soraya, for bringing it all out into the open!