monochrome madness: music

Pianos About Town is a community collaborative effort that brings art and spontaneous music to a community.  Donated pianos are transformed into whimsical painted pieces of art which are then placed in various outdoor locations about town…this form of interactive public art invites the creation of music as well as opportunities for photographers.

piano
music at the library

Pyrenees to Pennines invites photographers to join Leanne’s Monochrome Madness challenge with our own musical offerings.

First blogged – August 18, 2015

lens artists: perfect pairs

This week Albatz Travel Adventures (Elizabatz) invites photographers to offer examples of diptych, two images placed in proximity to one another, forming a pair. She notes: “to make a successful pairing there should be several things in common, and something very different, contrasting”.

I wish to thank Elizabeth for introducing me to the word diptych. Earlier this week, I also became acquainted with the word, polyglots, “individuals who can speak several languages – usually having a grasp of at least somewhere between 3-5 languages.

lens-artists: delicate

Today life feels exceptionally delicate.

Relationships are delicate

The wings of the butterfly are delicate. Their wings are made up of thousands of scales that can fall off if touched. Without these scales to protect their wings, the underlying tissue can tear, preventing them from flying. The scales are unable to regrow once damaged.

Migrating is delicate. Each fall, millions of monarch butterflies migrate from Canada to Mexico. The monarch migration is a brilliant demonstration of nature’s ingenuity, but the delicate creatures face many perils, and the number of migrating monarchs is declining sharply.

Peace is delicate.

Submitted for this week’s lens-artists challenge: delicate

life’s passages … 103

over the fields of

last night’s snow–

plum fragrance.

                                                                                      ~Okano Kin’emon Kanehide*

plums and raindrops
a spring rain shower

*cited:

Japanese Death Poems

Yoel Hoffmann

 

life’s passages … 102

shapes-42web

Imagine the dimension of time as a vertical line. Place yourself in the present on that line with the past above you and the future below you. Establish yourself in time. See all your ancestors that have come before you. The youngest generation of your ancestors is your parents. All of them are above you on this line of time. Then below you, see all your dependents, your children, your grandchildren, and all their future descendants. If you have no children, your descendants are the people you have touched in your life, and all the people they in turn influence. 

In you are both your blood ancestors and your spiritual ancestors. You touch the presence of your father and mother in each cell of your body. They are truly in you, along with your grandparents and great-grandparents. Doing this, you realize their continuation. You may have thought that your ancestors no longer existed, but even scientist will say that they are present in you, in your genetic heritage, which is in every cell of your body. 

plums

Look into a plum tree. In each plum on the tree there is a pit. That pit contains the plum tree and all previous generations of plum tree. The plum pit contains an eternity of plum trees. Inside the pit is an intelligence and wisdom that knows how to become a plum tree, how to produce branches, leaves, flowers, and plums. It cannot do this on its own. It can only do this because it has received the experience and heritage of so many generations of ancestors. You are the same. ~Thich Nhat Hanh (No Death, No Fear, 137-138)

baseballcaps3

This posting  was created in memory of Dustin, Bob, Elberta, Donna, Chris, Larry, Margaret, Thella, John, Clive, and Jeff who all live on within the lives of my beloved.

life’s passages … 101

How invisibly

it changes color

in this world,

the flower

of the human heart.

                              ~Ono no Komachi*

rose

 

“… our ordinary vision is limited, and…our conventional consensus of reality is not the only version of reality.

The complex multidimensionality of the modern world no doubt contributes to the constructive habit of the mind that, in its attempt to provide meaning, continually rearranges the world to fit individual needs.  The failure to recognize the constructive nature of the mind can be a major obstacle to artistry and creativity.  Conversely, understanding the constructive nature of the mind and reality can lead the way to Great Understanding in the art of photography and in the art of living.” (61)**

cited:

*The Ink Dark Moon

Trans: Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratant

**Tao of Photography

Philippe L Gross & S.I. Shapiro

life passages … 99

Is my mind elsewhere

Or has it simply not sung?

Hototogisu*

~Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693)**

*Hototogisu, translated as cuckoo, wood thrush and sometimes nightingale.

The bird’s song is a strong but mournful cry.

It is said to die after singing 8,008 times.

It is also known as the “bird of time,”

“messenger of death” and “bird of disappointed love,”

and flies back and forth from this world to the next.

Confucian axiom: If one’s mind is elsewhere, one will look but not see, listen but not hear

**cited in:

The Classic Tradition of Haiku

Edited by:  Faubion Bowers

life passages … 97

springrain2

“What is the cause of everything? …everything relies on everything else in order to manifest. A flower has to rely on non-flower elements in order to manifest. If you look deeply into the flower, you can recognize non-flower elements.  Looking into the flower, you recognize the element sunshine; that is a non-flower element. Without sunshine, a flower cannot manifest. Looking at the flower, you recognize the element cloud; that is a non-flower element. Without clouds, the flower cannot manifest. Other elements are essential, such as minerals, soil, the farmer and so on; a multitude of non-flower elects has come together in order to help the flower manifest.”

~Thich Nhat Hanh, No Fear, No Death