light and shadows

shadows of squares -9

wabi-sabi … the beauty within the transition of summer’s fading light to autumn’s slumbering shadows

“We crossed it in a boat, and it is the Province of Sagami. The mountain range called Nishitomi is like folding screens with good pictures. On the left hand we saw a very beautiful beach with long-drawn curves of white waves. There was a place there called Moro-koshi-ga-Hara (Chinese Field) where sands are wonderfully white. Two or three days we journeyed along that shore. A man said: ‘In Summer pale and deep Japanese pinks bloom there and make the field like brocade. As it is Autumn now we cannot see them.’ But I saw some pinks scattered about blooming pitiably. They said: ‘It is funny that Japanese pinks are blooming in the Chinese field.'” *

*Trans: AS Omori and K Doi. The Sarashina Diary, AD 1009-1059 Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan

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shadows of squares -8

wandering through an alley’s shadows and light…

The magic of photo walks undertaken with an intention to be open to the silent, “see me.”

The desire of seeing and escaping from preconceived labeling and private musings.

Wakens one from blinding concepts of the mundane to the uniqueness created by light and shadow.

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shadows of squares -6

The Art of the Egg or the Egg and I

“It occurred to me that I have done an awful lot of egg drawings and paintings. Not quite sure why. It is a subject I use in my drawing classes quite frequently and I tell my students that if they can draw an egg, they can draw anything. It is like a little creature, a tiny model – and symbolic of so much: new life, fertility, possibilities … It is the perfect shape to to practice tone and get the 3-D effect. Some love this exercise; some will never look at an egg again!”*

*Catherine Wells,
Director, Pointe-St-Charles Art School

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shadows of squares -5

In Adelbert von Chamisso’s, Peter Schlemihl, Peter the title character of the 1814 novella, sells his shadow to the Devil for a bottomless wallet, only to find that a man without a shadow is shunned by human societies. Later when the devil wants to return his shadow to him in exchange for his soul, Schlemihl rejects the proposal and throws away the wallet. After this he seeks refuge in nature and travels around the world in scientific exploration, with the aid of seven-league boots.*

Schlemihl finds reconciliation with others as they care for him during a long illness and he no longer searches for his shadow. After he recovers, he returns to his scientific studies and in time develops a deep harmony with both nature and his personal self.

*Seven-league boots are an element in European folklore. The boots allow the person wearing them to take strides of seven leagues per step, resulting in great speed. The boots are often presented by a magical character to the protagonist to aid in the completion of a significant task.

Asked which book by another author he would most like to claim as his own work, Italo Calvino once said without hesitation, Adelbert von Chamisso’s Peter Schlemiel. First published in 1814, this brilliant novel is not only a precursor of Poe, Kafka, and the magic realists – it is a timeless fable with a remarkably contemporary flavor.

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shadows of squares -3

light and shadow…ongoing movements … playfully evolving … never ending … story-ing nature’s transitions of … light touching objects … creating shadows … forming … redefining … altering … narrating reconciliations of opposites.

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