Riding The Rails #1
digital imaging
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Beware The “Clow”
Abstract Ideas
… on… nuclear landscape….
“… radiation makes mutations…”
“… if they push that button… yo ass gotta go….”
… on… being… and… becoming….
Happy New Year everyone!
This is the time of year where people make resolution after pointless resolution. They are ALL a waste of time. I even overheard someone the other day say, “well I better make my New Years resolution – even though I know I will fail after 2 weeks.” This kind of futility will kill us – if not our body it will kill our soul. We need to stop talking like this. We need to stop committing to things we know we will fail at or have no true intention of completing. In addition to this we need to STOP looking to others for the changes we want to see.
It’s time to stop trying and start being!
BE the peace you want to see in the world.
BE the joy you wish others to have.
BE the happiness you seek.
BE the faith you want to see others convert to.
BE the acceptance you would want in others.
BE the tolerance you wish to see in others.
BE the kindness where you find it impossible.
BE the love that others cannot or will not give you.
BE.
Just BE.
When you find your being… you will find your becoming… a light to the world….
You need to understand “being” won’t be easy and you may suffer for it because others want you to be what they want not what you are. But it’s time to terraform this desert that has become humanity. You are all Desert Roses – bloom free for the world to see. It’s a new year with 365 brand new days.
Your music moment today is provide by Sting – “Brand New Day” the title track from the album BRAND NEW DAY. May it give you the energy you need to start to bloom in this new year. 🙂
… on….
l82k4ty spl8t
… on… winter….
Winter has been a favorite season of mine for a long long time. The things I always liked about winter were the cold, ice, snow and wind…. But winters have been milder (thanks to climate change) so I find them less enjoyable than previously. Looks like we’ll have a “green” Christmas – for at least the fifth year in a row…… I remember when Christmas’s were always “white” with snow. Oh well, that’s life. Last week we had some snow so I was able to get out and enjoy it for the couple of days it lasted. Today’s image is proof of that.
When winter comes
Its cold dark embrace beguiling
We search for warmth
Wind howls coldly
Wrapped in sweaters of warmth
Hide in hovels
Winters Solstice
Boldly we soldier on
Bring On The Night
Light only flickers
Dancing a tarantella
A dark long night-scape
In the northern hemisphere Christmas is also closely aligned with the Winter Solstice – the darkest time of the year when days are short and nights are long (unlike my friends in the southern hemisphere where this is the beginning of summer).
In honor of the Winter Solstice here is some music by the underrated Tin Hat Trio. The track is titled THE LONGEST NIGHT from their recording Book Of Silk.
… on… Cy Twombly….
One of my favorite abstract artists is Cy Twombly – especially his “scratch” or “scribble” works, like the “Blackboard Series” with the notions of automatic writing, action, movement, simplicity, emotion and passion and how these all work together as a joyous expression of life and identity.
Where I found this artwork: Last Summer I decided to visit the Cleveland Zoo. I was hoping to get some nice pictures of animals but just like me trying to photograph people – my camera just said “no” to animals (mostly because the animals looked bored, unhappy or sickly – so JUST SAY NO to ZOOS! There has to be a better way to learn about exotic animals). Okay so enough about my newly developed political viewpoint toward zoos.
Now, onto the main topic of this post. I did find a couple of other cool things on the zoo grounds. One thing was this blackboard outside the Ape Exhibit where visitors (animal or human) could take a piece of chalk and write, draw or mark up what ever they felt like.
ODE 2 CY TWOMBLY 1
ODE 2 CY TWOMBLY 2
I like both presentations of this work and even if they are the exact image the processing completely changes it and I think they are very complimentary side by side and in the spirit of Cy Twombly’s work – which is why I titled them “ODE TO CY TWOMBLY”. I hope you enjoy.
For the music part of this post I decided to include one of my new finds that I dearly enjoy. The composer is Canadian born Mark Templeton. He composes experimental/abstract/noise/glitchy/ambient music. I hope you like this selection, “Pattern For A Pillow” which is from his 2007 recording STANDING ON A HUMMINGBIRD.
For more on Mark Templeton you can check out his website at http://www.fieldsawake.com
…on …bottom,top & middle….
Catfish wallows in pond’s bottom
Bird flies through heaven
Me on land holding both together in enjoyment.
Bottom forms origin of life
Top forms life’s transcendence
Middle unites both in experience
For all my readers and followers – Life is better with you
– thanks for all your support over the years.
….on never taking another photograph….
So, here’s the truth. I like to create. It’s no secret that I have no desire to be a professional photographer. Wedding, party’s, people, journalism, marketing, or industrial work is just not my “thang”. And if the truth be know I may never need to take another photograph as long as I live. As long as I have a computer and I strip down, tear apart, reassemble and create new things from the images I’ve already taken there really is not reason to take another photograph. As you already know I call my process “visual glossolalia”. It’s a term I’ve stuck to for years now and still best describes (at least in my mind) my process for my creations.
Here is a recent photograph. An abstract look at a broken down sign from an abandoned gas station. I called it BROKEN LANDSCAPE. Pretty straight forward.
But then what happens when I start taking the image apart and reapplying it on a blank digital canvas. Well here are two of the results. I’ve printed these on metal and they look very nice together. The dark image is titled NIGHT VISIONS and the light one is titled THE MORNING AFTER.
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- NIGHT VISIONS
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- THE MORNING AFTER
Again these two images both came from the one photograph. And there is still more I could do with that including a completely different design which I may do at some later point. So do I really need to take any more photos? I could actually just sell my camera and just create new things from my catalog of thousands of photographs. At any rate. Hope you enjoy these.
Conform to Deform
[fyi – this is a repost from my previous blog from 11/2012]
CONFORMIST PARALLAX
Another abstract creation derived 3 manipulated images taken during a walk along the towpath through an industrial area in Akron, Ohio. With Sunday normally being associated with conformist religion. It seems the perfect day to promote nonconformism. 😉 Be yourself.
Of course the key to all ideas is finding balance. It is possible to bend without losing ones identity. Balance and flexibility. Being able to absorb the questions, criticisms and observations of others without offense or fear will make us strong.
“The green reed which bends in the wind
is stronger than the mighty oak
which breaks in a storm.” – Confucius
“The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over.” – Aesop
Feyd-Rautha: [whispers] You see… your death… my blade will finish you.
Paul Atreides: [thinks] I will bend like a reed in the wind.
– From the movie DUNE
“It would be easier to roll up the entire sky into a small cloth than it would be to obtain true happiness without knowing the Self.” – The Upanishads
I went to a psychiatrist once. I was doing something that had become a pattern in my life, and I thought, Well, I should go talk to a psychiatrist. When I got in to the room, I asked him, “Do you think that this process could, in any way, damage my creativity?” And he said, “Well, David, I have to be honest: it could.” And I shook his hand and left. – David Lynch from his book, CATCHING THE BIG FISH
“Sometimes restrictions get the mind going. If you’ve got tons and tons of money, you may relax and figure you can throw money at any problem that comes along…. But when you have limitations, sometimes you come up with very creative, inexpensive ideas.” – David Lynch from his book, CATCHING THE BIG FISH
Cabaret Voltaire – DIFFUSION from the original 1985 recording “GASOLINE IN YOUR EYE and also the collection CONFORM TO DEFORM’82/’90. ARCHIVE;
... on being and becoming ... 