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Posts Tagged ‘beauty’

Why “ethereal” as a title?  Well, I recently chanced upon a very short video of ballerina Janie Taylor dancing in designer Chloé’s “dance-inspired spring/summer 2011 collection.”  The dance was set to Philip Glass’s “String Quartet No. 3, ‘Mishima’: IV. 1962: Body Building.”  I enjoy much of what Philip Glass composes.  I have not been able to get the dance or the music out of my head.  On this windy day, I went for a walk in hopes that the movement and music would inspire me to photograph something sweeping, cascading, flowing, etc. In the end …

… nothing.  Not a single “sweeping” thing caught my attention.  I put away the camera and headed home, pausing just long enough at a market to purchase a few pieces of fruit.  At home, I placed the items on a side table figuring I’d put them away later.  Back at the computer, I hit play and repeat on that darn video, and began to outline a writing project.  But the wind kept rustling the plastic bag the fruit sat upon.  Frustrated, I got up and went to the table. With Philip Glass blaring in the background, I looked down and thought, “That’s it! That’s the shot.”  Anyway, that’s my story of this image and I’m sticking to it.  If you’re curious, click here for link to the video.

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The evening before attending my first bar mitvah (quite an honor!), I happened to photograph this setting sun.  So, the following day at the big event, as I read along in the prayer book, the phrase “creating light and fashioning darkness” stood out to me and made me think of this image.

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As a child I learned to find Orion’s Belt in the night sky.  But the star that mattered to me most was one whose name I still do not know with certainty.  It was the bright light visible above the neighbor’s house across the street.  Sometimes the speck would become lost in the canopy of the neighbor’s pear tree but inevitably at some point in some season its brightness shone.  My mother, who knew far more about the earth than about the heavens, would point it out to me.  With a smile, she always called it “Mama’s star.”  In the quiet of the night, she would stare up into that sky, at her star, letting her mind roam.  I’ve been lucky as an adult to travel the world and see the night skies from many different vantage points, and I feel lucky to live in an age when what I can’t see telescopes can capture beautifully.

By the way, these are not astronomy photographs.

While thinking about various things this morning, my eyes happened to fall upon the bowl of black sand I used for the recent shells photo shoot.  I suddenly, desperately wanted to try photographing something else against that sand, especially something red.  After deciding that using tomatoes would be bad (since I need them for dinner tonight), I searched and found some unopened tubes of glitter.  As I poured them out onto the sand, the sun made them sparkle like stars.  And thus the inspiration for this post.

Here’s NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

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work in progress by artist Zoe Langosy with characters Coyote, Columbine and Harlequin

work in progress by artist Zoe Langosy with characters Coyote, Columbine and Harlequin

Standing silent in the presence of others, while a friend describes the essence of your work?  It can be an illuminating, humbling experience.  That is what happened to me as collage artist Zoe Langosy described what she saw in some of my photographs.  “There are notes of nostalgia.  I am attracted to cut up stuff that has that dark edge. Through her photography Cynthia captures those parts of nature many people don’t see likes cracks in the ice on a frozen pond or the beauty of a dying flower.  Her images can make you stop, feel and reflect.  In her work, as in my own, there is a reminder that there are two sides to life.  That in order to find balance, we sometimes have to suffer.  The sun rises but it also sets and as a part of that arc there’s the dark beauty to be found at twilight.”  Zoe is currently at work on new pieces for upcoming shows.  As always, I’m honored that she has selected one of my images to use in a collage, in this case birch trees photographed near sunset at the Blue Hills Reservation.  The sun-touched bark will help to create the light in Harlequin’s outfit.

Harlequin, Columbine and Coyote are recurring characters in Zoe’s portfolio, androgynous, melancholic and hauntingly beautiful.  The patchwork of Harlequin’s outfit will also include bits of Japanese paper in dark blue with silver details that reminds Zoe of “a moonlit field at night.”  In the end her patchwork will convey a sense that Harlequin is outfitted in nature.

work in progress by artist Zoe Langosy

work in progress by artist Zoe Langosy

Learn more about Zoe’s works in progress and upcoming exhibits by following her on Facebook.  FYI, she will have several of her original pieces on display during NYC Fashion Week in just a few weeks.  Prints of her work (and her father’s) are available on Etsy.  Enjoy.

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a photo taken in the midst of summer

yet the colors seem a harbinger of autumn

I would not mind if time slowed just a bit 😉

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Jen Parrish gave me permission to visit her online sites to select images to use as illustration for her interview responses.  As I did with other interviewees in 2012, I asked Jen to share how music inspires her artwork.  Viewing her artwork inspired me.   I had only to see an item described as “Gothic architecture meets nature” to know how appropos it was that she and I met through an art and architecture department in a Romanesque church.

She is an elegant, soft-spoken woman with a piercing gaze and gentle words.  It took me a while to learn that she is also a renowned jewelry designer whose handcrafted pieces are worn by celebrities and other people around the world.  Without ever having seen Jen work firsthand, I have only to listen as she speaks about her work to feel her dedication to beauty.  I expect everyone who purchases one of her unique pieces must know they carry part of Jen, and more than a bit of world history, with them.  I am very grateful she responded to my questions.   Please read her interview here.  I think you’ll find both the words and images quite interesting.

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I was tempted to title this post, Cohabitation, since it is a bumblebee amidst “fairies,” as so many people have called the dandelion seeds.  But I decided to go with the name of the person who gave me the bumblebee.  She found it on the ground on her way into work and thought I might like to photograph it. 😉

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leaf litter

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A few flowers along a city path in Somerville.  Have a good Friday, folks.

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