Beauty

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. Marcus Aurelius.

I have just come home from a short visit with family out of state. Our visit cemented the fact that my love of nature came from both my mom and dad. We canoed, back packed, swam in the ocean and camped most summers. This emersion in nature instilled a sense of beauty of that nature. Another sense, just something imbedded in my sub-conscious that I am able to draw upon to express in my art.  A wealth of subjects make this an easy style but as I have said before the depth of this subject makes this well of ideas very deep.

One of those family camping trips took my family on a hiking trip on the Appalachian trail in North Carolina. My parents with my five siblings backpacked and hiked for two weeks for a total of fifty five miles. Oh boy they were silly or courageous but we did have fun. I believe the oldest was thirteen and the youngest three or four. I myself would have been five caring the most important thing in my knapsack, toilet paper and toothpaste.

My dad had taught us if we ever felt like we would fall while hiking to lean back and fall on your butt.  As we were heading down a steep hill my youngest sister kept sitting down. She was small enough not to have anything to carry so it was puzzling why she was doing this.  Seems the bushes along the trail were wild blueberries and she was eating these along the way. I can still see her blue stained hands and lips from that day. I know family memories are strong for everyone but this one shows how we were allowed just to play in nature. Thank you mom and dad.

Today I want to share the beauty I see in my daily walks and travels. As my quote for the day says I do this to dwell on the beauty of life, nature and seeing that beauty in nature is life to me. I have no idea if I will ever use any of these photos in actual art work but it is my visual context. This context becomes my springboard. Yes I too can see myself running down that hillside and stopping to eat a few blueberries along the way.