Fall in July
29th July 2020
I have been doing not much visual work for a while. Swimming (thankfully) in this hot Summer weather, while watching the birds and the sky -- as close as I can get to flying.
But then again, this morning I opened files to review my visits to the Arnold Arboretum and found this piece from October 2019. It is a pretty foliage composite but at the time I didn't think it had much going on. So I made an intuitive choice of placing colored snowflakes in the sky, projecting forward a few weeks when the color will have flown away to a New England season of cold and grey. Or whatever.
Of course, now a lifetime from then I am seeing something different in the spiky symmetry of the innocent flakes.
And perhaps I should not think so much.
Fast forward 7 months. A beautiful day in May. But what is off with this picture?
Got it - a child wearing a mask in this pristine setting of the Arnold.
One of the things that changed after Covid arrived is that pre-C I always enjoyed the random and spontaneous conversations that would develop in the park. People relax and interact. Not so much these days. But on this morning a young sprite stopped to talk with me and I smiled (under my mask). Her grandmother is off stage right pushing a large baby carriage and wanting said sprite to move along home. Not the child's plan so eventually I encouraged her to go and explained in my typically interfering manner that her grandmother was working hard - pushing the baby in the heavy carriage and probably supplying drinks and snacks -- no picnic for she-who- should-be-obeyed. So the child scooted off with a parting wave and a "see you tomorrow."
But then again, this morning I opened files to review my visits to the Arnold Arboretum and found this piece from October 2019. It is a pretty foliage composite but at the time I didn't think it had much going on. So I made an intuitive choice of placing colored snowflakes in the sky, projecting forward a few weeks when the color will have flown away to a New England season of cold and grey. Or whatever.
Of course, now a lifetime from then I am seeing something different in the spiky symmetry of the innocent flakes.
And perhaps I should not think so much.
Fast forward 7 months. A beautiful day in May. But what is off with this picture?
Got it - a child wearing a mask in this pristine setting of the Arnold.
One of the things that changed after Covid arrived is that pre-C I always enjoyed the random and spontaneous conversations that would develop in the park. People relax and interact. Not so much these days. But on this morning a young sprite stopped to talk with me and I smiled (under my mask). Her grandmother is off stage right pushing a large baby carriage and wanting said sprite to move along home. Not the child's plan so eventually I encouraged her to go and explained in my typically interfering manner that her grandmother was working hard - pushing the baby in the heavy carriage and probably supplying drinks and snacks -- no picnic for she-who- should-be-obeyed. So the child scooted off with a parting wave and a "see you tomorrow."