July 12, 2020
Light Etchings has undergone an update, a revision, from what I sensed as a scatter-shot approach to my art. The path to change has been cleared in part by paying more attention to the current vogue of personal expressive photography, the writings of Guy Tal, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder and others, message exchanges with Nathan Wirth, and serene images by the likes of William Neill and Margaret Soraya. However, I doubt any of these experiences would have much of an artistic impact without my basic love of and closeness to Nature. I don’t need a camera in order to go outside on a summer night and listen to chirping insects or be still and hear the cacophony of morning bird calls. Not many days pass without my admiring a tree and being in awe of its energy flows, its communications and its strength. The vast openness of the Wyoming plains still calls to me. It’s a state of being and wonder. However, I cannot discount a general growth into the arena of art and creativity as well. You will note the Levi-Strauss-attributed comment on my Home page: Arts are the wilderness areas in the imagination, surviving like national parks in the midst of civilized minds. Finding and exploring the wild areas remains a challenge, perhaps akin to musicians exploring counterpoint and improvisation in pursuit of a composition, and will hopefully be reflected in the future of Light Etchings. At this point there has been a reframing of gallery topics, a reduced emphasis on place and hopefully a more personal expressiveness with a goal of greater artistic closeness to Nature. Furthermore, I will periodically rotate my displayed images while keeping the overall presentation uncluttered. As an aside, It is easy to lament that this process arrives in late septuagenerism (I created that word), but better late than never as the aphorism goes. Change will be an on-going growth process as the personal comes into sharper focus. Fortunately, I’m an INFP and an iconoclast too, so change is inevitable.
Perhaps to my detriment I will not be posting on Facebook; my split with Mr Zuckerberg is permanent. I will occasionally post on Instagram. Yes, I know who owns that platform, but I am yet to see the level of discourse that plagues Mr. Z’s other behemoth. I said “occasionally” because I’ve learned the hard way that images should incubate awhile before being presented on social media - or on one’s website.