Leaves and Branches, Photography and Confinement
During the year 2020, in the city, unable to travel and photograph as I normally would, I turned towards my window which looks out over a small terrace and some tight spaces with trees to find something. Spring leaves, fresh and green on the branches became my immediate inspiration. Never mind the confinement and lack of open space, I found what I wanted. Here, closed in between buildings, I held my camera in such a way to include an expansive backdrop of sky to contemplate infinite space.
Seashore
Bathers and surfers enjoy the beach, but the sea is changing and soon enough summer will end. As August turns to September, summer lingers. Every day the sky is darker earlier. Eventually the memory of summer will emerge to remind us of the warm tranquility from the past, one that stays with us into the coldest darkest days.
Seasons Changing
Spring and Summer are warm and hopeful. There is an ease with which we look forward to Fall and then anticipate Winter, and especially Winter’s end. The pattern of the seasonal cycle has been persistently steady. That expectant security depends upon nature’s reliability. Now the system is disrupted by climatic changes. Certainty is unlikely; peace of mind is lost. There are so many elements missing as we gauge the future. Realize this: what is missing is the point.
Carrie Haddad Gallery is pleased to present “Bold Little Beauty”, an exhibit of painting and drawing by gallery artists Julia Whitney Barnes, Linda Newman Boughton, Sue Bryan, Shawn Dulaney, Susan Hope Fogel and photography by Betsy Weis. The exhibit will be on view April 6 – May 30th with an opening reception for the artists on Saturday, April 9th from 5-7pm. All are encouraged and welcome to attend. Masks are optional but recommended.
In her poem “May Flower”, the poet Emily Dickinson uses simple yet powerful language to convey how a small, pink flower, “covert in April, candid in May”, embodies humanity’s relationship with nature and time. With a single line, Dickinson elevates the physical to the symbolic, reminding us that we all have access to spring, new life, beauty, and unity with the natural world since it resides in one’s soul. The final stanza imparts that nature is “bedecked” by such “bold little beauties”; it is made up of tiny different lives, all of which are valuable and beautiful. And yet we are all destined to bloom, fade and die; to perpetuate a cycle that is at once hopeful and tragic. The work of these six artists is the visual manifestation of Dickinson’s sentiment as we consider our relationship with not only the natural world, but also with humanity. These artists are unified by an open-hearted approach to synthesizing their connectedness to nature, all the while exploring its complexities and embracing its simplicities.
from Carrie Haddad Gallery website http://www.carriehaddadgallery.com/index.cfm?method=Exhibit.CurrentExhibit