Calligraphy

21 Jan. 2013
A single crow perches in the top branches of a tree above the river.

 

26 Jan. 2013
Pigeons flock near the chimney of an abandoned church

 "All the world's a stage…" Are you strutting and fretting too? Are you managing to persevere and get through the winter of your discontent? Or just plain old winter? How do you manage it?

I wonder how birds do it. I could easily research the facts and those ARE interesting. But I like posing the question even more: Isn't winter long, lonely and cold for the birds? And their bony and scaly legs and toes that grip, lock and release with no insulation and are exposed to the sub-freezing elements 24/7.

26 Jan. 2013

A log is snagged on top of the dam 

and sheet of ice has formed below it

Yesterday, or maybe the day before, I was at the river taking note of the steadily advancing ice that seems intent on encasing the waterfall; it's been very cold for a week and this seems to threaten the steady flow of moving water. But instead, I was surprised by a flock of a dozen geese and about fifty mallards diving and dabbling in the open laminar flow below the bridge. I was bundled in layers of nylon, wool and fleece and they were diving for breakfast and acting like it was the middle of Summer.

I pass through these landscapes as if they are an imperfect mirror where I know that somewhere in them I can find myself and not feel alone. This is life and this is what we do: on the face of a beautiful Chaos, we seek some confirmation. On the paper of winter, the birds of winter write the fact of their existence and thence, I find a fragment of my own. In the faces and fact of loved ones I search for and write what is in my heart hoping for a similar confirmation. And in Art which is my calligraphic responses to Reality, I jot some statement regarding or even a cry to connect to what is outside of me and bring it to you.