Filed under: drawing | Tags: autumn, beauty, brokenness, complete, dead trees, drawing, fall, gloaming and dawn, God, hope, jon foreman, redemption, spring, summer, wholeness, winter
i had some more thoughts to add to my previous post … so i’ve called this the addendum.
i’m going to post another drawing to help illustrate some more thoughts more aptly. this was the first drawing i did in the dead tree series. it may look familiar …
jon foreman, anyone?
again, this image was achieved by doing the actual drawing and then taking a photo of that drawing using lighting to add to the overall aesthetic. once the photo is on the computer, i touch it up using some simple software. this method suits me well because my drawing skills leave much to be desired and it allows me to be creative in other areas of media.
the above drawing was something i did from scratch … that is, you will not find this tree anywhere, as far as i know. but apparently the design of the tree and its shadow are not completely original, as they look uncannily similar to the cover of jon foreman‘s fall ep. this was an honest “mistake” but i think it points to something that resonates in me …
long before i knew of jon foreman’s “ep-for-every-season” project, i had envisioned a photo project based on the four seasons. i had (as i believe i discussed in the previous post) thought about finding a place of particular beauty, and taking a picture during every season, showing the beauty of each setting. scrambler and i recently discussed these things. he articulated it more perfectly than i ever could … and i won’t even try to regurgitate what he said word for word, for fear of butchering it, but … it revolved around the idea that through the seasons the tree’s appearance will change … it will look different, but it is still the same tree … beautiful in its own way in all four seasons.
the fours seasons illustrated through trees …
i love the change of seasons. i think i would grow tired of a place that didn’t have them. i crave the wholeness of the year. times of sunshine and warmth. times of gray and cold. times of dry and of wet. there are times the weather suits my mood. there are also times when the weather dictates my mood. i suppose it is the same as movies and literature, and other forms of stimuli. this really is a poor attempt to articulate these thoughts of mine, but i shall continue nonetheless.
complete.
we like the idea of complete. each season complements its predecessor and successor. gloaming and dawn complete the day. we say things “complete us” … referencing the fact that we are, in fact, incomplete in our current state. we hear a piece of music that ends on something other than the root chord of the key … this deceptive cadence, as it is referred to in music, leaves the listener on the edge of his or her seat, waiting for the chord and piece to be resolved or redeemed by the root … this makes us uncomfortable … this “incompleteness” of the song.
we like stories that resolve, and we marvel at our stories of “incompleteness” and brokenness being resolved and redeemed by our Maker. we’ve been shown all around us glimpses of His work, which is a great mystery, but one that offers hope of change, wholeness, and even beauty in every season.
cheers.
Filed under: music | Tags: anticipation, autumn, beauty, cinematic, Creation, death, fall, hope, iceland, leaves, life, lightning, lovely, sigur ros, snow, spring, storm, summer, thunder, winter
in past writings about their catalog, i have waxed obsessive about the beauty and cinematic quality in the music of sigur ros. that, if one takes time to listen; takes time to drop everything, close their eyes, and give full attention to the music, it will produce images of beauty in your mind’s eye. perhaps this is a bit lame, or a bit over the top, but not if you ask me … which you haven’t, but i will be telling you nonetheless.
a little more than a year and a half ago i could often be found on the wooded trails of oregon ridge regional park in hunt valley, md. i would go for trail runs over the dirt trails riddled with rocks, pebbles, and overgrown roots, careful to not twist an ankle as i gingerly ran, trying to keep a taxing pace. other days when i lacked the energy, i would just walk the trails, careful to notice something new each time. through all four seasons, weather permitting, i would visit the park. i loved noticing the difference from particular places of interest in the park from one season to the next. a towering oak tree, bursting with green life in the summer, would be reduced to a mere skeleton whose bones would rattle in the strong northwest gusts after a cold front comes through. songbirds, whose voice once absent from the snowy forests, have come back for the thaw, singing their songs in the anticipation of spring. the more i think about it, i believe that i am a seasonal, migratory creature as well … maybe not so much in the physical sense, but definitely mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. the seasons seem to elicit very raw emotions within me. as i feel something in me dying, fall and the glorious colors of death that come with it resonate deep in my soul. the winter closes its moribund curtain and the lights go down on nature’s theater … an act break if you will … but soon, soon the stage will come to life once more. as i mentioned with the birds earlier, spring brings strong anticipation with it … the hope of life reborn. as summer incrementally bakes and soaks the earth, bringing heatwaves and raging thunderstorms down from heaven, autumn prepares once more to paint the landscape in gold, orange, and red.
/leaves laid to rest, begin their colorful dance/
/green to gold, gold to brown/
/brown to air, air to ground/
/scattered to every wind/
the cycle continues, paying no mind to us as we take these changes for granted. we are all in cycles and seasons … listen and look to Creation, though broken, it’s beauty points to something whole. appreciate the similarities of our lives with the life of this lovely earth.
on to the song … i would ask you to keep the change of seasons in mind as you listen … close your eyes and drink in the beauty.
Filed under: drawing | Tags: bruised reed, dead tree, hope, pain, smoldering wick, vulnerability
all this talk of green trees drying up and dry trees flourishing … and now bruised reeds not being broken. i’ll make no attempt to hide how i feel in this blog … and lately, i’ve felt fragile.
at times, i’ve felt as though i’ve been close to breaking. until the last couple of days, confusion has reigned in my heart and mind. i’ve been unsure of where it is i want to go, what it is i want to do. admitting these kinds of feelings is not always easy … i think many of us put on a facade of strength; of toughness … of being bigger than we actually are, forgetting the reality of how fragile we can be …
we are dry trees, thirsting for water. we are the low tree, susceptible to dangers the high tree knows not. we are bruised reeds, showing every sign of breaking in the gale … we are smoldering wicks, on the verge of being extinguished … we don’t see ourselves this way … we see ourselves as the high tree, stately and distinguished, standing straight in the strongest gusts … we see ourselves as white hot fire, showing no signs of being snuffed out. i guess until we reach points along the way where our counterfeit strength is peeled back by adversity, we don’t see ourselves as we ought. the pain comes in the peeling back of the counterfeit layers of strength, and freedom is achieved when the last layer is peeled away revealing a vulnerable being. but as freeing as this vulnerability may be, it is scary.
that said, i am scared shitless, but energized. energized and hopeful.
i feel like this post petered out here at the end, but i would implore you to take another look at the drawing above …
cheers.
Scattered toward every wind ... 
