The Arteest

The Arteest
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

There is a spot in my closet where a long forgotten collection of paper, books, pens and brushes reside. It’s been about 20 years since I have listened to their whispers.

“We are here, come take us down from this shelf, rediscover the simple pleasures we can bring....”

Recently the call became more insistent, harder to ignore. It did not help that a friend was exploring the world of sketching to try to improve his vision and take his photography to the next level.
Discussions over tea were no longer only about photography they were about pens, papers, methods and techniques.

So the books came down off the shelf, the pencils sharpened, the first furtive strokes on a blank piece of paper were taken.
Slowly the muscles of my hand remembered and the lines became more sure.

This weekend as I packed my photo gear for an outing, I packed pencils and a sketchbook.
Would I use them?
Well time would tell...

Doug provided the spark as he bravely put down his camera and found a spot overlooking the falls at Everton and took out his sketchpad.

I knew where I wanted to sit long before I arrived at this place, down by the outflow where there is a nice cedar stretching for the sun as it grows out of what seems like bare rock.

The pencils were chosen, a brand new sketchbook opened and time stopped...

I don’t know how long I sat there, listening to the water, the birds, the breeze and drawing all of it.
Doug was no help he was in his own world, Patrick was the same albeit with a camera.

Eventually, with a cold foot (it was in the river) and a numb bum from sitting on a rock too long I rejoined my companions for tea and chatter.

What a day, what a place, what a journey back in time to relive the simple joy of doing nothing ....

“When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college - that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?" ~Howard Ikemoto

Slash Dot

Slash Dot
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

Yesterday I went walking the trails with my friend Patrick.
Fighting off the mosquitoes yet again and looking forward to the open spaces where they were less aggressive.
A new trail for Patrick but not for me. It is somewhat daunting introducing someone to a new trail, you never know how they will react to it.
I shouldn’t have worried, I mean who can resist old cedars, ferns, sunlight slanting through the woods and a river close by? With photographic opportunities galore and the quiet peace of the woods.

I need those times, to leave the world of man behind and re-enter the other world, the one so many have forgotten about.
Here I find myself and the work-a-day world slips into the background, cares forgotten.
I may only be away for an hour or two but it is enough to keep me going until Wednesday when I start to plan again, ‘where to next weekend’? is the eternal question...
Yes a short walk in the woods especially with friends is enough for this world weary traveler.

We all should take the time to enjoy the little things, to find pleasure in finding those little things ...

"To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace". ~Milan Kundera

Spotlights in the woods-Valens

Spotlights in the woods-Valens
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

Vacation time is over, time to go back to work.
Recently we bought a trailer and this last week we headed for the great outdoors, in deepest darkest Puslinch.
We fought many battles against the swarming hoards of mosquitoes, listened as the distant thunder drew ever closer, heralding the arrival of yet another downpour, torrential rain hammering on the roof of our little ‘home away from home’.
Several times I thought of our friends in a nearby campsite, they were in a tent...

Our week was interrupted by family matters and doctors visits but all-in-all we had a great relaxing time. I even pulled out my old sketch pad and pencils after 20 years ofof neglect.
We are home now and it seems like we fall back into the routine all so easily but we are different somehow, we had the time to catch up with each other, to reconnect, to do simple things like taking a walk with no destination in mind, yes sometimes in the rain.

I can’t wait to do it again.

If you knew yourself for even one moment, if you could just glimpse your most beautiful face, maybe you wouldn't slumber so deeply in that house of clay. Why not move into your house of joy and shine into every crevice! For you are the secret Treasure-bearer, and always have been. Didn't you know? ~Rumi

You will be Assimilated - Grape Ivy Study

You will be Assimilated - Grape Ivy Study
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

“God is in the details”
~ Mies van der Rohe

This phrase should have come from a photographer, not an architect. However Mies van der Rohe was a stickler for detail, concerned about everything. For example he designed the plaque, the wording and the font for the Toronto Dominion Centre in Toronto, talk about details!

What he meant was, whatever you choose to do it should be done thoroughly.

More common is the phrase “The Devil is in the details” meaning, ignore the details at your peril.

So how does this affect what we as photographers produce?
Well...
I am on a journey to free and open up my mind to the opportunities of an ever flowing, ever changing world.

To become a Flâneur.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaneur

The literal translation is a person who is a "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", or "loafer" but which later became a description for an artist-poet.

We need to relax;
Forget about how much time we have available on any given day.
Forget about work
Forget about the weather
Forget about where you are going or what you hope you will find when you arrive.

If we go about our hobby / profession worrying about the details concentrating on one thing we miss the myriad of possibilities that float by, unseen and unheeded. We have blinkered ourselves.

So try this; don’t go out with a specific destination or subject in mind go out with the intention of letting the subject come to you.

Yesterday was one such day, a threatening sky and rain soaked trails caused us to change venues at the last minute, an easy decision when you are a “Flaneur”.

Not so easy if you have set your sights on a particular place, time or subject.

We chose the Arboretum over the open fields simply because the paths were dryer and there was shelter close by in case the weather turned against us nothing to do with photography. Once there we strolled the trails, it didn’t take long for a subject to find us.
Not the wind and rain swept vista’s but the tiny world of macro or close up photography. Rain on leaves, snails, insects, dragonflies, the way plants grow and climb.
There, in the details we had our subjects ...

They found us, we were simply receptive and open minded

So what did I learn from this?

As photographers we need to journey with an open mind but be aware that the details of what you choose to photograph can make or break the image be it a panoramic vista or a tendril of a plant.

So there you have it, one minute I say “forget about the details and wander” and in the next breath “don’t forget about the details”!

Well yes, let me explain;

As you wander with your open mind receptive to a subject, do not blinker your thoughts with details, let it all flow slowly by and be aware of possibilities.
However when the moment comes and your subject appears then the details become important ....

........ see? God may be in the details but the Devil is in the timing....

Out beyond ideas of rightdoing and wrongdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. ~Rumi

Majestic

Majestic
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

Yesterday I went in search of 'Yellow Fields' the canola is in flower...

But words from the "Tao of Photography" by Phillippe Gross and S.I Shapiro kept rattling around in my head.

Several times I hit the brakes and went back to something I had seen. No not yellow fields, they could wait, this moment was fleeting and I had to investigate or lose it for ever...

I am beginning to understand just how much I stifle myself in pursuit of my craft by trying to set a goal. By 'visualising' what I want to photograph I am blinkered, focused only on one thing and in becoming focused I lose sight of all the rest.

Yes by all means set a destination for the day but don't allow that to be the focus of your day, allow yourself to be distracted and respond to those distractions. Yes I am learning to free my mind, beginning to understand....

" Great understanding is broad and unhurried;
little understanding is cramped and busy"
　　- Chaung-tzu

" My pictures are never pre-visualised or planned. I feel strongly that pictures must come from contact with things at the time and place of taking. At such times, I rely on intuitive, perceptual responses to guide me, using reason only after the final print is made to accept or reject the results of my work".
　　
　　- Wynne Bullock

Broken Dreams-Talbot Trail

Broken Dreams-Talbot Trail
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

Old, forgotten, abandoned houses and farms, even entire towns!

Over the years I have spent a lot of time wandering around these treasures and the same thoughts creep into my conscious mind:

What happened here?
Where did the people go?
Why?

To me, abandoned places are like landlocked Marie Celeste’s.
Some fully furnished, food in the cupboard .. never open a fridge or a freezer though..

Beds still with sheets, Books and reading glasses, dishes in the kitchen, newspapers and calendars from long ago everything is there except the people.

Is it one’s imagination that runs away or are there still occupants in some of these places? Well sometimes they are there not in human form but their essence, their spirit remains. Sometimes only in a barely tangible form, sometimes more so.

If walls could talk what stories would they tell?
Standing quietly sometimes there are whispers, but the whole story is never clear.

In the end all there is left is a sadness, an emptiness.
Lost hopes and dreams lie scattered amongst the detritus of lives hard lived but we cannot hear them, these stories are gone along with the occupants.

Even more sad is the knowing that the bulldozers await. They will come to tear out the remaining soul and erase forever the memory of these places so we can replace them with yet another mall ...

They civilize what's pretty
By puttin' up a city
Where nothin' that's
Pretty can grow....
They civilize left
They civilize right
Till nothing is left
Till nothing is right
~Alan Jay Lerner, "The First Thing You Know," Paint Your Wagon, 1969

Standing Tall-Niska Trail

Standing Tall-Niska Trail
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

These days when I walk the trails I find myself being drawn to the words of the North American elders.

They understood this planet we call home

They revered all things

They found peace and harmony out there.

When the first explorers arrived they found “a pristine untouched wilderness”. Little did they know it had been inhabited for thousands of years by the “Indian”.and as Bill Mason reflected..

"So the first white man arrives in North America and he looks out over the land and he calls it a pristine untouched wilderness. That's got to be the greatest compliment that anyone could pay to the native peoples that had lived here for thousands of years....and it's still possible to catch a glimpse of what that wilderness used to be..... and I think that the best way to do that is in a canoe, the most beautiful and functional craft ever created.", Bill Mason - from the film "Waterwalker"

So as I walk I think of these things. All things are connected, all things have a life, a spirit and we are part of that whole.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
~ Chief Seattle'

As I sit and watch the news, flooding, tornadoes, storms that seem to be getting bigger and stronger by the day, I wonder at what we have done. Mother Nature will only tolerate so much before she protects herself ....