Saturday, April 4, 2015

Easter tucked in a box

Spring is here. The cool morning chill does not last long. The sun's warm rays quickly welcome the day. The young blossoms are swept in the soft winds. oh, how I could spend hours and hours capturing the changing light of the seasons.

My younger daughter also loves photography. Just the other day, she showed me an unusual image she had created in class using Photoshop, explaining her process at length, interjecting words like masking, dodging, burning - words reminiscent of my college years at the San Francisco Art Institute where I would hide in the darkroom for hours exposing light to negatives to paper - the old fashioned way if you will - with my hand shielding the light from the paper or giving it an extra burst of exposure for added effect. I also loved finding the right chemical balance for a 'sepia' effect - that monochrome vintage mood of days gone by. 

Today, modern technology has removed the darkroom from my world, but I still long for those nostalgic effects. Be it that the Easter holiday usually lives in pastel shades; I found myself envisioning the handful of  vignettes I had set up around my home, etched in hues of olden times. I wanted to imagine that they were not just about a fleeting week of joys and symbolic festivities. This is what I saw.


















I want to print these images and tuck them in a little beat up tin box, then wrap the whole thing in a frayed satin ribbon - and place it in yet another vignette around the house, to be rediscovered at random times of the year - to be cherished - maybe next month, maybe next spring. 

In closing I am drawn once again to Rainer Maria Rilke, the German poet~

Harshness gone. All at once caring spreads over
the naked gray of the meadows.
Tiny rivulets sing in different voices. 
A softness, as if from somewhere,
is touching the earth. Paths appear across the land and beckon

Springtime blessings… they are always good for the soul don't you think? Enjoy, Adeline