Be Still, Lesson 18

Although Kim Klassen’s current course, Be Still 52, has been challenging, informative and fun,  I haven’t been participating much recently. Not because of the course, but it’s just not something (like this blog) that I’ve devoted any time to lately.  Sometimes when you stop doing something — reading a book, taking photographs, doing something of habit — it isn’t easy to get back into the practice after a period of time.  Claiming that you’re waiting for “inspiration” can be a crutch.  I decided that I was going to jump back in this week and do the lesson regardless of whatever it was.

This week’s prompt is “Organic”.   I wanted to run immediately, as I think that  the term “organic” is overused.   Food is “organic”, but the label is meaningless as there is no standard to define what “organic” should be.   When I was working, the sales and executive teams often talked of “organic” growth.   That was even more ambiguous and made me laugh whenever I heard it.   I thought it sounded organic — as in like the stuff that one might put on one’s garden!

But, since I was committed to the prompt, I decided to think of things natural and in nature.   I took a walk along the nearby creek and found these wildflowers.  In other situations, they might be considered weeds.  On the creek bank, they grow naturally, without any sort of intervention or cultivation.    I placed them on the wood floor in my house when the late afternoon sun was streaming in through the windows.   I like these images.

Part of the lesson included using LightRoom’s Print Module to create a diptych.   I tried several times — I’ve done this before!   But, I could not get the picture placement to work correctly when I exported the file.   I’ll have to keep working on how to do that.   Guess it isn’t something that came naturally — organically — to my brain this evening!

Violets

Violet, Black & White

This post is part of the Blogging A to Z Challenge. Today’s letter is V. Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. You can find other A to Z participants by clicking on the graphic. You’ll find an index of all of my A to Z blog posts here.

Inspired by Goldsworthy

Last fall, I was posting photos of leaves frequently. On one of my posts, a comment mentioned the artist Andrew Goldsworthy. I had never heard of Goldsworthy before, but that comment sent me on a wonderful web search that lasted for a few hours.

Goldsworthy is a British artist who uses found objects in nature to build installations. Much of his work deals with the impermanence and decay of nature, and of art. Since the installations are not intended to last, Goldsworthy photographs them. But, since they decay, as Goldsworthy has noted,  they still exist in a different form.

Based on that one afternoon of web searching, I decided to use one of Goldsworthy’s ideas and shoot multiple hued leaves. I had already been thinking about how there were so many colors in the fall, but I had no idea when I started that I would be able to find leaves representing every color of the rainbow. You can see my Roy G Biv colored leaves that I did here.   You can read more about Goldsworthy and browse through a catalog of more than 3500 photos here.  It’s a link that may suck you in, but if, like me, you find his work fascinating, you won’t even notice the time slipping by.

Here are a few Goldworthy-inspired creations of mine:

Dandelion Clock:

Sun time

A few hours later

A Few Days Later

While Goldsworthy uses pieces and parts of natural objects to construct new objects, I like to deconstruct them. I am amazed at how complex the simplest of flowers can be, at what parts are not seen unless you look carefully. Here are a few examples from weeds and wildflowers I’ve gathered in the last few days:

Blue Violet Deconstructed

Sweet White Violet Pieces

Star-of_Bethlehem, Exploded

Purple Dead-nettle Bits

This post is part of the Blogging A to Z Challenge. Today’s letter is G. Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. You can find other A to Z participants by clicking on the graphic. You’ll find an index of all of my A to Z blog posts here.

Wildflower of the day

Yet another wildflower I haven’t noticed in past Springs.

Bloodroot

Sanguinaria canadensis, also known as bloodroot or bloodwort, is named for its blood-red root. I pulled one up. There’s no mistaking this plant. The root even seemed a bit liquid, its red sap oozing as if it were bleeding. Native Americans used this as a dye and for some medicinal purposes, though it is considered toxic with a structure similar to morphine. From William Cook’s 1869 work The Physiomedical Dispensatory:

The U. S. Dispensatory says four persons lost their lives at Bellevue Hospital, New York, by drinking largely of blood root tincture in mistake for ardent spirits […].

Ardent spirits; with a structure similar to morphine? I bet it seemed “ardent”. It sure is a pretty flower, though!

According to Wikipedia (see link above. Like everything in Wiki, needs further research), the bloodroot derived toxin sanguinarine is allowed in commercially prepared toothpaste. Uh?