We’re still in Idaho, have been eight days, with a few more to go. Both of us have been supremely productive, me keeping to my list (thanks for your comments on my last blog) and Anne doing beautifully without one. Next blog we’ll show some results. Meantime, here’s a mediation (prayer) from a page in the sketchbook after one of our daily walks.
Art, it seems, is man’s part.
Looking down at the ground,
out on a walk
on a road unpaved but for small stones,
I remark to Anne
that there’s more art here
than in any museum or gallery.
But then I correct myself.
This is not art.
Art is rather a rearrangement of things,
aesthetically (or not).
It’s man’s part.
It’s beauty that’s here, in the stones on the road.
More of that, with wonder,
than in any museum or gallery.
But, art, that’s what we do with it!!!
Now, later, having said all that, I look again and see
the arrangement of trees,
often in long lines
by wind and bird-planted seeds,
making uniform pattern
set in fields of blond-beige grasses,
also patterned,
and this set below mountains and hills
blue in their distance,
all under sky of first one color then another,
the light and the clouds changing both it (the sky)
and everything on the ground.
And I perceive that it’s all of a harmony,
with nothing that doesn’t work,
and working with the rest !!!
It’s not just about beauty and wonder and dismissive non-art,
but that there is intentionality here,
a mind and a hand.
So, returning to basics and child-like belief, I pray,
Father, You are the Artist.
You say you’re in me
(I say it too)
Then work your art through me (and in).
Let’s do something together.
And when it’s finished, let’s call it “good.”
Do you see what I mean, about the lines, horizontal and vertical, and the colors kept in their places?
Here the shadows cast the design, thanks to the sun and its angle.
Speaking of sun, sometimes it paints directly, overwhelming all.
Once again, the long lines of design, with contrasting diagonals in sky. It all works, every view, every moment.
Finally, one more, looking down at the feet. Even the dying leaves a wonder of harmony . . . and when cropped, art! Maybe that’s our part.
Our Lives Together
Its About Life
10:14 am
Thank you Hyatt.
I don’t often write. I especially enjoyed the blog and photos here. It is Art. I want to take time to see.
Elizabeth
10:29 am
An artist sees and appreciates the Great Artist. You inspire me to stop and find the art everywhere around me. Thank you.
10:30 am
I have and am enjoying your take on life. Today’s thoughts are especially close to home as I walk down the lanes and see all kinds of God’s art He is sharing with us if we can but take a moment to look and see and absorb! His handiwork is an open Bible for all.
12:50 pm
Stirring thoughts, Hyatt. What’s been called the “balance of nature” really is just that… a continual presentation of color, relief, tone from the hand of the Artist. Resulting in beauty which we can’t help but appreciate, once we’ve stopped, and looked. Wonderful, attentive observing on your part. Thanks for sharing!
4:36 pm
Your experiences seeing art in nature is the very thing that sent me on my artistic journey. Thanks for your part in my journey.
Peace and Love to you and the lovely Anne.
5:10 pm
Your prayer is beautiful. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost came to mind when reading it. It is through the artists (such as you, Anne, Allison and her lovely children (I follow her blog)) that hints of His gold can stay. Indeed, I think it is “our part.”
Nature’s first green is gold.
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief.
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.
12:53 pm
Beautiful. And that you follow daughter Allison’s superb blogs.
10:27 pm
My pastor today just preached on Eph. 2:1-10 . . . expositing more on what I heard so many years ago in college, that we are God workmanship . . . in Greek, his “poiema” . . . his poem. How wonderful to know that God is writing the story of our lives.
6:56 am
A recent visit to Sedona and the Grand Canyon confirms my views of the Creator as the consummate artist. Thanks for your thoughts.
Have you read any of the stuff by Annie Dillard on the subject?
12:54 pm
Yes, Annie Dillard, a long time ago. A great writer.
7:26 am
Hello Hyatt,
Enjoyed your view. Once as we were busily setting up camp in the High Sierras, my young 8 year old grandson looked towards the high snow covered peaks and sun and cloud formations and said “Look Look Nana, GOD is here!!
Makes me wonder how much we miss as we busy ourselves with “to dos”
9:02 am
Beautiful, Hyatt!! Wonderful!
12:26 pm
LOVE it! Thank you.
11:40 pm
OHHHH what a joy this was to see Hyatt! And your poem! Divine!! Thank you! God through you! Wonderful! Lisa