My first memory of Yosemite was at age 6 standing on a western style wooden porch at the old Yosemite Lodge. Every summer after that one we (mother, sister, father and myself)camped in the month of August. Memories of the river, beach, evening "firefall" and later as a young girl, flirting with boys at the bridge and evening dances at Camp Curry. My parents continued to camp for many years after I left home, taking grandchildren and showing them the beauty of the valley. Later I returned as a wife and mom and recently Pablo and I spent the day as tourists with a long lunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel. Whenever I begin a visualization it starts with me in Yosemite...I believe the Yosemite Valley holds my heart and waits for my return. Do you have a place in nature that holds your heart?
The piece measures 10"x10" on canvas, photo transfer collage, plaster, screening and acrylic...the sides are painted black for a finished look.
mary ann - this really feels like Yosemite to me - you capture it well in this piece - for me, it would be a desert where I can see forever and where I feel I can breath! - sometimes I feel really claustraphobic in the woods...
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, this could be my story. I loved Yosemite, the river, the hikes, the tent cabins... oh and the waterfall! As I got older I loved the flirting too, for some reason in this beautiful setting I lost my shyness and let that serious teenager go! Thanks for the memories and your art piece is beautiful... Roxanne
ReplyDeleteMary Ann: I enjoy art with personal meaning, translated to a piece with emotion. I love your description of techniques. There are just so many ways to approach art making! Thanks for sharing your process. And Jeane; your comment is so true. We get connected to the familiar. “Our relation to the natural world takes place in a place.”
ReplyDelete- Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild
Darn,,,it wouldn't enlarge big enough for me to really check out those photo transfers. I haven't tried that yet, though I keep saying I'm going to,,,is it really hard? Love the piece,,feels very Yosemite,,,perfect colors!
ReplyDeleteFor me,,,it would be a beautiful beach,,,,aaah, to feel that warm sand between my toes at this moment would be heaven! It's awrmed up to 28 today,,,,
Wonderful memories and experiences of a place. Lovely translation of your feelings and thoughts into the visual. Babs, I too have tried to enlarge BSD's photos for a better look but they don't enlarge BSD. Not sure why. I think the ones on my blog enlarge.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, is there a place in nature that holds my heart? Interesting question. I can only answer off top of my head that wherever I am holds my heart. Right now this land with the barn, the well, the pond, the hills holds my heart. When I'm on Cape Cod, the ocean and sand hold my heart. I do look back with nostalgia to the summers we spent when I was a child on lakes in New Hampshire and Maine. In rough cabins, with few people around.
You know, I have been there - 15' trailer in my day. Also the "canvas" - get washed up to go to Curry Village for an evening show and "don't step off the canvas", orders GrandPa. This was the immacualtely swept tarp laid as a ground cloth as you stepped out of the trailer. You could get dirty and sandy all day, but once cleaned- up..."watch-it!"
ReplyDeleteJeane, Thank you, A four season place...this was a summer perspective.
ReplyDeleteDesert! I agree too...my heart may be in Yosemite but my soul is in the desert with you! I'm a poolside type person and sitting in Palm Springs with the dry air and beautiful range of mountains is truly Nirvana!
Roxanne, Amazing we shared some of the same growing experiences in magnificent Yosemite! Memories! I always feel like I'm going home!
ReplyDeleteLeslie, Beautiful Gary Snyder quote...thank you.
Yes, there are so many ways to go about this creating!The trick is to find what works best for ourselves.
Babs, Photo transfer is an interesting process...I like the old, magical look of the imagery but I have found the process to have some hit and miss to it which can be frustrating. Let me know what you think if you take a class!
ReplyDeleteSuki, I don't know why my photos won't enlarge. I'll ask Gail (computer angel)when she is over to help me on the computer.
I like that you find beauty in where you are....Bloom where you are planted!!!
Karen, Yes, I remember the tarp rules! Some years we three women of the family would stay alone for a week and he would return by bus...when he was gone the tarp rule was thrown out! I so loved the river and the walks, later the boys. I remember you and Rod had your bikes for fun!
ReplyDeleteMary Ann, I have a special memory of visiting Yosemite when our kids were really little. It is a magical place, as is your artful capture of it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Suki - if there is any way you can enable the pictures to be clicked and then enlarged that would be awesome! Sometimes I try to see if I can get a closer look but it doesn't let me. I could not tell what the two images are in any detail from my screen. Love the colors!
ReplyDeleteSan, I agree, magical. Taos, Santa Fe and surrounding area...haunting and beautiful to me! The colors are the haunting part...such a sky!! Who thought of that color of earth and sand?!!
ReplyDeleteWhenever I'm feeling low I visualise the farm in the Drakensberg where I spent a lot of my childhood. I can see myself swimming in mountain streams, climbing up high onto koppies from where I could see the farmlands, long walks and generally just tuning in to nature.
ReplyDeletei love your work . . . the abstract texture, the texture, the colors!!
ReplyDeleteBSD, I also love Yosemite and wrote about the climb to the top of Half Dome. It's an incredible place that has to be 'sat in for a while' to really experience its potential to spiritually renew. How fortunate you were as a child to visit the now long lost Yosemite. I've seen photos and listened to interviews about people who more or less lived there during the depression. Poverty and wealth- what a rich oxymoronic experience.
ReplyDelete