246/365: purple woods aster
Walking through the summer woods is a largely monochromatic experience. Green on green. Any other color really stands out.
I’m happy either way: I never tire of the infinite shades and textures of the leaves but the surprise of a wildflower is always welcome.
241/365: wild mushrooms
Any mycologists out there? We came across these gorgeous mushrooms the other day in the woods. I kind of thought they looked like oyster mushrooms…and wouldn’t THAT be a yummy find! But I would have to be 200% certain before I ever threw them in a sauté pan.
Oh purple loosestrife! Why do you tempt me with your beauty? We both know that you don’t belong here. And you never will.
215/365: purple loosestrife
A favorite tree seen on our daily walks. It happens to be dead. Stark, scraggly, and standing tall against the sky, it was impossible not to notice it in the midst of the lush green woods and marsh. I wouldn’t say it stood out like a sore thumb – I enjoyed the contrast.
210/365: tree skeleton
Sometimes the dog is pulling your arm and you have an art fair in the morning and your son is scooping minnows in the creek, and you’re telling him it’s time to go and then the sunlight comes and hits a big tangle of dead forest undergrowth JUST SO and it all turns into a gestural scribble, a linear sculpture, a study of light & shadow. It’s nothing really. And, yet, it’s full of movement and life and death and struggle and some little bit of grace.
Sometimes all you get is that one moment, that one shot. And then it all keeps moving.
188/365: sunshine on tangle of dead branches
Thinking about this whole idea of nature/landscape in harmony with the built/manmade/industrial etc. Why not a new picturesque? Evidence of our presence here on earth as PART of the landscape.
There is a tendency to hide the human elements, to capture “nature” only. That seems like a lie.
176/365: abandoned wheels with grapevine
Another entry in the ‘rethinking landscape’ vein I introduced the other day…considering the built aspects of our environment as part of the landscape.
169/365: dead tree & drain pipe on the mississippi
Spring has reached the tipping point. Suddenly, the lush green foliage is growing before our eyes with tropical zeal. We have to remind ourselves that this is the same world that stood bleak, gray and dormant not that long ago. As if waking from a deep sleep, we blink in wonder at this new reality, this dream come true.
131/365: verdure with sunbeams
In another part of the town, the greens are coming on more aggressively.
This is nature’s riot. The astounding co-existence of so many life forms all just doing their thing, thriving along, being glorious individuals together in a beautiful entangled mess.
It’s something for us to aspire to.
109/365: springscape
A different kind of flame, this fiery orange tree. Sometimes it’s the forms I love. The textures. The lines. Other times I just see color fields, as if I’m looking through Rothko’s viewfinder.
94/365: color fields
avant garden 365 