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There’s a wooded path near my house that takes about five minutes to walk in one direction.  It is amazing what’s to be found in such a short length.

The following images are of rocks and shells and bits of colored glass found on different New England beaches this summer.  I photographed them yesterday after placing them in a bowl I had rediscovered, a beautiful dark clay vessel lined with ridges.  Eventually I filled the bowl with water.  I snapped photos throughout the day whenever whimsy struck.  Near dusk I decided I should empty the bowl before mosquitoes began to breed.  Just as I drained the last drop, the bowl cracked in my hands.  An unseen flaw had been exacerbated by the weight of water.  In an instant, I was reminded of the beauty found in fragile things.

Today, as I worked with the images, admiring the visual expression of soft colors and hard edges and glimpses of the bowl now gone, I was reminded of a series of conversations I’ve been having with people about empathy and compassion…

I’ve been admiring the morning glories in my landlord’s garden for a while now.  Amazing how those vines progress across the yard and how the colors of the flowers morph over time.

Not sure why but today I felt compelled to slip into the garden with a pair of scissors.

Stealthy though I felt, the landlord doesn’t mind anyone cutting a bloom or two.

I may have cut a few more than that.

Handling the blooms, photographing them … it was a nice way to start the day.  Hope you have a good day too. 😉

 

… that caught my eyes and made me pause as I raced across the Public Garden.  Already late for a meeting, I had had no intentions of pausing or pulling out my camera.  But how could I not as I looked more closely at what lay before me?

Remember the post with individual petals? Well, here is what they looked like before they fell apart. 😉

I don’t think that I would describe myself as a collector but in the past year or two, I do seem to have … collected … quite a few stones.  Each has a different shape or thread of color.  I can’t remember where I picked them up.  I don’t expect to keep them forever.  I like to give such things to little friends of the four to five-year old variety.  Maybe one day they too will photograph their stony treasures.

What IS the art of wrecking, you might be asking yourself? Well, let me tell you…I have been asking myself that very same question over the last couple of months–after stumbling upon Keri Smith’s “Wreck This Journal.” After browsing the pages at a bookstore, and later returning to purchase Smith’s “How to be an Explorer of the World” (another highly recommended buy!), I decided that the “wrecking” activities in Smith’s journals could be PERFECTLY applied to artful explorations in nature (and the art classroom in general)!

 

Many, if not most art teachers have some sort of sketchbook for their students. These are often used for practice sketches, free draw activities, and notes. What if, instead (or along WITH) these sketchbooks, students had a Wreckbook for explorations? Once a week (or more) students would be given a prompt for one or two pages in their Wreckbook. This could be used…

I have finally returned from a most relaxing vacation on Isla Mujeres, an island near Cancun, Mexico. Along with finding time for snorkeling, visiting parts of The Underwater Museum (AMAZING.), and exploring the island via golf cart, I spent time artfully  exploring the island–Where’s Waldo-style!

During the last week of my stay, the weather took a turn for the worst (thank you, Hurricane Ernesto!). After the storm had passed, birds (particularly pigeons) seemed to swarm the beach! Thus, the inspiration for my artful explorations hit! Most of the birds were brown and black–or some combination of the two colors. So when I noticed an interesting black-and-white spotted pigeon, I knew I had found my Waldo (or “Paco”).

Here is the resulting composition, titled “Where’s Paco?”:

Along with hiding “Paco,” I also hid (true to Waldo drawings) 10 keys, 15 other birds, and a few other comical characters. As I was…

Ingredients

3 leaves

stone pebbles

water

sunlight

Mix and photograph to your heart’s content.  Add dash of imagination to taste.  Who knows?  You might see dragon’s eggs, bright shining eyes, and flowing cityscapes.