Artistic Vision: What You See and What You Walk By

I have to dedicate this post to Ces, who has a wonderful blog "Ces and Her Dishes" but it should be Ces and her amazing talent at rendering trees!

I have walked by this tree trunk so many times it is embarrassing. It is on the roadside where I used to take walks daily before the *hip-adventure*. I knew there was a dead tree there. Walked by, glanced at it....nothing more. Kept walking. Too busy looking for who knows what, or worse yet, looking at nothing. Or trying to keep from getting run over......

The other evening when I was out shooting pics, it was the first time I actually SAW the trunk. And when I did, it certainly was a V-8 moment as I mentally smacked myself, saying how could you miss this??? It is sculpture, pure and simple. I clicked off several shots, some I liked better than others but these were the winning two.

Both photos should enlarge; it is worth the time to do it just to see everything that is going on with the state of decay of the wood, the weathering, the lichen growing......textures and lines, light and shadow....all sorts of exciting things an artist should not miss!

What is wrong with me? (rhetorical question...no answer necessary)

The only thing I can think of in my own miserable defense is this:

Normally I would walk in the mornings, with the sun coming bright from behind the tree.

I was late the other evening getting out, so the setting sun was full on the cracked and creviced trunk, and maybe that was what made these eyes open.

There is always room for an artist to reassess how they see things; what catches their eye, why, how we process the information. Making yourself look in locales that you are accustomed to what is there is a fun exercise. I had a ball!

I highly recommend it, no matter what medium you work in or where you live. There is more to be seen than what we see.

For other amazing trees, you need to check out Ces's blog and see what she paints and also an amazing exposed root structure of a nutmeg tree that I hope is in her sidebar still. (maybe not...)

Okay, go open your eyes and find something wonderful!!!

Pax.