Reflections

If you have read some of my earlier posts you will know I have a fascination with the surface of water and the designs to be found there-- like the fleeting evidence of passage traced by waterfowl or the dorsal fins of ghostlike carp in shallow water. The following photos are a series of abstractions made earlier this week with the camera's zoom at greatest power, focused on the surface of a small pond in the Jardin des Plantes.

On that same day I sat and drew by the water's edge and noted on my sketchbook page "I draw beneath a faint and colorless sky, my dreams more clear than the watery winter light, graphite on cream-- an uneasy alliance that will blur with time into a perfect mirror of this day." and "When I am outside nature always says to me 'This is the right place, the perfect time, the right body, the right life'...All is peace."

I also chose to leave a gift, a sort of offering to the natural world and the sense of wonder it inspires. I tucked a tiny fae bed and table with teacup, pipe and candlestick into a small cave inside a rocky hillside grotto-- a sheltered spot, yet in plain view--if one is looking.

fae bed

grotto where the bed is nestled in a tiny cave

So far the only detectable activity has been that on two days the little pedestal table had been moved--the first time simply knocked over, the second carried a foot away and almost out of sight in the narrow tunnels that stretch into the earth of the hillside. Obviously I had invaded someone's home so yesterday I moved both pieces to a more easily visible spot on the grotto rocks a few feet away and will return tomorrow to see what has transpired...

A River in the High Ardeche

The Ardeche region of France is full of twisting mountain roads with vertiginous views across a wild terrain and vertical drops of hundreds of feet. The occasionally glimpsed village sits nestled on the peaks like a jewel set amid the rocks and pine forests, aloof and independent of the rest of the world. Driving here is both frightening and ecstatic--one misturn on the hairpin twists sans guardrails and one plummets to certain destruction --yet there is also a sense of freedom akin to weightlessness. It is an intense voyage and I was always glad to find a respite from this sensation of unearned flight by traveling down into the meandering river beds that snake through these mountains. Here is solid ground and peace, enveloped among the stones that bear the mark of centuries of moving water. I spent the night in one particularly beautiful valley and in the morning, wading in the midst of round boulders and clear pools I began a sort of moving meditation on the fascinating nature of water.

 

I became particularly engrossed by the patterns made by the water as it moved among the stones, braiding over itself, forming concentric rings, refracting sunlight. Everywhere there was evidence of energy and an organization of this strange form/no form that had sculpted the valley

 

Mid photo above water striders balance on the surface tension.

 

Adding to the magical aura of this place, the wildlife seemed amazingly unafraid. I could gently stroke the dragonflies resting on the warm stones and they didn't stir until they were finished sunbathing. Lizards came and went in the sand at my feet. I crouched by a spider in her moisture beaded web mid stream among the rocks and water spray...

 

And more than once an image of my presence became entangled in the water's story.