Day 359 Hidden Narrative

December 3, 2015

(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)

It’s funny how I can walk the same path for many days and on my 50^th trip, I find something I hadn’t noticed before. Today as I walked in Downs Park, I went along the path from the regular beach toward the dog beach. There is a sign for the dog beach with an arrow that is located on step seats overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. I’ve walked by here hundreds of times but I must not have sat on the steps recently because all I needed was about 12 more inches in height in order to notice something special. It was only by stepping up on the bottom step that I could see a group of painted stones with words and numbers written on them.

I was intrigued. At first, I thought maybe these stones were a memorial to deceased pets but the names were not typical pet names. Those having dates on them had only one date. Was it a birth date or a death date? 

Curious about the story behind these stones, I asked a park ranger in the main office. There was a story. I learned that a group of families who had lost babies in birth or shortly after birth had asked the park for permission to put this handmade memorial in the park in a perfect location overlooking the Bay. They were probably looking for closure and something tangible in a natural setting. Now that I know the narrative, the stones have become something more beautiful, a spot for me to stop each day. I learned that just one step can make a difference.

My gift today is one step up.

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> Day 360: Connecting the Dots


You can find links to my other posts on this project here:
http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

              

Day 230 Ephemeral

July 27, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70^th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.)

The National Gallery of Art exhibit, The Memory of Time.  
“I stop being just the observer of light, as it spills into the house and moves through it in the course of the day. Here I have become a participant in creating these images of light  I am moving the curtain to change the formation of a line of light that starts out being razor-thin and over the hours grows into a thick band of light.” ~ Uta Barth

The relationship of time and truth to photography continually prods me. With some hubris, I delude myself that I have power over time with a slight movement of a finger on a shutter. I believe that I can capture the present—a moment of meaning—and suspend it within time’s dervish. Light waves of truth bend around my perception. In the future, I can return to this past and re-arrange it to create my own reality. When photographing, I am always in the present but when looking at photos, I am in the past.

Today I saw a thought-provoking photography exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, The Memory of Time. The introduction describes it as “…work by artists who investigate the richness and complexity of photography’s relationship to time, memory, and history.”

From a very early age, I have always held a sensitivity to the power of light and shadow. Lives slide through this narrative landscape of light and shadow but the edges never remain the same because light constantly moves. Maybe this is why I was especially struck by Uta Barth’s triptych of light entitled “to draw a bright white line with light.” She immerses us in the transient nature of light and shadow. I stepped back to take a photo of the three photo panels with David standing in front of them. 

Truth is always a subtle blurring of time, light and memory.

My gift today is The Memory of Time.

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> Day 231: Coming Home

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:
http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 96 Slats of Time

March 15, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day's gift.)

  

Light lives a multifaceted life. As time moves through each day, the quality of light changes from the soft colors just before the sun rises to the harsh overhead noon sun to the long shadows as the sun sets. Shade takes on a tint of blue and the setting sun turns everything to warm hues. Light directly overhead will accent under eye shadows while light from the side will accent wrinkles and blemishes. Filtered, translucent light flatters.

How light comes through the windows makes a difference. The venetian blinds in my office can be pulled up to let all light in for a clear view outside. In the down position, the slats can also be adjusted, angled up or down. This affects the quality of light coming into the room. When I adjust the slats so they angle down toward the outside, then light falling in the room is soft; when I adjust the slats so they angle down toward the inside, then light coming in is sharper and more defined, often throwing parallel light and shadow lines on objects inside. 

I have control of the slats of my perception and memory as well as the quality of light, depending on how I want to understand things. It is in my power to soften my memory or to perceive with clearly defined lines. Adjusting these slats throws different light on the same memories. Perhaps by seeing the same things in different light, I will come to more fully understand them.

My gift today is changing light .


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> DAY 97 Lost and Found  
You can read my other posts on this project here:
http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html