Artist’s Personal Essay
Nature is the essential quality of a thing according to Webster’s Dictionary. For many of us nature means a collection of plant life and animals in an area without manmade objects; a place away from cities, towns, and civilizations. Can this collection have an essential quality and does this quality have an influence on man? Can we say that nature has a spirit that has a mystical power to heal man’s spirit?
Nature is beauty and harmony, a life in balance. Picture a sunrise over a lake. As the sun approaches the horizon the sky fades from black to a light blue. Clouds signal rain is coming. As the sun crests the horizon the clouds turn to beautiful shades of oranges and reds, contrasting with the blue sky. Yet they blend together like paint on a canvas. This play of color will only last a few minutes.
This painting is not the only harmony playing out here. There are a variety of sounds bringing in the day. Waves are washing up on shore in a gentle, steady rhythm. Like a base drum playing the beat of a song. Birds are chirping, singing their songs with the sunrise. Leaves of the trees rustle in the wind bringing up the tempo a little. Nature’s music: a relaxing symphony that is playing for anyone who wants to listen.
The sunrise is waking up your senses, bringing you to life for another day. The next two senses go hand in hand. To enjoy a good meal, smell and taste work together creating a true gourmet meal. The air is fresh and clean. The moisture of the incoming rain is just under the surface, giving life one of its necessary ingredients. Nearby flowers are adding to the fragrant mix. This is truly a feast for the senses.
When all of these qualities are put together there is a life in balance. The senses are filled with the beauty of nature. Their mixture is both relaxing and energizing. Just pick a setting, sit back and take it all in. Let the stresses of everyday life escape.
The everyday life of man is a study in life out of balance. Starting with the average work day let’s begin the race. After waking up to the alarm you roll out of bed and head to the shower. Then it’s to the kitchen to start the coffee. As the coffee brews you get the kids up and get them ready for the day. This hustle continues until you get out the door. Then it’s time to manage the drive in the rush-hour traffic as you make your way to work. The pace continues at work as you struggle to get everything done on time. This is the start of the day. There is more to come.
The evening brings more struggles. The afternoon rush hour home is an adventure itself. It feels like everyone left work at the same time. The trip home takes twice as long as the trip to work. Once back home it’s time to make dinner and eat with the family. Clean the kitchen. Make sure the kids get their homework done and take a shower before they go to bed. If you are lucky, when all of this is done you may get a few minutes for you. Time needed to unwind enough to go to bed and get a good night sleep. If you are like the average person you have run out of time, may need to stay up a little longer to get things done. You head to bed tired but unable to fall asleep quickly. This leads to repeating this pattern for the rest of the week building up sleep deprivation.
The weekend comes and there is more to do. The chores that didn’t get done during the week top the list. Then the regular weekend work comes. Things like grocery shopping, the yard work, and cleaning the house. As for the kids, there may be weekend activities they need to get to. To help save time you may go out to dinner but if your timing is not right you really haven’t saved much time. Everyone else seems to have the same idea. As the weekend comes to a close you might get some time to yourself and take an hour or so to sit in the tub and relax.
This pattern continues week after week, slowly wearing you down. As time passes you feel that something is amiss. You feel exhausted and short tempered. The daily struggles of life are building up with no relief. Living out of balance is hard. You may not know what is wrong but you know your spirit, your soul, needs a change.
A persons’ spirit is something we all know exists. It is an intangible entity, something that can’t be quantified or proven scientifically. This spirit is what makes each person unique and different from one another. Our personal character can be described as being our spirit. Yet, we can go further. A group of individuals can also have a spirit. Take a trip into the past, go back to high school and you can see an example of this clearly. From the traditional stereotypes to the students in a classroom each group of students has its own spirit. In everyday life this is true as well. From neighborhood to neighborhood the different spirits can be seen and felt. It is in our lives on many levels.
Spirit isn’t limited to people. Our pets have them too. If you have had more than one you have seen this clearly. One dog can be fun-loving and playful while another would just as soon lie in your lap. One bird can bond with only you while another is comfortable with the whole family. A cat, usually an independent creature, may like to be treated like a member of the family. So we can say that all living creatures have a spirit.
Places can have a spirit. A community can be an artist colony, open and eclectic. Another can be made up of business managers and owners. This could lead to a community that is conservative and reserved. Nature has a spirit as well. Like a person’s spirit it is something that you can’t prove is there. Yet, when you spend time in nature you can feel it and not know.
It is when you leave nature and return to everyday life that you feel nature’s spirit. It has a mystical power that has left its mark. You feel rejuvenated, energized and ready to face everyday life. More relaxed, you seem to be able to handle problems with ease. Depending on your own spirit this effect could last a long time. How much time you spend in nature could have an influence on how long the effect lasts.
There are many different kinds of activities that you can do in nature. Sports are a popular activity and a good place to start. They get you up and moving. In the local park you can go for an evening walk, a regular run, or participate in a team sport. Other sporting activities include nature as part of the event. These range from sailing, water skiing, and surfing to snowboarding and downhill skiing. Vacations routinely bring us into nature. Camping trips, hunting, fishing or a winter retreat to a tropical paradise to soak up the sun are just a few examples. We also try to bring nature into our homes with things like tropical house plants and outdoor gardens. We do many things to bring nature into our lives, to help keep us living in balance and harmony.
I go on hiking trips regularly. It is amazing the effect a day of hiking has on me. I have a condition called Fibromyalgia. For those of you who don’t know what this is, I will give you a brief explanation. It is an overactive nervous system. A person with this condition becomes overly sensitive in every function provided by the nervous system. Sensitivities to lights, noises, smell and taste become heightened. It also causes widespread pain throughout your body. I bring this up for proof of the mystical power of nature’s spirit. I bring 25 pounds of camera equipment with me on these hikes. This should cause me a great deal of pain. Yet, when I am out there taking the pictures, I feel no pain at all. This would rarely happen in my everyday life. Nature does have a way of healing man’s spirit, if only for a little while.
The intent of the pictures that follows is to capture nature’s spirit and bring it into your home. I hope you enjoy them.
JTR Imaging Photography Studio and Custom Framing
Tailor-Made Art that Connects With the Heart and Soul of Nature