archive | jhart

these ‘photo sketches’ represent the everchanging results of nature’s action upon the environment, parts of which may be artificial (man-made). these results are temporary ‘still-lifes’ composed of things usually insignificant or un-noticed by us as we ‘go about our business’. it is certainly necessary for us to be ‘about our business’, it being that which provides us with the means of sustenance, of survival; yet these often overlooked details can capture meaning in a way that overcomes our habitual gaze with a power to touch a part of ourselves that, while remaining largely undeveloped, still somehow invites our attention as a reflection of itself (that ‘part’). and so, in my opinion, it may be helpful, even needful, to recognize this connection, trying to include it in our consciousness even as we pursue our goals and perform the tasks that we set ourselves in order to accomplish them. thus, i think of these photo collections as a visual representation of such an idea, and, at the same time, a kind of ‘symbolism of the insignificant’ that may serve to draw our thought, in contemplation, toward appreciation of our present moment. these very considerations are of course primary to many traditions, spiritual and artistic, such as ‘zen’ and ‘wabi-sabi’. aesthetically, my eye is drawn (in these compositions), to the interplay between rigid structures that are artificial, and dynamic structures, which we experience as ‘forces’, in nature, existing and operating independently of us. the photo sketches depict the results of this interaction; although there is a tremendous disparity in scale between our structures, and the totality of ‘forces’ which act upon them (and which they, our creations, are indeed designed to resist), nevertheless the two are inextricably linked in symbiosis.