Monday, August 18, 2008

Finding Inspiration in Nature


"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes"___Marcel Proust



I mention often in my writing about how much I enjoy Nature and how I love to find inspiration for my artwork from Nature. These photos were taken a year or so ago during a trip to the the High Desert in Southern California to a place called Joshua Tree National Park. It is an amazing place to visit and the sights are incredible. Many people cannot imagine that a desert could be beautiful but the rock formations are so amazing it is almost as though giant hands actually carved the rocks out of clay and just dropped them into the barren desert a thousand years ago, and they remain unchanged for us to enjoy today.


There is vegetation in the desert, and depending on whether or not the desert had any rain the previous winter, will determine how colorful. But it is all a feast for the eyes. The inspiration I get from being in the desert, is unlike what you find on the beach or walking through the woods in the high Sierra region of California. That area is no less serene however, with the same kind of gargantuan rock formations and lovely streams and watersheds scattered throughout the region, but with the tall forests around, you feel a sense of protection, perhaps, less vulnerable than in the desert. But either place is a place of beauty and serenity. If one was inclined to paint, you would never run out of subject matter, for the shapes and colors of the simplest things take on new meaning when you start to examine them from different perspectives. Like the photo I took of the small stream with leaves and branches suspended above it.

Both of the two photos here were taken in the High Sierra mountains where the giant redwoods grow and if one wanted to get lost forever, this would be the place to go. A beautiful paradise to discover and explore nature, opportunities for hiking, camping and taking pictures are endless.

How I derive "inspiration" from Nature is not that I seek to copy nature in my art, but true inspiration to me is a feeling that fills me INSIDE my Heart and Soul with the joy of just being there. Touching the ground, smelling the trees and walking on the rocks, I connect to something older and larger than myself. It is a humbling experience. It also encourages a feeling of inner peace. It is from that place of well being that I regenerate my own creativity, problem-solving ideas and general overall being more grounded. My head is clear, my thoughts are more focused and my thoughts flow more easily.

People have become so "out of touch" in their busy lives: get up, make breakfast, read the paper, rush to get ready to start the day, rush to get to lunch, grab a "meal on the go", finish our job, run errands, get back home for the kids or pets, throw a microwave dinner in the oven and spend the night watching TV...and on and on it goes for days on end. Some of us even have more than one job! This is life for many people today, not all, but many. Is it any wonder that we have so much depression in the world and people with feelings of low self esteem? Is it any wonder that so few people can derive inspiration from anything when they do not understand or seek out the balance between Man and Nature? Nature is there for all of us to enjoy and derive love and joy from...that is its precise purpose. But it is Man who has turned its back on Nature it seems and at time appears to be at war with nature and Mother Earth.

Many of us have neighbors in our neighborhood whom we have never met in two or more years. We are living less than 500 feet from each other and don't even know their names? Our society depends on the television, and computers to tell us what is real. But true reality is right in front of us....living and breathing. Are we too out of touch to notice? Are we too focused on the insanity of day to day meaningless nonsense most of the time, to even take time to notice what IS real?


How can we be inspired for anything magnificent if we are too busy to notice a beautiful rock formation, or the colors of the rainbow in a stream? or the flowers of a cactus in full bloom? How can we write a beautiful stream of words, to someone we love, if our minds are too cluttered with thoughts of nothingness just to get through the day? Can you find beauty in a cactus? or a desert junkyard? Can you be awe inspired by an exquisite sunset ? Inspiration is all around us every day, we just need to make the choice to seek it out. Nuggets of beauty are all around you in the desert, and forests, along the beaches, little gems of nature that are there for everyone's inspiration!




I realize that not all people are so out of touch with Nature and themselves, but a lot of people, myself included, are managing a lot of things in their lives these days and often do not take time to "smell the roses". But as an Artist and creative person, it is extremely important to recharge your creative batteries from time to time, on a regular basis. The more you do this the more you will realize that it is not only fun, it is essential to staying balanced and inspired. Some of my best creative ideas come from taking a walk in a quiet place where I can observe nature in action - or non-action. There, you are forced to slow down as you "attune" energetically to the environment. A desert or forest is not exactly the place to go if you want to see things moving quickly and in fact, everything seems to slow down to a crawl, which is good. It's also why things there do not appear to change too much from year to year except for the effects that Man has upon Nature. Left to its own accord, Nature is pretty resilient and not normally violent. But when Mother Nature does decide to attack, she is the most powerful and potentially destructive forces on Earth. To me, this is a good reason to treat her with respect.

Another beautiful end to a beautiful day.

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