WHY A SQUIRREL'S-EYE VIEW MIGHT BE JUST WHAT YOU NEED RIGHT NOW

It does us good to occasionally look at the world through someone else's eyes, even if those eyes are small, black, and beady. Where is your focus today? Is it on your to-do list, your smart phone, your work, or your worries? Spring surrounds us and so do little creatures whose perspective can refresh our own. Unlike humans, they don't fret over situations they can't control. Take a deep breath and feel the stress slip away as you tour my Tacoma, Washington, garden from a squirrel's viewpoint.

Whew! That made me hungry, and we all know what squirrels like best.

Thanks for taking time to have some fun today.

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CAMERA CAPTURES GOLDEN GLOW OF SUNSET

On Sunday night, more than ever before in my life, I felt the urge to fly. I wanted to be far higher than my location would allow in order to fully appreciate the spectacular sunset. It began with an eerie golden glow on the clouds without the sun actually being visible. (All of these photos are completely unedited, taken with my point-and-shoot digital on the "scenes" setting and "sunset" selected.)

 



Like all sunsets and most of life's richest experiences, this one required "being in the moment." It changed from one second to the next. From its beginning of a luminous apricot color, it deepened quickly to a more reddish hue while tints of purple crept in. Soon a crack in the cloud cover appeared on the horizon. The previously hidden fiery sun burned beyond, igniting the edges of the fissure with electric brilliance.

 

By this time, lines of dots started to appear, as shown above. I wish I could have capture an image of the patterns of orange against purple that developed, changed, and disappeared before me.

 





The original widespread orange glow had disappeared, overtaken by purple clouds. There on the horizon, the setting sun blazed through its final glory. Then it, too, was gone.

 

As I first became aware of that strange golden glow from my home office window in Tacoma, my husband saw it from the summit of Snoqualmie Pass on his way home from Eastern Washington. I wonder how many others happened to notice this drama in the sky. Did you? In case you missed it, I hope you enjoy these photos.

 

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Ice Storm Art: A Winter Garden Tour Revisited

 

If you think it's chilly outside this weekend, let me remind you of the weather we experienced during the third week of January last year. I'm republishing this blog post from Jan. 20, 2012 because so many of my readers enjoyed the photos of plants encased in ice. All day today, people had to listen to me whine about being cold. Then I remembered this.

 

 

Original post:

 



Here on Good Life Northwest, I've shown photos of my Tacoma garden in every season, but never any like these. To anyone watching me yesterday, I must have looked crazy, hunched down next to my plants to take photos while trying to protect my camera from frozen rain.

 

I can still hear the crunch of my boots through the crust of ice over what had started as 8-9" of snow but had condensed into a treacherous mess. That sound is preferable to the sound of breaking branches. We lost three huge tree limbs and can't tell yet what damage might be done to our shrubs. But at least we didn't lose power, like so many others, an estimated 230,000 across the state, according to Puget Sound Energy.

I hope you aren't one of them. I want to be able share with you these images of the beauty that can be found on even the most miserable day, if you take the time and have the inclination to notice. So pour another cup of coffee, feel gratitude for the roof over your head and all the other things we too often take for granted, and enjoy the show.

Don't worry. The feeder was thawed and refilled immediately after taking this photo.

All photos and text copyrighted 2012 Candace J. Brown

 

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The Photography of Michael Kenna at Tacoma Art Museum is Andidote to Hectic Holiday Season

The photo of two piers extending onto a calm lake was small, less than eight inches on a side. I needed to slow down and move up close to see it and contemplate what I saw. And when I did, the print became the portal to another world, one of silence and stillness, a world where I forgot my own, and at the same time, remembered what it is to simply observe, be present, and breathe.

Michael Kenna, Two Piers, Imazu, Honshu, Japan, 2001 Sepia-toned gelatin silver print, 7 5/8 x 7 3/4 inches. Courtesy of the artist and G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle.

Part I of an exceptional exhibit called Memories and Meditations: A Retrospective of Michael Kenna's Photography is at the Tacoma Art Museum, until January 6, 2013. If you haven't already seen it, please take the time in the next week to do so, as a gift to yourself this season. Kenna is a highly renowned photographer whose work has been collected by numerous museums worldwide, and this is his first U.S. retrospective in nearly two decades.

 

 

Michael Kenna, Kussharo Lake Tree, Study 1, Kotan, Hokkaido, Japan, 2002. Sepia-toned gelatin silver print, 7 5/8  x 7 1/2 inches. Courtesy of the artist and G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle. 

Just before the exhibit opened on October 6, 2012, I had the opportunity to see a preview and the privilege of meeting and speaking with Michael Kenna. Both experiences left me with my own memories and meditations, from which I drew moments of serenity to keep me going through the three months of busy days since.



Michael Kenna Frozen Fountain, Belle Isle, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., 1994. Sepia-toned gelatin silver print, 7 1/2 x 8 inches. Courtest of the artist and G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle.



"My work is about the relationship between the structures that humans leave behind and the sheer beauty of this world of ours," Kenna said that day. He spoke of being "struck by the simplicity" and the "profound, beautiful mysteriousness of this world." I never thought I would see beauty in eerie images of a nuclear power plant in England, or a factory in France, but I did. In his work, the viewer sees the mark of mankind but never mankind itself.

 





Michael Kenna, Ratcliffe Power Station, Study 40, Nottinghamshire, England, 2003. Sepia-toned gelatin silver print, 7 5/8 x 7 5/8 inches. Courtesy of the artist and G.Gibson Gallery, Seattle.





Kenna has lived in the United States for decades but was born in England. He and his wife now reside in Seattle. Since the 1970s, he has photographed subjects in places ranging from urban to remote, as far away as Asia, Egypt, Mexico, Easter Island, and Russia, and as close as Portland, Oregon, often returning to the same locales year after year. His photos interpret and share the simplicity in which he finds beauty. They reflect his own spirituality and his patience. Instead of digital images, Kenna still makes sepia-toned gelatin silver prints. And he make them small. On purpose.

Michael Kenna, Lace Factories, Study 21, Calais, France, 1998. Sepia-toned gelatin silver print 7 5/8 x 7 5/8 inches. Courtesty of the artist and G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle

 



"I want people to be engaged with the image," he said. "I want people to go quite close to the image to become part of a conversation with the image. In fact, I almost want people to wander into the image to become part of that single world." Kenna likes the element of surprise involved with his process. He photographs at odd times of day or sometimes makes exposures as long as ten hours, through weather changes and whatever happens. "Things move. Things change, and they're recording on the film. I'm not in control, and that's good," he said.

"So when I see the contacts, I see the world again. I have the new world in front of me. It's a very similar experience to going out into the landscape in the first place." He then creates a little album and lives with the images for a while until he decides which are the strong ones. "This is a new experience now, between me and this image. And then, I'll go in the darkroom and print." He does every bit of the printing himself, and calls it "an essential part of the creative process."

Rock Hushka, the museum's director of curatorial administration and curator of contemporary and Northwest art, brought up the quirky coincidence that Michael's first exhibition in the United States (1978) was in a Seattle gallery owned by Chase Rynd, who became the director of the Tacoma Art Museum a few years later. By now, Kenna's work has been in 600 exhibitions around the world and more than 50 books have been published about his art. "So to have such a treasure here in the Northwest," Hushka said, "that was one of the reasons for us to do the show, to make sure that we honor such a distinguished artist in our midst."

Rock Hushka, Director of Curatorial Administration and Curator of Contemporary and Northwest Artat the Tacoma Art Museum (left) and Michael Kenna (right) posed for a photo at the preview. Photo by Candace Brown.

While images of Asia, many of which are winter scenes, seem to dominate the current exhibit, Part 2 of the retrospective will be entirely different and will include more representation of the United States and Europe, as well as haunting images of World War II concentration camps. Those, too, will draw viewers into a different world. But until January 6, 2013 you can experience what I experienced last fall: serenity. Maybe that is just what you need right now.


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