Indelible Adventures: Profound Beauty

The sun is streaming into the Starbucks where I’m writing this weeks blog, its warm embrace is deceptive as I had to walk through a veritable blizzard to get to the store this morning. If you closed your eyes you could almost imagine it being a sultry summer’s day outside given the warmth that it’s projecting through the window and not the actual depths of winter that we’re experiencing.

Peering into the sky I also recognize the clouds floating by as those that you’d generally equate with the French Impressionists. I can almost imagine the likes of Monet, Renoir, Sisley or Seurat readying their brushes and canvas ready to slip outside to capture the beauty of the sky this morning albeit a frigid morning (-10C). One of the few things that have stayed the same over the centuries is the landscape of the sky, so even 150 years on you can still observe the same structures, patterns and colors of the skies that those masters captured so beautifully all those years ago.

The old adage that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is so true. Recently an avid reader of my blog who commented on my photography said they were so impressed with my photographic style. So my first question was “what is my photographic style?” Firstly, glad I have one ☺, but secondly so how would you characterize it?

The response I got was both surprising, and deep ...“layered abstract in the everyday”… Who knew? But as I think about my photography that is actually a very good evaluation of my style to this point in time. For me the images that I photograph actually grab my attention and shout out to me “take me, take me” and thus I’m drawn and feel completely compelled to take the shot or series of shots. Apparently when I’m strolling with my cameras I’ve been told that I actually coo when I see “the shot”, (totally involuntarily btw, well that’s my story anyway) and a tad embarrassing that I physically make a sound when I find it but there you have it…probably too much information eh?

One of wonderful things in life is that everyone is an artist at heart, as we all inherently know and understand what we like, how the image makes us feel, and where it takes us emotionally, or perhaps how it teases our senses and passions.

I guess we’re all art critics, to illustrate this even as I’ve strolled the endless rooms of the Louvre in Paris or the Uffizi in Florence and surrounded by arguably some of world's best known masterpieces I'm often a little bored and overwhelmed. Some of the least interesting genres of art for me are the Renaissance period and the Baroque style, and even though I have a deep appreciation of its beauty it does little for me… Yet the inverse is true when I view Impressionist works as they get me every time, there is something about the light that they are able to capture and convey that engages me every single time, and either the painting has the light or it doesn't. Without light it leaves me feeling flat.

Inherently we all gravitate toward beauty and if I can draw a parallel, yes I'm being a little cheeky here in that, I, like the great impressionists am able to see and sometimes even capture the light (okay perhaps only in my dreams, but I figure dream big if you're going to dream!).

Some of my favorite photos are of the inconsequential things that often times get overlooked. You could say it’s almost a “non-image” (if that’s a term, okay I may have just made that word up), because its small or doesn't stand out in the larger realm of things. Sometimes it can be quite abstract, often layered and you have to concentrate to determine what exactly you're looking at - I like making you look and think about what you're seeing.

Another of my other favorites things to do when traveling is to photograph urban art, which is widely regarded as a combination of street art and graffiti. Its been brought into the contemporary art world by the likes of Banksy, the mysterious and well known English urban artist (apparently no one really knows the identity) who have gone onto mainstream prominence. Often though, Banksy’s work includes societal and ironic overtones, which tends to separate it from much of the graffiti that we see today in our streets, lanes and disused buildings.

I love the fact that urban art is so universal in nature, you can be anywhere in the world and capture something that is completely free of any type of distinguishing feature that would tie it to a particular place or time.

I've been trying to determine where my love of art comes from, my family by and large is not an artistic one, my parents were never interested in art nor exposed us to art in any fashion. Although my sister Glenda is quite an accomplished painter, and Sami definitely has the eye for art and especially photography. It surprising how different siblings can be in terms of personality, but also in terms of their artistic and life interests and how varied they are from one to the next, even though they were brought up under the same roof and have the same genetic makeup as their siblings yet so vastly different...makes you think doesn't it!

I realize that I have a gift for photography, and maybe even one for the written word... I definitely feel blessed and honoured to be able to share it with you all each week.

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This weeks photos are a very small collection of my favourite abstract photos as well as some of the best urban art I've photographed in the past year - just from Italy... Enjoy!