Openings Connecting: NEVER SEEN...

Sunday, March 11, 2012

NEVER SEEN...

UNTIL YESTERDAY MORNING,

I'D NEVER SEEN A FLOCK OF CRANES.

FLYING IN FROM THE EAST

TOWARD WHERE I STOOD

IN THE SAND DUNES

AT THE EDGE OF OUR BIG LAKE,

THEIR CALLS TOOK ME TO MY KNEES

and made me

COMPLETELY PRESENT

10 comments:

rivergardenstudioMarch 11, 2012 at 4:31 PM
How amazing to see a flock of cranes flying above you, Neva. Once I went out to the refuge near our house and saw hundreds of snow geese. It was such a beautiful sight, I will never forget the sounds of their calls and their wings over my head. Everything is so lovely here. Your photographs are strong and soft.
roxanne
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ValeriannaMarch 11, 2012 at 4:31 PM
Wow, how beautiful and how amazing the power of that moment. I've never experienced that, I wonder about the calls as they took you to your knees... that's something.
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ELFIMarch 12, 2012 at 12:32 AM
jolie prise...ces oiseaux sont magnifiques...
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ArtPropelledMarch 12, 2012 at 2:53 AM
How wonderful to have experienced this Neva! Late one afternoon, after a storm, as the sun was breaking out of the clouds, a pair of Gymnogenes (large raptors)flew straight towards and then over me, so close I could see the fine details of each feather. A moment when I wanted to drop to my knees.
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Caterina GiglioMarch 12, 2012 at 6:27 AM
oh my... takes my breath away, I have seen one or two here, but a whole flock... amazing..... x
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Leslie Avon MillerMarch 12, 2012 at 8:46 AM
Yes, yes, yes, on knees before the glory of teaming life!
Thank you Neva. "My heart and your heart have been friends for a long, long time."
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Two Graces, 105 Barela Lane, Taos NM 87571March 12, 2012 at 9:17 AM
Great moment, time to watch "Winged Migration" again.
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layersMarch 12, 2012 at 6:47 PM
Yes, completely present and in the moment... breath in and breath out.
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UnknownMarch 12, 2012 at 8:04 PM
the Japanese call them "the bird of happiness"

simply breathtaking
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FOUR DIRECTIONS/FOUR VISIONS: Two Graces: First showing for me, JUNE 3, 2011

With no directions home, I found Taos in the late 60s. It felt like home immediately. It still does. I know this sentiment is familiar to countless others.

The mountain stopped me in my tracks, and I stayed for several years. Since that time, I circle back annually.

To me, that circle is symbolic of this body of work at Two Graces. This is a time in my life when I've been fortunate enough to experiment with art making. Not surprisingly, I found myself drawn back to the images in the Ektachrome slides that I'd taken in the early 80s of Chaco Canyon, the San Francisco de Asis Church, dusty roads, and the ever changing skies of Northern New Mexico. The spirit of this adobed land lingers in my core and manifests itself within these works.

This past Michigan winter was spent creating enlarged negatives from my thirty year old slides, pulling part of my past into the present via today's tools of scanner and computer. Using traditional silver-gelatin darkroom processes, these resurrected and modified negatives acquired a new life. The majority of these prints are the result of this mediated reincarnation.

The smaller images took me into photographic processes from the mid-1800s. These handmade platinum/palladium prints are created coating vellum, for translucency, with these metal salts and exposing them to ultraviolet light. They are then bathed in the alchemy of the darkroom. The tonal qualities are unique in each print. Finally, 24k gold is layered to the backs of the prints, emanating the warmth, glow, and depth of these beloved places.