The Arc

Lynda Lehmann c 2020 - All rights reserved.

The Arc

I drift on a thought, on the whoosh of a bough.

A giant oak umbrella.


Sky is grey 

but azure patches remain.

It doesn’t matter.

I see my consciousness in clouds

reflected in windshields.

Though just a child I feel special:

nature whispers to tell me who I am.

So many revelations!


With balm and tonic ever close,

storms are fleeting.


Smug with the privilege of secrets shared,

I need no reprieve from this conversation.


Trees have been hugging me since I was old enough to walk.

Two years old or maybe less, on a swing in a playground in Brooklyn,

I peer upward as 

I orchestrate the air.

Jubilant arcs beg the question, “What is the sky?”


How is it that I’m able to swing through the sky?


When I grow older, I realize that the sky conjoins

the infinite potentials of the universe.


And these halls might as well be a palace,

for I am rich.


Lynda Lehmann c 2020 - All rights reserved

Archived Articles on Art-Making at Creativity Portal

Cycle of Beauty c 2019 Lynda Lehmann 
Available on Prints and Merchandise at www.LyndaLehmann.com

Please click the link below to find some of my archived writing on the nature of art-making. I hope something resonates with you!

Thoughts on Creative Process and Art Making

 Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at my Zazzle shops!

DANCE AROUND A FALLEN TREE

View Through a Fallen Trunk - c 2017 Lynda Lehmann

DANCE AROUND A FALLEN TREE

Dance around a fallen tree 

like me, like me.

I’m in and out of the fallen tree

but all around her 

roots will sprout

and later spread in boughs replete

with leaves and shade and 

energy

reverberating out

to where sky, earth and water meet.

And this is where I want to be.

At One, at One,

with the fallen tree.

Lynda Lehmann c 2018

To Write or Not to Write? (Which Hat or Mask to Wear)

Masks - c Lynda Lehmann

Quantum Muse features some interesting short articles on writing. When I read them, I get excited and want to return to my fiction works.

Woe is me. Too many choices, both wonderful and agonizing. Acrylics or digital art? Geometric or organic? Maybe large florals in watercolor.... Hmmmm. Unfinished novels or short stories?  Should I start new work altogether, or try to hone those old poems that are still too wordy? Having a lot of passions is a blessing and a curse.

When I'm in conflict over which choice(s) to make, I tell myself that it doesn't really matter, as long as I know I'm producing and growing in my creative endeavors. 

What's your favorite hat -- or mask?  How do you handle conflicts of which passions to pursue?  Do you lose or find yourself in your primary passion? Or maybe both...?

Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at www.lyndalehmann.com or at my Zazzle shops!

Global to Local in Ecuador

You will undoubtedly find inspiration in watching these young people empowering young people to create transformation in the world.  I know I did.  Kudos to them for all their efforts.  This short video will tell you who they are and something about their goals.

Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at my Zazzle shops!

Excelsior Academy Students Visit Indigenous Village 235 in Ecuador

Here's a short video of the student group that my daughter and her colleague took to Ecuador. The students here are speaking about their perceptions as they visit an indigenous village. It's amazing to hear these students speak, and if you're a humanist, you will love this!

Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at my Zazzle shops!

Global to Local - Excelsior Academy

I’m so proud of my daughter, Jacqueline Hesse, and her colleague Christine McCartney, both teachers at Excelsior Academy, who believe in grassroots action and empowerment. I’m posting this to support their quest to teach and empower their students, who are fighting poverty and other problems in Newburgh, NY, by volunteering and travel education, to help revitalize their community.

It’s truly inspiring to listen to these fine young people who are trying to help themselves and their communities!
Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at my Zazzle shops!

Praising Abstraction

Blooming Joy - Acrylic on Canvas - c Lynda Lehmann

If we are going to discuss the validation of art by virtue of “skill” or “meaning,” we have to give abstraction a fair shake. To my way of thinking, abstract art is more interesting (if not more beautiful) than realism, because it presents a visual experience that has no precedent in reality. It presents something totally new and is its own reality. Realism refers to a single point in time and space even when it is arresting, compelling and speaks to universals.

But abstraction can be richly layered and full of ambiguity and mystery that yields fresh nuances of visual experience with each viewing. To me, abstract art comprises a rich, multi-dimensional experience because it doesn’t cater to the constraints of time and place. The new visual experience it presents is of value in and of itself, and does not require a literal meaning in the usual sense. As a matter of fact, it may call on the viewer to be a more active participant in the viewing, because it reaches beyond our usual scope of perception and lends itself to the subjective reality of each viewer. Art does not need to refer to political or religious ideologies, or even the continuum of human emotions and experience, to garner its meaning. 

It simply is, and therein lies its meaning. And to me, abstraction is very compelling in its visual (and emotional) richness.

As for the “skills” part of the equation, Kandinsky (among others) manifested a high level of both imagination and skill that many realists don’t possess. Good abstraction is difficult to achieve, often involving both concept and great discipline that match or exceed many realist paintings.

Abstract art is often devalued because, to many people, it “looks” easy. To me, it represents the creative experience at its best.




Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at my Zazzle shops!

Web of Light

Web of Light - Image c Lynda Lehmann 2016

Sunlight plays over the surface of a New Hampshire stream, illuminating the pebbles and rocks beneath the flow and adorning them with golden spangles of light that dance and change ad infinitum, creating a calming and hypnotic light show.

I have tweaked and stylized this image with software, to add contrast to the colors and lights and darks.  I hope it fills you with a sense of awe, as it does, me!  

I would rather watch the mystery of nature's cycles unfolding, than have riches in my hand.  My heart and soul sing along with the gurgling light song of the stream. 

Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at my Zazzle shops!

The Magical Time Before Twilight

The Magical Time Before Twilight  - Image c Lynda Lehmann

With the approach of twilight, mystery shrouds the forest and the islands that dot a pristine Maine lake.  Day is not quite finished with her light play on the lake surface.  But night will move in with moonlight, twinkling stars in the ink black sky, and capricious winds playing in new rhythms over the water.  

With each soft puff of sweet lake breeze, my heart fills and quickens.  I am replete.

Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at my Zazzle shops!

A Tree in Maine

A Tree in Maine -  by Lynda Lehmann Art c 2016

Here's a beautiful tree I photographed one spring, in Maine. There were four or five of these Kwanza Cherry Trees in a row, about 20 or so feet from each other, and their pink was just exploding in the sunlight!

Seeing all those cherry trees in a line, glowing pink and magenta in the sun, was wonderful serendipity, a touch of welcome color when walking down a road past grisled forest where the green was broken only by tree trunks and fallen branches.

The sunlight on the trees made the scene seem bigger than life.  Isn't it amazing how the light makes all things pop, indeed, seems to make things come alive?  In short, light seems to make things "real!"

Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at my Zazzle shops!

Musing on Creative Process

Orbiting Seashells - Digital Art c 2016 Lynda Lehmann

I believe the "logic" of abstract art is purely an internal logic: a logic of the visual language. Some or many elements compete for various positions in the totality of the piece, and those elements can be compared to the elements of spoken language. Some areas are dominant, like the subject of a sentence. Some carry the "action," as a verb does. Other areas of the composition are transitional and create linkage between one area and another, kind of like a preposition. 

This is just my own perception. But in my thinking, I have run into this metaphor again and again. And I'm fascinated by the language comparison: in this case, with the analogous visual parts making up the analogous (visual) "whole." 

In what way do YOU regard abstraction?  Maybe you think of it in a musical or psychological or religious paradigm?

Lynda Lehmann c 2013 

from "Peripheral Vision: Inner Sights by Lynda Lehmann"

Note: You can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my sites listed in my sidebar if you would like to see my paintings and more of my photography and digital art, or make a purchase. You can also find cool, artsy gifts at my Zazzle shops!