Urban Wallpaper

These photographs are part of my "Urban Wallpaper" series. I'm interested in how street scenes (including local architecture) reflect and reveal trends in a particular culture, as well as some larger truths about the human condition. In this shot, manikins command the attention of passersby on a New York City street.

Waiting for the Long Island Railroad. The person standing on the other side of the tracks could represent a parallel reality, or vis a vis the schoolgirls, a subjective/objective dichotomy or personal/impersonal paradox.

While the rich pride themselves on their "gated communities," the poverty of a neighborhood can be assessed by the number of locks and barriers on its doors and windows.

In a Lookist society, human beings are reduced to commodities.

Exiting the train into a maze of steel and reflective surfaces.

"The Gates," by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, was a large scale art installation whose effect was to bring together people from all places and cultures in a new kind of experience. The experience of strolling among the giant saffron "Gates" and seeing them unfurl across Central Park, reached across political and religious barriers.

View of Manhattan from the west. I like the contrast of the open water of the river, with the crowded skyline.

I hope you've enjoyed these photos. If you want to see more of my "Urban Wallpaper" series, you can check out my "exhibitions" at www.absolutearts.com/lyndalehmann . All images and text c Lynda Lehmann. Thanks for looking!

Festival

"Festival" is one of my recent paintings. It's an active and colorful abstract with an impasto surface, lighthearted and slightly humorous. Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas, 36 x 30 inches. Image c Lynda Lehmann. I've entered this piece into the Saatchi Gallery "Showdown," so if you like it, you can vote for it (two seconds and just two clicks) between June 11 and June 18 at the following link. Thanks for your support!
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=24843

African Violet

This is one of my older works. The original abstract mixed media painting is on Arches paper, 12 x 16 inches. It's a stylized but delicately-shaded and textured rendering, with negative spaces that are important to the composition. I tried to convey the sensous unfolding of the pink petals. I used salt to create the textured areas, and a bit of Prismacolor pencil for the thin lines.

Available as an archival print on canvas, at www.lyndalehmann.com . The original framed painting is not for sale. Image c Lynda Lehmann.

Child's Play

This abstract acrylic painting is 30 x 36 inches on gallery-wrapped canvas. Whimsical and childlike, the challenge of this piece was spatial. "Child's Play" reminds me of the colored plastic shapes I enjoyed as a child, setting multi-hued, plastic triangles and rectangles against a shiny black background. That toy probably inspired my first conscious awareness of my fascination for form and color. Image c Lynda Lehmann. Available at http://www.lyndalehmann.com/

MY SYNDICATED POSTS

Here are a few of my posts which have been syndicated by other publications, through my membership at BlogBurst. I will update this list from time to time.

*Today's Photo: Red Glory...4/23/2009...Chicago Sun Times

*Digital Fantasies with Lights and Orbs...5/31/2009...Computer Shopper

*Digital Fantasies with Lights and Orbs..,5/31/2009...Chicago Sun Times

*Serene Lake Scenes, Seen from the Shallows...6/21/2009...Chicago Sun Times

*Experience as a Survival Imperative...6/02/2000...Chicago Sun Times

*What's in a Name?…The Local Color of Maine...10/04/2009...Computer Shopper

*Garden Harmony...7/17/2009...Chicago Sun Times

*Inklings of the Sublime...11/07/2009...Chicago Sun Times

*The Nature of Pine Bark: Beauty in Every Line and Pore...12/03/2009...Computer Shopper

*Where My Heart Loves to Wander...7/23/2009...Chicago Sun Times

*HELP HAITI NOW!...1/14/2010...Chicago Sun Times

*Quiet Witness on a Snowy Day...3/1/2010...Computer Shopper

*Sibilant Songs of the Shoreline: Surf, Shells, Seagulls, Sand and Sky...3/15/2010/...Chicago Sun Times

*Rush of Water, Hiss of Foam - Cut and Edited...3/23/2010...Chicago Sun Times

*Birch Over Water...3/31/2010...Answerbag 2010

*Creating False Value: The Mark of Emptiness?...4/13/2010...Anwserbag 2010

*At One and in Harmony: Perceptions from the Middle of the Lake...9/02/2010...Answerbag 2010


*New Abstract Painting: Pragmatic Red... 2/11/2011...Answerbag 2010 

*Bold Pattern...11/9/2010...Answerbag 2010 

*"Magic Lamp" Silk Scarf Designs...11/11/2010...Answerbag 2010 

*Ice Abstract: Nature's Subtle Palette and Dynamic...1/29/2011...Answerbag 2010 

*In Praise of Abstraction...4/5/2011...Computer Shopper 

*Wishing You A Clear Path...12/23/2010...Answerbag 2010

Colors of the Sun

No matter how much I read in the way of explanation, certain phenomena continue to amaze me. For instance, the concept that sunlight contains all the colors of the spectrum, and the colors of all things are determined by the way in which their particular molecular structure reflects/refracts sunlight. Consider the colors of a rainbow against a gray-green stormy sky, or the colors and patterns of Aurora Borealis. Or the hues of flowers.

Color as an inherent property of variations of molecular structure seems so marvelous, intricate and amazing a scheme to me, and so improbable. In fact, the existence of color in all its rich, gorgeous and mellifluous variations, seems entirely unlikely to unfold by virtue of the laws of science. If color is an adjunct form or system of ordering within the complexity of the universe, why such an extended nomenclature? Hence I am driven again, to believing in miracles. Not in a Biblical sense, necessarily, but in the sense of something awesome and extraordinary. Whether such miracles derive from the exigencies of evolution or by the hand of God, is beyond both my knowledge, ability, and desire to expound upon. Suffice it to say that my sense of awe is piqued by such seemingly serendipitous gifts of organized complexity.

In spite of a number of books that address the marvel of the apparently self-ordering qualities of the universe, I cannot conceive of the ubiquitous and layered complexity that makes up our world.

In this painting, "Colors of the Sun," I was paying homage to the wonder of color. Light from the sun contains all the colors in our visible spectrum. So essentially, sunlight casts layers of color all over our world. Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas, 30 x 36 inches.

If you would like to see more of my art please visit www.lyndalehmann.com. Or read my articles at http://www.creativityportal.com/articles/lynda-lehmann/. Image and all text c 2007 Lynda Lehmann.

The Garden in Spring

Acrylic painting on gallery-wrapped canvas, 24 x 30 inches, evokes the gentleness of a warm spring day and the lushness of tender new growth. The underpainting on this canvas provided a rich surface topography to paint on, and the glow of some of the underlying colors shows through. Sweet and lyrical. Image c Lynda Lehmann.

To see more of my painting and photography, please visit www.lyndalehmann.com

Fire and Water

Like many people, I am fascinated by small and fleeting phenomena. Snow crystals on the window pane, the textures of water as it flows over pebbles in a crystal-clear stream, patterns of foam at seaside or patterns in licks of hearthflame--fleeting moments of nature, the elements in their changing forms, whose shape, texture, and shimmer evoke elemental and eternal things beyond our ability to comprehend. Science may illuminate the mechanism, but not the mystery, of nature's cycles. This painting is acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas, 24 x 36 inches. Please visit www.lyndalehmann.com if you would like to see more of my work! Image and text c 2007 Lynda Lehmann.

IN PRAISE OF PROCESS

Back in the 60s, I read the humanist psychologists. Seems they all talked about one kind of process or another. The process of learning, the process of rebelling, the process of creating, the process of loving. I read Abraham Maslow, Karl Rogers, Alan Watts, Rollo May, to name a few. There were so many, I can't remember them. No matter what their particular slant, the emphasis in those years seemed to be on either "Being" or "Becoming." At the tender age of 19 or 20, I knew I was nowhere near the mark. All the concepts made sense, but it was intellectual sense, not the kind that resonates deep inside.

Now, many decades later, I look back in awe at how much "Becoming" I missed. Living in the suburbs, raising a child and participating in all the cooperative functions that mostly mothers ran, even while they juggled jobs, homemaking and child-rearing, had its satisfactions. But my creativity was relegated to the sidelines of my experience, for sure.

I always wrote during the toddler nap years, and through nursery school, as well. During the elementary and later years of our daughter's schooling I penned four novels and a bunch of stories--mostly soft, sociological science fiction for young adults. So I always played around with ideas, and have two of four novels that I hold dear because they embrace my deepest values. The other two novels were fun but were more "entertainment" than value-driven. I finally gave up writing to pursue my art, which had for years been on the back burner even though I took an occasional painting class at the local art league, to keep my hand in it. One day I may pick up those manuscripts and send them out again. But right now I'll "settle" for the art. For me, both art and writing are consuming processes that require total commitment, and I'm not one of those people who can do everything. I'm not willing to sacrifice quality (or what I perceive as quality) for quantity.

I find that now, at my seasoned age, I have the time and wherewithal to devote myself to creative process. Finally, it is a process, and I'm grasping the "Being-ness" that everyone was talking about in the 60s. In the past year, I have fallen in love with painting. I could eat and sleep, walk and talk, painting. As a matter of fact, I awaken with too many ideas to get up and make notes on, for fear that my adrenaline will then keep me up all night.

The process has taken over and finally, it's not being truncated by other concerns. I'm still delinquent on gardening and as domestically challenged as ever, but I don't mind defaulting on some of those obligations. And if dinner is late, well, everyone knows where the frig is.

It's not as if I don't have any problems. I do, like every other human being. But the overriding feeling, as I delve more and more into the feel and character of the paint, is bliss. I feel so fortunate to be experiencing this joy. One thing leads to another--each image calls for a dozen or a thousand variations. The bounty is overwhelming, the color and rhythm and flow of it the most satisfying experience I have had in this life. I thank the powers that be for this creative impulse that is at once a joy and a burden. But if I have to have a burden, creativity is the burden I want.

The only real difference between then and now, is that I finally have continuity, the time to BE in the experience. I have process. Thank goodness for process.

Text and Photo c 2007 Lynda Lehmann. Please visit www.lyndalehmann.com to see more of my art or read some of my ideas about art. You can purchase "Straight to Heaven" at my site.

WATER TAPESTRY

I took this shot of multi-colored leaves and pine needles scattered on the dark lake surface, in the Sebago Lake region of Maine. Autumn was approaching and the leaves had just started to turn. The first ones had already fallen. I cropped and adjusted this image in Photoshop, and only slightly tweaked the beautiful colors of the leaves. Nature never ceases to amaze and inspire me!


"Water Tapestry" was accepted into "The Art of Digital Imagery," the Center for Fine Art Photography show in Fort Collins, CO, this June. Only 50 out of 300 images were chosen for the show. The exhibit will also be posted online, and I'll post the link when it's available.


"Water Tapestry" is my best-selling photographic print! To see more of my work, please visit http://www.lyndalehmann.com/, where I have hundreds of images to chose from. Image c Lynda Lehmann.

The Forest Floor in Autumn

For me, this painting evokes the sweet, damp air of the woods in autumn, when the forest floor is vibrant with the litter of fallen leaves layered over moss and lichen--a panoply of rich colors, odors, and textures.

In advance of its inevitable slide into winter, Earth yields her bounty, which you can smell in the air and feel underfoot. And the sweet musk in the twilit air of the autumn afternoon speaks at once, of both decay and regeneration.

Some of the most interesting life forms lurk in the quiet, hidden places guarded by tree roots and boulders. There the emerald moss spreads, unnoticed, and fungi branch in their own design and designated life song.

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas, 30 x 40 inches. Text and image c 2007 Lynda Lehmann.

Available at www.lyndalehmann.com