A Novice Desert Mystic

Mystical Light - Lynda Lehmann c 2013

I dance in a translucent dream -- a dream of light and verdure.  Drenched in crystalline sunshine, under high fair-weather clouds that cast their shadows like afterthoughts on distant peaks, I feel the land rolling away from me while it percolates with waves of new life: blossoming and blooming and pouring forth all manner of feathery green after a three-day rain.
I have wandered some Northeast forests and always felt I'd seen plenty of what Beauty there is to behold. But the desert's blazing shades of emerald, amber and gold against distant hills flushed red and glistening in the morning sun, make me ecstatic. Rocky flanks rise under luminescent violet puffs that float above -- coasting, those magnificent clouds that look like great arcs sailing the deep skies -- and I know that I'm in a place that changes me.  The epic fullness of stretching, yawning magnificence in diamond-faceted splendor that unwinds within my view, seems impossible. 
Pointed skeletons of trees and ancient pocked Saguaro Queens, scroungy tufts of yellowed brush and telltale signs of nocturnal burrowing creatures: all cast their net of Intrigue to make me feel spellbound.  I am a novice desert Mystic: I have no need to brush aside the Inklings that make me feel buoyant as those sailing clouds.  I am buoyant with joy at the grandeur of Being.
How can I be so fortunate as to feel I've seen Eden?  The scent, the verdure, the great flowing open space unspoiled by the clatter of urban sprawl, wash my soul.  I stand mesmerized.  And I am content and far more whole than I was yesterday.
All the while, the desert whispers its sacred covenant:  Thou shalt not gain dominion, nor command me. 
And the Garden still grows.

Sea of Beauty - Lynda Lehmann c 2013

Golden Light at Evening-Lynda Lehmann c 2013

Desert Covenant - Lynda Lehmann c 2013

That One Lone Tree - Lynda Lehmann c 2013

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.

Stairwells and Other Quiet Spaces That Pique Our Spatial Sensibility

The Banister - Image c 2012 Lynda Lehmann

Seeing this stairwell caught me up short, with the repetition created by the stripes on the carpet and the repetition of the uprights. I also love the division of space and the negative areas created by the turns in the banister and stairs. Looking at this staircase brought out the child in me: the one who was fascinated by the spaces in between the monkey bars!


Is there a special place or half-forgotten nook that piques your childhood sense of excitement and adventure, and your spatial sensibilities? The child in me would love to hear about it!

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 at http://LyndaLehmann.imagekind.com/ or http://www.absolutearts.com/lyndalehmann/ if you would like to see my acrylic paintings and more of my photography and digital art. You can find a list of my other sites and links in my blog's sidebar. Or google my name for more links. I hope you enjoyed your visit!

Of Unknown Origin: The Mysteries of the Universe

Of Unknown Origin - Image c 2012 Lynda Lehmann

Nature cloaks herself in Mystery, not revealing "why." Perhaps She knows that telling, would destroy the quest. She gives us only inklings, some fragile, small glimpses, in order to preserve her Truths. And her message to us, another paradox, is: Protect to Partake.

Please note that you can click on each photo to see a larger version. All images and text on this blog are protected by copyright law, and may be used only with my permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved.

Please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or Lynda Lehmann at Imagekind to see more of my photography, digital art and paintings. You can find my art on great Zazzle products at my Watersky Store. My other sites and links are also listed in my blog sidebar. I hope you've enjoyed your visit!

Celebrating the Ubiquitous Beauties of the World: Artistic Impressions by Lynda Lehmann

Photo c Lynda Lehmann.

Here is the link to some of my articles on creative process, written awhile back and published at Creativity Portal.  I hope you enjoy them.  My favorite is "Art and Power".

Celebrating the Ubiquitous Beauties of the World: Artistic Impressions 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 at http://LyndaLehmann.imagekind.com/ or http://www.absolutearts.com/lyndalehmann/ if you would like to see my acrylic paintings and more of my photography and digital art. You can find a list of my other sites and links in my blog's sidebar. Or google my name for more links. I hope you enjoyed your visit!

Creating False Value: The Mark of Emptiness?

Mad Dogs and Solipsisms
Acrylic on Canvas, c 2009 Lynda Lehmann

This is not a "feel good" post. So if you are depressed today, wait to read it until you're feeling better, or skip it. I don't want to bring anybody down.

I have to say that in all the fascinating options for meeting people, communicating and interacting that are available to us on the web, we've maybe come to an impasse. When everybody is trying desperately to be seen, or heard, or branded, and to sell themselves as a CEO, SEO or expert in multiple facets of every kind of business, the frenzy overpowers any potential for quality or meaning. We're hearing too much about actions and reactions to and from our social networking sites on mainstream newscasts these days, leaving less time to report critical news from around the world. We proudly report numbers, in our love for having amassed vast quantities of essentially anonymous and dis-interested "followers." What does this prove? Are we in kindergarten? Enough is enough, already. Let's talk.

This is only my opinion. Just as we have too many TV channels to choose from, and nine out of ten of them offer trash: the cheapest, basest forms of titillation and over-stimulation in the name of entertainment--however violent or wanton and forever dwelling on the darkest depths of the human soul--we are inundated with sites promising us the best exposure and experience for this and that. I've been drawn to them as much as anybody else, I'm ashamed to admit. Where is our intellectual perspective?

Well, aside from becoming virtual Cyborgs (no pun intended) in our over-reliance on artificial intelligence, we are becoming even more distant from the ability to maintain internalized systems of moral values, taking it by rote instead, in heaping doses, from our respective churches, synagogues and morality gurus. You can't claim to be "religious" if you're a hater (of all who differ from you in their choices) or if you've forgotten the sounds of the human voice, or the cues of lowered eyes, a chuckle, or a facial tic. Or the aroma of blossoms in spring....

Come forward, people, and let's share our humanity instead of our projected, pre-packaged slick personas, fashioned in the need to point people toward our product or creed. Let's communicate honestly and openly about real issues, instead of using social media for their opiate value. Let's be real and forget about presenting ourselves as gurus and experts and financial whizzes, and just talk....

I had to vent tonight. These questions have been on my mind for awhile, and I think they might be questions worth pursuing. Is it because we are jaded by a cultural mindset that proclaims in so many various ways that "More is better?" Are we becoming more neurotic and compulsive in our need to connect, yet somehow defeating our need by being spread so thin? How do you feel about the effect social networking has had on you and the people you know? Do you think our need to create "false value" to sell ourselves, reflects personal insecurity and cultural and economic decline?

As with everything, balance and judgment are requisite. Any behavior, unchecked, can become pathological. For both individuals and societies. If you and your life are not really being enhanced by the quality of your interactions on the web, don't be afraid to back off! Sit down and have a good talk with yourself, for starters. And don't forget that YOU are your best friend!

All images and text c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

Reflecting on the Power of Reflection

We cannot hold time or the seasons, although often enough we would like to put a slice of time in our pockets. Isn't is grand that we are gifted with the power of memory? Without memory we could neither savor the beauty and joy of our experiences, nor learn from them.

Carrying my camera allows me to "capture the rapture," so to speak, by shooting the inspiring sights I see around me every day. So today I will reflect on the beauty of the past summer season, even as time tries to erase its impact on me.

In this photo you see the very fleeting beauty of reflections on the side of a wood boat on a mid-summer's day. The reams of light jiggle and dance like the wind or a fickle tide, reminding the viewer of just how delicate and evasive moments of beauty can sometimes be.

One ephemeral sight I have yet to capture is the sunlight bouncing off the water and shimmering on the trunks and undersides of the pine branches at the lake's edge. I hope to do so in the near future.

Life is precious! Every moment carries the potential for inspiration and yes, even bliss.


Photo and text copyright Lynda Lehmann. All rights reserved.

If you would like to view my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

Reflections on Summer's Passing

A Still and Solitary Time

Water Tapestry

Beneath the Surface

Sunset With Wake

Peace

autumn lays a cold hand on the lake
as its shores slip into evening shadows.
twilight's reminiscences bring joy and sorrow to bear.

under a painted sky i envision the freezing of the lake and the winter gale.

loneliness is in the air, in that settling autumn hush,
as seeking shelter becomes the point of it all.

another season of my life has passed
but in the sureness of beauty, I am comforted.

in the peace over the chilling land, i am replete.

- Lynda Lehmann c 2009



All photos and text copyright Lynda Lehmann. All rights reserved.

If you would like to view my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

Snowflake, Lace, Kale

I started to balance my checkbook tonight, and somehow ended up blogging about this fine botanical specimen, instead. I told you: I'm addicted to blogging! (And to photography, of course...)

This magnificent ornamental kale reflects the wonderful organization of nature, and the idea of fractals, more specifically: the idea of the forms of the parts refecting the form of the whole, and vice versa. It's amazing how each cell of a plant or animal "knows" how to differentiate itself, knows what it "wants to be," in a sense. And it certainly is a visual treat, as well! Image and text c Lynda Lehmann.

You can purchase this image matted at my www.lyndalehmann.com site. My signature will be on the mat, not directly on the print. Or you can purchase it at my Imagekind gallery--plain, matted, or framed. The link is on my home page. For poster prints, you can try my Artist Rising Gallery, also listed on my home page.