From Chinese Scroll Paintings to Cubism - Making Spiritual Connections at Kripalu

A 24 hour visit to the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health was a transformative journey.

Multi-Pointed Awareness

I arrived stressed and distracted and left relaxed and renewed with a deeper spiritual connection. This in-camera multiple exposure of Shiva strives to convey a cosmic realm, the place of connection beyond words.

Shiva

The statue presides over the main hall.  During yoga class, the teacher said, "Thousands and thousands and thousands of yoga classes have been taught in this room."

Bread, Vegetables, Spices

The healthy food offerings contributed to the health of mind, body and spirit.

Accidental Orange

In a past part of this life, I worked as a photojournalist.  At many events, navigating around important people or protestors, I was rather obtrusive.  My photographic skin has become thinner, I guess, as while darting around the dining hall taking images I felt very self-conscious. Accidental Orange is a "mistake" due to my rushing.

Raw Material

Nestled in the Berkshires overlooking Lake Mahkeenac, the beauty of the grounds further fed my spirit.

Lake and Trees

I knew immediately that the misty day necessitated homage to Chinese scroll paintings. Pondering a title for this work, I searched for titles of scroll paintings and found that many where plainly descriptive, such as Bamboo and Rocks or Spring Landscape.

This sparse approach evokes that of Cubist painters:  Girl with Mandolin, for example, or Violin and Jug.  These pioneering painters not only inspired my way of photographically seeing the world in multiple planes, but also prompted the use of simple titles that clue viewers into the basis of my abstractions.

I want to go back.

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Nature Nourishes Group Exhibition at ArtSpace Hartford: Images and Artist Statement

(Hope to see you at the opening reception: Friday Aug 19, 2011 6-10pm ArtSpace Hartford, 555 Asylum Street, Hartford, CT, 06105  If the parking lot behind the gallery building is full, across the street is parking at the train station.) 

The tipping point for me:  during the year end holidays I saw a man walking through a mall in Boston, lovingly cradling his iPad, looking at the screen with reverence and love, oblivious to reality taking place around him.

Inside Looking Through

I find this approach living troubling and distressing.  It's akin to reality TV:  sitting and watching other people live their lives rather than having a life yourself.

This iPodus Americanus sighting prompted a New Year’s Resolution:  spend less time on the computer.  I have written fewer blog posts and more postcards, spent fewer lunch breaks in front of a screen and taken more walks, and have embraced the here-and-now of physical reality rather than an untouchable cyber one.  I’ve read novels, used dictionaries and phone books, and spent more time outside.

Like a Shell and Seeds on a Pod

I am not against everything digital.  I am, however, talking about perspective.

Using a digital camera, for example, allows for freer experimentation, due to instant image feedback and zero costs for film and processing.

Earth, Water and Flora

This freedom spurred the creation of the images submitted to Nature Nourishes.  Earth Water and Flora and Visible Photons  - Do thoughts Have Mass? are in-camera multiple exposures.

Visible Photons - Do Thoughts Have Mass?

I used a slow (½ second) shutter speed and moved my camera during the exposure to create the impressionistic Like Butter.

Like Butter (Sunrise Over the Connecticut River)

Often in the morning, on my way to teach, I stop alongside the Connecticut River to meditate.  Many times I pause my practice to grab a camera and shoot (see the double exposure - Cycles of Life).  These in-the-moment experiences with nature feed me.

Cycles of Life

I recently photographed anti-nuclear activists holding a vigil in Brattleboro, VT on the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.  Brattleboro is 6 miles from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.  Vermont Yankee's reactor is the same model as those at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

Nuclear fears began to grip me during my next morning meditation, as my riverside sacred space is about 17 miles downstream from Vermont Yankee.  “Is the water radioactive?” I wondered.

However, as I sat in my car and focused on my breath, I felt that the flowing river connected me to all beings.  “We are all vulnerable,” I thought.

Suddenly, a moist, warm, nourishing breeze blew in my car window and carried my fears out the other side.

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Brattleboro Vermont Anti Nuclear Vigil Held on the 25th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster

Looking at this still image, can you almost hear the chanting?

Namu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo

Now, take a look/listen to/at this video.



Six miles from Brattleboro is the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.  Vermont Yankee's reactor is the same model as those at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

Thank You For Honking

The demonstrators also received an occasional middle finger, or a driver revving his truck and intentionally spewing exhaust.

Smart - Safe - Sanitary

I ducked into a restaurant to use the bathroom and the concept of using electricity to dispense a paper towel in this age of the BP oil spill and the Fukushima crisis seemed excessively wasteful and unnecessary.

Peace

There were representatives from: Citizens Awareness Network, New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, Nuclear-Free Future and Taprock Center for Peace and Justice.  Also in attendance was Yukio Iimura from Japan, who is in America for three months, walking, chanting and drumming for various causes.

Hand and Shell

The Jabiluka hand symbol represents Aboriginal opposition to uranium mining in Australia.  The red and yellow background matched perfectly with the colors of a nearby Shell gas station sign. Using the image overlay function on my Nikon D200 digital camera, I combined two separate images to make this one.

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