a modernistic memory | trails and portraits
years ago
it felt like yesterday
the last trail and the relinquishment of a modernistic memory.
friday with mountains | crabtree falls | hiking for meditation
Hiking for meditation. A recent “Friday With Mountains” hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Western North Carolina.
Crabtree Falls is a 70 ft. cascade on Big Crabtree Creek. The creek spreads over a rock face with many small ledges, giving it a delicate appearance, before trickling into a clear pool at the base. Though there are hardly any crabtrees here now, in the spring, an impressive array of wildflowers abound on the trail, including four species of trillium. By July, ferns fill the forest and soak in the spray of the falls, with rosebay rhododendron in bloom.
The trailhead is located outside Crabtree Falls Campground at mile marker 339.5 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. A trail leads to a footbridge over the creek at the base of the falls. The trailhead loop starts at the parking area just before the entrance to the campground, and is a medium to strenuous hike at just under 2.5 miles in length. The path to the falls is a rugged, downhill 0.9-mile, with a gentler 1.5-mile uphill return following Crabtree creek upstream before looping back to the parking area.
Crabtree Falls information data courtesy of Wikipedia.
into abstraction | a better place
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Sometimes in the waking the reality is more pressing than the dream. And the search for “a better place” takes me inside the abstract. It seems that for only a moment, when art becomes a reality, that I am free from the stress and trials of life. When burden by the complexity of life, I long for escape: Into the abstract. Into the meaning of what it is to be alive. To delineate the constraints of the mundane. To have passion. It is here, in the expression and story of my life through the process of creativity, that I encounter that which gives me any measurable sense of peace and self-awareness.
“Into Abstraction | A Better Place (a viable nuance remix)” continues the theme of the smallest of nuances being the focal point. Within those nuances, the layering of sound and imagery are explored through the digital process. Each film builds upon the vision and nuances of the previous films.
your world beginning | there’s never a dream i need to follow . video remix . piano and waterfalls pt 2 . day 10
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2014 is coming to a close. The major theme has been the two video series entitled “Your World Disappearing” and “Your World Beginning”. I initially created the two series as separate entities, however they have morphed into the same conceptual idea i.e. our lives and the experiences within it are simultaneously disappearing and beginning again and again. There is a merging of the sustainability of the mundane and the wishful aspirations of dreams and a better life. As I worked through the series this year, there was a lot of emotional ambiguity. I have tried to explore the comings and goings of my daily life, and put it into a perspective that negates anything more than what exists in the present moment. However, I can get lost in dreams and desires, the past and memories; believing that there is something significant there. So perhaps the thing that I have discovered is that there is no real disappearing of things or beginning of things just now. The present, mundane, and wishful dreams … inside my head.
Technically the film is a product of several excursions into the process of filming life at home and out in nature. Again, I have used footage from my recent hike along the Graveyard Fields’ trail in North Carolina. Upon reaching the top where the Upper Falls is located, I treaded out among the rocks. I then filmed using a macro (zoom in) setting, the pulsating flow of the falls. It gives the film a lot of its movement in an abstract form. I combined this movement with spatial and ethereal forms as well; fusing the two elements to further the sense of abstraction. These two forms are juxtaposed by the three ‘Transcending the mundane’ clips of life at home; repairing my bike, feeding the cat, and making pasta. The soundtrack continues the theme of “Piano and Waterfalls”. I used samples of field recordings and sublime piano phases to produce a rather delineated and ambiguous sense of being in the moment.
your world beginning | piano and trails – day 9
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Day 9 in “Your World Beginning” is a multi-layered abstraction of landscape and portrait. Filmed in beautiful Haywood County, North Carolina during the Fall, while on the back roads to Waterrock Knob off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is my second video featuring the trail and summit of Waterrock Knob (see the post Maps Mountains and Trails – Day 7). This is the second video using my new Sony software, and I wanted to explore some layering effects with a colored pencil effect as well. And again, I am combining samples of piano and electronic field recordings for the soundtrack. Actually the audio composing, is a very exciting aspect of the video production. Especially when it is within the realm of ambient and electronic composition.
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but Nature’s sources never fail” ~ John Muir
your world beginning | piano and waterfalls – day 8
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The video “Piano and Waterfalls” continues the series “Your World Beginning”. It is an exploration of organic nostalgia i.e. a reflection of the beautiful times and places gone by. “Piano and Waterfalls” was filmed while hiking the Graveyard Fields trail to the Lower and Upper Falls located in the Balsam Mountain range in Western North Carolina. This film is of the Lower Falls which one arrives first after a short hike through the barren fields (a fire burned a large segment of the mountain range in the early 1900’s). Then the trail continues on with a more difficult hike to the Upper Falls. I shot various short segments along the way, which I will feature in a number of parts.
This video is also the first film I have produced using new software. My computer upgraded (without my consent I must say) to Windows 8.1 leaving me with an incapable AVID Studio. I loved working with AVID. And after nearly two years of using the software, I was really beginning to fine tune my use of it. I tried without success to find and install patches that would enable me to continue to use it with Windows 8.1, but with no positive results. So I just purchased the Sony Movie Studio Suite. And it is a learning curve all over again. My goal is to continue to produce quality videos that mirror the progression of my previous work. With this first attempt, I am discovering that there are some questions to the quality of the final video production as an uploaded internet movie. Formatting is a key. Especially when I am using my own video footage. This is a technical challenge, which I hope to conquer in order to create the most visually pleasing and technically diverse films possible.
your world beginning | in a place of subtle distance
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“I love you, so I don’t care what I think of you” – Joan Crawford
… in a place of subtle distance
your world beginning | to the distant fir tree
toward a place of subtle things
through fallen leaves
and barren trees
with maps and moments
along the mountain ridge …
your world beginning | we could die together being in love with this moment
every place has its own beauty
its own moment and place in time
in which we can disappear
or begin again ….
your world beginning | we could live forever chasing this feeling
as things evolve in fragments,
blown by the winter wind
in the gray and distant place
deep within this conversation
– with self
and anyone who will listen … being so far away
we could live forever, chasing this feeling
your world beginning | a place to find inner peace
My latest series entitled “Your World Beginning” searches for found beauty. A beauty, that when discovered, gives the inner soul a place for stillness and rejuvenation.
Things for me in recent months, had been pretty dark emotionally. Artistically I tried to work through my angst in a cathartic way via my previous series “Your World Disappearing”. I am now ready to accept the fate that was handed to me and move on. Years ago, in my process of finding a sustainable recovery, I discovered that physical immersion into landscapes of beauty, moments of solitude, and personal accountability through action would provide the first of four significant paths to peace. This new series is a visual reflection of the desire for discovery and the emancipating steps to take me there.
The mountains have always been a place where I could venture to and find a place of inner peace.
form and void | your world disappearing | video art
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My fifth video “Form and Void”, in my short film series entitled “Your World Disappearing” continues the exploration of ambiguity, magic and lost, and on the edge of everything ending. Again, I am using film that I shot from various locales such as the shore, mountains, and forest combined with some sampled imagery to bring this series into an elemental sense of organic ambiance. I composed the music from samples and each piece is constructed to give the feeling of alienation, detachment and a bittersweet wonderment.
experiment: data complex 10 | the world in recollection (a returning place remix) | video art HD
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“The World In Recollection” will be the last in my featured series of the emerging world concept. I am not sure where I will venture into next with video, but I hope to feature more of my own experimental imagery.
variations | biking (a maps, quotes, and trails remix)
The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets. ~ Christopher Morley
When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day’s sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay’s call, ice melting and so on. This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity. But I am mentally far away from civilization. The world is breaking someone else’s heart. ~ Diane Ackerman
Life is like riding a bicycle – in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving. ~ Albert Einstein
After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go. You ride through Dreamland on wonderful dream bicycles that change and grow. ~ H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance
variations | a day in the life: bike and mountain
Today the mountain called. Beautiful was the color of sky and earth.
variations | when biking le tour, we discover more about ourselves
The pleasure of the moment. In retrospect, a sense of warmth. The night turning to morning …
I was very excited about waking up at 6:30 a.m. to watch stage 9 of the Tour de France. The stage is a 168.5 km trek through the Pyrenees in Southern France. For me the mountain stages are the most exhilarating of all the various stages. The trek from Saint Girons to Bagneres de Bigorre includes four category one climbs, each over 5000 feet and a category 2 climb. A test of man and machine. I believe that climbing is my best skill as a rider, and I certainly can relate to the difficulty inherent to climbing. Whether it is mountain biking or road biking, I love the challenge. Climbing is very meditative; slow and methodical. One has to really focus inward. On the breath, and on the movement of the body. Everything is recorded over and over again. Sometimes with much pain. Physically and mentally is can be quite exhausting, but in the end very rewarding. There is a certain ‘Peacetime’ when the silence of nature, movement and breath come together. An inner bliss without end.
experiment: data complex 5 | a returning place | video art
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The journey to silence as visited through “A Returning Place”. Often the road to our true essence is discovered through the meditative path of silence. In that silence, we navigate the past; leaving it behind. We dismiss the anxiety of an uncertain future; freeing us from our thoughts. It is our hope that we find the journey without moving, The one that takes us on the road inward: The present moment, and the freedom through enlightenment to see things as they really are.
This video captures some of the elements of natural and man-made silence: Silent films, Space, singularity, and the journey one takes alone … in this thing called life.
25 second preview – experiment: zen nature | landscapes for well being
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In celebration of Earth Day 2013, here is a preview of my upcoming video from my “Experiment” series entitled: “Zen Nature | Landscapes for Well Being”. It explores the beauty of our earth as well as some of its inhabitants. I have been working on it for the pass week, and will be completing it sometime next week or by the weekend (so keep an eye out for it). It is meditation on Nature; a calming sense of place, discovery and purpose … to love ourselves and our planet.
Departure Days | Fall In Play
This is a morning workout and practice run on a lake under construction in my home town of Gray Court, SC. This was my first exploration of this terrain. Keeping it simple. A mix of soft and hard ground. Lots of rocks, making for a lot vibration moving through the body (I actually injured my left forearm from a violent vibration sustained while descending one of the slopes). It has taken a few months for it to heal. But I love the locale it looks and feels other-worldly. And being that it is less than 5 minutes away from my home, it provides a nice work out in preparation for the mountain trails. Music by glitch master Alva Noto. The video itself has little processing and no editing.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond | Landscapes
What a fascinating challenge this week. It provides so much leave way for the artist to convey a multitude of ideas and concepts on the theme. Beyond can take you many places. For my first entry, landscapes and beyond. All images here are digitally remastered to make the journey that much more exciting. From shore lines, to expanding sky, to mountain vistas … we step just beyond the ordinary.
a holiday moment | snow and mountain
Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season …
Peace
Love
And Good Will
Namaste
Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons | Exploration
a Winter of barren white frost
beautiful Spring in bloom
endless Summer with you
a mountain summit trail in Fall
Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections | Summit
A soft subtle reflection of the sky in a puddle of resting water. After hiking to the summit of Grandfather Mountain, and crossing the gorge via the Mile High Bridge, I was treated to this beautiful view. What a lovely reflection.
n e w d i g i t a l s c a p e s 