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 | all the days are long | a we’ve come so far remix | a place of subtle nuance
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In life it seems, at times, that all the days are long. Caught in-between work, play, dreams, and aspirations. Those days can take the form of too many hours worked, too many hours away from home and loved ones, or too many memories and missed opportunities–taxing, struggling, pushing forward day after day. Sometimes we get a moment of reprieve; a day at the beach, a solitary place in time and space, the joining together of friends, family, and loved ones, or a beautiful hike on the summit of a mountain. Subtle nuances all converging in daily life, testing our resolve, our purpose, or giving pleasure and peace to our efforts.
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.
into abstraction | nuances – extended video remix | an abstract thought becomes reality
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Nuances, the extended video remix is a further working towards the abstract in form and complexity. Each element of the video is explored through various micro-tonal nuances via add-on effects. Through this process, I am gaining insight into the various visual options I have via the software and how to implement them to create a visual cohesive construct. The variations seem infinite indeed. Again I am using both my own film and stock film together. Musically I am continuing the theme of electronic ambience, through the use of sound samples, field recordings and piano phases. As I explore the makings of sound for my films, I will be utilizing various sound effects and recording techniques in the process. Slowly things will evolve, as the learning curve for both the visual and aural elements are investigated, manipulated and constructed.
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 | maps, mountains, and trails – day 7
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Day 7 finds “Your World Beginning”, on the trail to the summit of Waterrock Knob. In search of a transitional ambience of Fall colors, fog, and rain. This is an incredible location here at the summit. There is always a constant or intermittent wind blowing. The clouds shift quickly above, or as today, the fog can be seen everywhere.
Waterrock Knob is a mountain peak in the state of North Carolina. It is the highest peak in the Plott Balsams and is the 16th highest mountain in the Eastern United States. It is the 15th highest of the 40 mountains in North Carolina over 6000 feet.
The mountain is split by both Haywood and Jackson counties in the western part of the state. It is located in the Plott Balsams mountain chain between the Great Smoky Mountains and the Great Balsam Mountains. The mountain’s summit is located within the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park Service unit.
The mountain is a popular destination with tourists and amateur hikers as it is easily accessible from the Parkway. A visitors center is located near its summit and a hiking trail leads to its top. The hiking trail and visitors center are manned and maintained by the National Park Service, part of the United States Department of the Interior.
your world beginning | a life of contradictions and disappearing things – day 5
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Day – 5 in the “Your World Disappearing” series brings us into a life of contradictions and disappearing things. Filmed in part in Asheville, NC, the film examines isolation, entropy, conflicting realities, and reflection. Multiple layers of contrasting elements explore our ambiguities as to what is real and what is an illusion: Life in all its complexity has multiple paths, roads, objectives and choices.
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.
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.
A Rewind: Grandfather Mountain | Hiking in 2002
One of the coolest places at elevation in North Carolina is Grandfather Mountain. It is home of the mile high swinging bridge. At just over 6000 feet it is one of the highest mountain peaks in the state.
A Rewind: The Blue Ridge Parkway
Over the past 2 years or more I have created over 300 new works of art. It has been a very prolific time for me creatively speaking; developing various platforms for the distribution of my art, exploring new techniques, sharing ideas and meeting new people. I recently began posting older work on my Facebook home page. I realize that as time progresses, I often attract new viewers to my online platforms. My blog offers the most exposure to my work. And it continues to provide the impetus for my creative drive. I truly appreciate those who have supported me in the past along with my most recent subscribers. Taking a page from my “A Rewind” series I started on Facebook, I think it is only proper that I do the same here on my art blog. So periodically I will post an image from an earlier post.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Renewal
In my last posting for this challenge I chose the subject of the city as a place of renewal; either as a new place of discovery or a place of departure. For me it was a place of departure. I was in need of an environment that was vast, natural and organic. A place where sky and mountain converge. A rural landscape. I found it here in the Carolina’s. A definite place of renewal and self-discovery. This image is entitled: The In-between Space: Sky and Mountain. Hiking to the summit of this mountain was quite invigorating and challenging. The overall experience Zen-like.
New Landscapes: Fall In Fashion – Hiking Boots
burnt umber
and golden-yellow
reddish tints
and layered colors
trace the path
fore and aft
a distant waterfall
cascading just beyond
my intrepid reach
– married
to the tonal beauty
that surrounds it
It’s Autumn in the mountains of North and South Carolina. Time for a moment of inner reflection, tranquility, and a zen-like trek; to be found in the ascension. And realized at the summit of sky and earth
New Landscapes: Fall In Season
a life is beautiful
when it’s warmth and memory
takes you back
to the place where all this started
this love of life
this meaningful pulse
colored in nature’s heaven
Maggie Valley, North Carolina
Bridges
burning the bridges…
leaving the memories behind you
or following the yellow brick road
across that new bridge
the bridge of hope and beauty
and colors in transition….
Bridge
I would like to thank Sheila for inviting me to be the featured artist for the poets at dversepoets. I thought I may write a short poem as well, reflecting my thoughts for the challenge.
Peace
January 21. 2012. 05:59 PM (A Heavenly Slideshow Remix)
2011 and now 2012 promises to bring to the forefront—images and ideas for the contemplative and visionary mind.
Here is just a sample of recent work.
Music by Tomasz Bednarczyk
Winter Fog On the Blue Ridge Parkway
On a cool, brisk Sunday afternoon the fog rose along the ridges of the Blue Ridge Mountains….
In 2012 I hope to explore in-depth various elements of video, video art, and video abstraction. There is a lot to process in the machinations of creativity, productivity and presentation. And it will certainly take a moment or two to master linking all the various social media outlets to accommodate the various video formats.
Some of the elements I will be working with are natural atmospheric landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes. “Winter Fog On the Blue Ridge Parkway” was filmed while ascending from Asheville, NC to the higher elevations along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The mountains here are quite beautiful, even when shrouded in mist. Hope you enjoy the piece.
n e w d i g i t a l s c a p e s 