Can art be found at our footsteps?

What is art?

Perhaps each person might answer the question with a unique perspective. Perception, mood, observation, focus, interest, many elements come into play in determining what we each recognize as art and particularly what we each enjoy from what we consider art. 

Take color for example. Do we all see the same 'yellow' in a dandelion, the same 'red'  or 'pink' of a rugosa rose? And why do we see Blue Jays as blue? The pigment in Blue Jay feathers is melanin, which is brown. The blue color is caused by scattering light through modified feathers on the surface of feather barbs. 

Have you ever explored, really sought out each visual and sound that incorporates your backyard frame? What are the textures? What pallet of colors and can you name them all? Greens alone far outweigh my vocabulary - at least in the summer months. Have you noticed the artist who only comes out in your yard at night leaving dew frosted webbing like necklaces? This time of year the artist that paints from underground pushing their paintbrushes up through the brown leaves and dead grasses are sure to get your attention.   What sable brush - crocus, daylily, iris, and snowdrops are protruding in your backyard?

Art indeed can be found in our footsteps. See the photo below taken about a week ago. I was walking by our neighbor's house and looked at this patch of reflection, though I am still not sure that is what it was. As I spotted it and kept walking it vanished from view. One step back it was there again. Two steps forward - gone.  I moved back and forth a few steps a number of times trying to figure out how it could be a reflection and from what other than the sun's rays. I guessed it was a reflection from their car given the colors, (the photo does not do it justice) but could not figure out the triangulation given where the sun was in the sky. 

I continued stepping back and forth, now you see it now you don't, a number of times after my 'geometry', only then I was doing so for the pure comical fun of it. Felt like a twelve-year-old - a feeling I much enjoy. Don't remember for sure, however I expect I even laughed at the mystery and smiled at the simple beauty. The fact that it was likely to soon vanish altogether, while it was there could only be seen if noticed at all from a certain vantage point, and that it required the sun and another object to be in just the right positions - all struck me as wonder and awe. Those are, I think some of the values and attributes of art.

I have been thinking about how I might share some Jericho art-like images that I observe as I walk along the quiet (especially now) roads of artsy Jericho. Please consider telling us what local art you are observing, what it looks like to you, what it makes you feel, who or what created the artsy image.

Check back in for more Jericho art-like images and thoughts.

What better time to practice observation and enjoy the many qualities of the images that abound around us every day and often in unique ways personal to each of us. 

Stop, Look, and listen

The natural world will astound you. 

Bernie