Posts Tagged ‘photography’
Posted by Michael Scott on April 1, 2013
April Fools! Another winter has passed, another opportunity to prepare the batch of seed that will yield a harvest of completeness and yet we find ourselves sowing for the most part, more of the same strain. Habits are not unlike the roots of a tree, they keep us grounded yet tethered in the same old space, good or bad, right or wrong, healthy or unhealthy. Too often, despite our best efforts to find true and lasting transformation, we find ourselves grappling with the same old demons that we did yesterday, last month and last year.
While there is a humble, if not cynical humor associated with the first day of April, there is also a wake up call, a reminder that transformation doesn’t happen without effort. We all have the ability to engage our minds in original thought and to realize meaningful and lasting shifts of our own consciousness. It is the uncovering of the truths from within that render the past irrelevant and the opinions of others unimportant. The hard part is maintaining a vigilant watch over that truth to keep it from withering away.
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Posted in art, Inspiration, Oil Painting, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, creativity, inspiration, law of attraction, oil painting, photography | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Michael Scott on November 11, 2012
“Softly the evening came. The sun from the western horizon like a magician extended his golden wand o’er the landscape; Twinkling vapors arose; and sky and water and forest seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and mingled together.” ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
To the person who first likened being unrealistic to having your head in the clouds I say this; there is nothing more real, more perfect and more original than a cloud. To sit and stare for hours if you wish, witnessing what has never been before and what will never be again is a better use of your time by far than memorizing tables and formulas for it teaches us that possiblities are endless.
The thing that I love about painting clouds is that there is no right and wrong. One might say that a cloud is ominous or unusual, but never ugly or unrealistic. A couple of days ago I was hiking under the most amazing lenticular formations and I estimated correctly that when the sun dipped low to the west that they would light up like fire in the sky. The resulting sunset brought inspiration, which manifested an application for the encaustic (wax) paints that have been sitting on a shelf for almost a year.
“Fire in the Sky” my first encaustic painting
It took a while to figure out how to apply the wax and move it about using palette knives, rags, heat gun and torch. In the end, I’m pretty happy with the way my first wax painting turned out. After all, I’ve never met a cloud I didn’t like.
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Posted in art, colorado, encaustic painting, Inspiration, Oil Painting, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, encaustic painting, imagination, inspiration, law of attraction, oil painting, photography | 4 Comments »
Posted by Michael Scott on October 21, 2012
The Palisades of Cimarron Canyon, New Mexico
If you happen to follow my other blog, LocalTouristColorado.com, you know that I often share some of the same material on both sites. Usually I do manage to switch caps however and write something that might be meaningful to the audience that I’m addressing. The Local Tourist Colorado is all about experiencing things that are close to home. No matter where one might live, there is always a new adventure right around the corner. Art Spirit Village is entirely different. This is where I share the things that motivate me to release my passion for creativity in hopes of somehow connecting with others who have the same passion.
Canyon Road – Santa Fe
All too often however, both of these missions converge and I find myself totally confused about which blog to post the content to. The New Mexico border is just a few miles south of my home and every time I go there, I get inspired to create. After returning from an incredible weekend in Santa Fe, I have to share. Great artists will tell you how important it is to surround yourself with people who stimulate your imagination. I’m here to tell you that being surrounded by states that inspire is not a bad deal at all.
One of the many windows along Canyon Road
Saturday “Art Walk” Entertainment
Tammy and Charlie “Art Walkin”
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Posted in art, colorado, Inspiration, Oil Painting | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, imagination, inspiration, law of attraction, new mexico, oil painting, photography, santa fe | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Michael Scott on October 13, 2012
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it” – Albert Einstein
Look around this crazy world of ours with open eyes and you will likely have cause for great concern. Human conflict is certainly nothing new, time and again we have faced seemingly hopeless contention and time and again we have overcome it in spite of the odds. This time however, it’s as if the entire world has become like a tiny dysfunctional town where everybody is into everybody else’s business, the willingness to find a common agenda is rare, greed trumps compassion. We seem to be sitting at a great crossroads, looking hopelessly at all of the routes that we have taken, wondering how in the world we will move forward. Perhaps it is time to step back, think bigger, roll up our sleeves and carve a new path.
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Posted in art, colorado, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, imagination, inspiration, law of attraction, photography, rocky mountains | 1 Comment »
Posted by Michael Scott on October 11, 2012
Last week’s first hard frost
“Autumn is a second spring, where every leaf is a flower” ~ Albert Camus
So fitting is this quote to this photograph that I had to enlist it, despite the fact that I had no idea who Albert Camus is or was. Annually, I suffer from a bit of sadness this time of year as the trees are stripped bare and the the world around me becomes seemingly void of color. It’s almost cruel how nature saves the most vivid colors for last, only to let them fall to the ground. I find myself wishing that I could rewind the weeks back to spring and start the process over immediately, without waiting through the hardship of winter. Only after the last leaf has perished do I set my sights forward and begin to anticipate winter with eagerness, comforted that a new spring will follow.
As for Albert Camus, my conscience wouldn’t let me complete this post without a google search. Camus was a French author, journalist and philosopher who took home the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1947. He is best known for his contribution to the rise of the philosophy known as Absurdism. Wikipedia says about him, “Camus presents the reader with dualisms such as happiness and sadness, dark and light, life and death, etc. He emphasizes the fact that happiness is fleeting and that the human condition is one of mortality; for Camus, this is cause for a greater appreciation for life and happiness”.
“Manataka” (place of peace) – Cuchara Pass, Colorado
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Posted in art, colorado, Inspiration, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, autumn, colorado, cuchara, inspiration, law of attraction, mountains, photography, rocky mountains | 7 Comments »
Posted by Michael Scott on September 7, 2012
Stars Over Manataka
I know that creativity is alive and well within me when I awaken in the pre-dawn hours with ideas that I cannot let go of, when I am inspired to rise and begin my day holding on to that consciousness rather than releasing it back into the ether to vanish like some forgotten dream.
When I was much younger, I spent a great deal of time outdoors, quite familiar with the vastness of space. I completely understood that if I removed myself from sources of interference on any given clear night, I could see into the universe ad infinitum. With age, it became more difficult I suppose, to simply remove myself from the interference and look up.
Lately, I’ve been looking up again as if I have stumbled on to some new revelation and I’ve got to tell you, I’m excited about it. You see, I am beginning to understand that there is a repeating pattern in all of nature. Think about the seasons, there is spring, summer, fall, winter and then spring once again, ad infinitum. There is day, night and then day again, ad infinitum. There is awakening, sleep and then another awakening, ad infinitum. Can the same be said of life and death?
This is heavy stuff and it probably should remain in the pages of my private journal but this is afterall 2012 and there are plenty of reasons to ponder weighty subjects these days. I often wonder what season it is within our country, there is so much anger, fear and division and it seems as though people really don’t listen to one another. On a global scale a lot of scary things are happening, what season is it? If life as we know it no longer exists, then what? Somehow, some way, I believe that we, as the human race are about to remove ourselves from all of the interference and look up once again, to awaken in a cycle of infinite possibilities.
Ad Infinitum
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Posted in art, Inspiration, law of attraction, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, earth, global, imagination, inspiration, photography, stars, universe | 1 Comment »
Posted by Michael Scott on September 1, 2012
Full Moon Over the Spanish Peaks and La Veta, Colorado
“Every Artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
There is something powerfully captivating about this land, where high alpine twin peaks stand alone between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains. The Ute, Comanche and Apache tribes called these mountains the Huajatolla(breasts of the earth) and considered this aesthetically poetic region to be sacred. Today, these mountains are known as the Spanish Peaks and artists are drawn here from all over the world to become inspired.
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Posted in art, colorado, Inspiration, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, cuchara, huerfano county, inspiration, la veta, law of attraction, mountains, oil painting, photography, rocky mountains, sangre de cristo, spanish peaks, trinidad | 2 Comments »
Posted by Michael Scott on August 21, 2012
Moon Sliver
It is so easy to give the beauty of this world and this universe a passing glance, occasionally pausing to admire long enough to frame a pretty picture in a camera or in the mind. It is more difficult, yet well worth the effort to look beyond the surface, to access imagination, to search for information that is something closer to the truth.
Looking Beyond
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Posted in art, colorado, Inspiration, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, imagination, inspiration, law of attraction, mountains, oil painting, photography, rocky mountains | 2 Comments »
Posted by Michael Scott on August 20, 2012
Stars Over Cuchara
Back in the old film days, I did alot of night time photography, always experimenting with very low light and very long exposures. Upon entering the digital age, I was more than a little disappointed to learn that both of these environmental variables caused a wild and noisy pixel party that I wanted nothing to do with. Recently, I’m learning that there are ways to overcome the paradigm shift and I feel like a kid in a camera store. Stay tuned for more experimentation to come 
Two questions:
1. When was the last time you went outside on a clear night, allowing your eyes to adjust to the low light and take it all in?
2. Do you believe that there is more to this world than this world?
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Posted in art, colorado, Inspiration | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, inspiration, law of attraction, mountains, oil painting, photography | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Michael Scott on August 11, 2012
“Secret Falls” – Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell 8/10/12
“The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.” Nikola Tesla
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Posted in art, colorado, Oil Painting, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, creativity, inspiration, law of attraction, mountains, oil painting, photography, rocky mountains | Leave a Comment »
