Having set this task, I have subsequently been struggling with what piece of 'visionary art' I can put up myself!!! There are certainly hundreds of paintings that have stopped me in my tracks, taken my breath away, or dragged me into them and away to far off places and possibilities.But then I thought of something much simpler - and it isn't even really a piece of art, but a photo. A simple photo of a feather on a beach.
White feathers are seen by some as messages from angels, to let us know that they are there. This feather has clearly more to do with seagulls than angels, but it says something about the greater whole to me. I look at this feather, dropped by a seagull after a fight with a bag of chips on the prom no doubt, and it looks like it could just be a message from beyond. The rounded pebbles, randomly placed by the sea all around it, unquestioningly a strong reminder that nature is all around, and then this perfect white feather plonked on top and you just can't miss it.
And looking down at that feather it just doesn't look like a natural occurrence in nature. It looks like somebody has 'put it' there - like somebody has carefully placed and framed this picture to make it say something other than its component parts add up to. And yet this isn't an artist inviting us to take a step into the unknown beyond, but perhaps the unknown beyond inviting us to consider it is a possibility...
It certainly wasn't me who composed the picture. I just pointed the camera at it and clicked. Was it a disgruntled seagull? Or could it have been an angel...?
2 comments:
Daisy
I must disagree that your beautiful picture s not a really a piece of art. Just like the artist you have focused in on an image and frozen it in time so that we can view it at our leisure. Like an artist your picture says 'Look at this'. You have shared something that took your eye. We are able to see this image without the distraction of a whole beach.
I look at this photograph and am struck by the number of opposites I see. The softness of the feather, the hardness of the stones. The elements air and earth. The feather that at any moment could be blown away and the shingle that remains on the ground. The beautiful colours of the shingle, the lack of colour in the feather. The noise of crunching shingle under the feet or the hiss of seawater as it rushes over and through it compared with the soft almost noiseless passage of a feather through the air.
So this feather was just waiting for you and your camera so that you could share this image with us and maybe it was an angel who guided your eye.........
Thanks, Sam. I like what you say! :)
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