construction

construction is taking raw materials with a certain amount of strength, and joining them together into shapes that are different from the shapes they would naturally grow into. wood framed houses. concrete sidewalks. steel skyscrapers. termite mounds. bird nests.

collection of bird nests

minnesota and southern france

art is what you take away

after five, going on six, years of a blog based on a minimalist vision, i still find myself struggling to realize that vision consistently. my first choice of images is still quite often the complicated composition, full of busy beauty, when the right subject is waiting there, patiently, for me to take all of the imperfections away, and leave it to be itself.

blade of grass

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota

here we go

a few days ago i saw the first tinges of red on the sumac. yesterday a yellow leaf fell across my windshield. today, i felt an urgent need to document the green around me, which seemed so common as to be almost oppressive a short month ago.

ostrich fern frond

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota

ripening

i love how graphically this photo shows the nearly bursting quality of a plant about to ripen. there is so much quiet drama in the swelling buds and blossoms of spring and summer, aching with a fullness and tension that can’t last–like late term pregnancy, like adolescence, like young love. something has to give, but it hasn’t quite yet, and meanwhile there is this delicious state of youthful beauty, and anticipation, and nearly completed promise.

allium

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota

terrestrial angel aquatic devil

tiger lilies are almost too strikingly beautiful to be of this world. each year i sort of gasp inwardly when i see the first one of the season, as if there has been some mistake, and someone has left behind an exquisite silk purse on the hillside along the highway. but as angelic as the flower is, bobbing in an august breeze, imagine this thing ambling six-leggedly across the sand of a shallow bay, directly toward you. context is everything.

tiger lily (Lilium superbum)

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota