Author: bsefran

Sidetracks

Sidetracks

When I looked up the word sidetracks on Google, I was surprised to find that almost all of the definitions – at least as far as I went – were very negative! I had not thought of it that way when I made this pic, far from it, although I must admit that sometimes getting sidetracked is not a good thing! For me, however, I think of it more as the times when I have discovered something wonderful which I would have missed if I had kept on going on the route on which I started out .

Then I discovered a site called Wordhippo, which I had not encountered before, and my faith in thesaurus-type sites has been restored! Thank you, hippo, for reminding me of all the pleasures that footpaths, back streets, lanes, pathways, trails, wynds and so on have brought me in my life. And, getting sidetracked, I learnt what ginnels, snickets and twittens are!

In remembrance of places which no longer exist

Have you ever gone back, many years later, to visit a building where you once lived, or simply a place which you loved, perhaps as a child, or in your travels, only to find it has been demolished and you never knew?

Whenever you thought about it, maybe even decades after you left, it never occurred to you that maybe it no longer existed?

And people…. it’s a bit of a shock sometimes to find out, perhaps from an old friend, that someone you lost touch with over the years, maybe someone you went to school with or worked with, has been dead for many years, but if you thought of them, you imagined them going on just as they were in those days.

Such an experience really brings home the knowledge that the pictures we hold onto, in our minds, of people and places (or events) may be very much our own imagination and not fact!

Sunflower, yellow

From the Sunflower and Mandalas series: Sunflower, Yellow

This was the first one in a series made from photos of sunflowers, one of my favorite flowers, in the community garden, or elsewhere. This one, festooned with spiderwebs, was in the garden of friends.

Each of the series has, behind the sunflower, two circular designs reminiscent of mandalas, some religious, some cultural. The pattern on the top left is very similar to the pattern of sunflower seedheads.

Why-Why

This is a kind of digital “collage” of seven or more pieces, created by rubbing crayon over parts of various objects in my home, objects from my travels or family things. Each piece of paper on which a pattern appears is then saturated with water-colours around the crayon, and the whole thing assembled as a collage, sometimes physically, but in this case, digitally!

Why-why refers to Y-Y, the Ying Yang symbol in the centre! 🙂

Wych Tree

Wych Tree from the Tree as Symbol series

In this series, remember, The Tree may represent both the Individual and /or Society. In this case, it may apply to either, and speaks to the acknowledgement of the Truths of Nature alongside, or even replacing old texts.

BUT on the green side, the texts have not completely disappeared! Nor should they. Our society increasingly acknowledges the need to work with nature instead of against it, and for many individuals, old religious or mythological texts are being reinterpreted in light of today’s understanding. However, we need our old texts to know our past, so we are able to progress; we need our history to understand our present and to help us plan for the future.

We need both . . . you may notice the Y- Y dots on either side!

Mandala of Chaos crossing Order

The “mandala” of chaos and order was made long before we felt the chaotic global effects of whatever caused the Covid 19 pandemic to start.

The apparent wave of “chaos”crossing my symbol for order here (from a clay clock-face which I made in my pottery days) arose out of yet another combination of chance, real liquids and solids and finally, digital art.

The order of the universe itself, plus the order which we believe we see in it, plus chaos, chance, complexity, uncertainty, the interconnection of all things . . what we do with all that : c’est la vie!

Every exit is also an entrance

Every exit is also an entrance. From the City Called Life series

The saying, “When one door closes, another opens”, a similar way of putting it, often refers to stages of life, jobs, retirement, relationships, moving homes etc. Now in this Covid time, as so many of our usual “doors” are closed to us, we are, of necessity, learning to find new ways to satisfy our human needs.

I made this picture, a long time ago, of the entrance/exit of a nearby shopping mall, just as it was closing for the night. It is made from a juxtaposition of two photos, one of people entering, one of people exiting. Now I am reminded of that saying any time I go there!

Sitting through the storms

This was the first picture in my Covid project, Barbara’s Bits, and because those emails were originally going out to a group that was Buddhist-orientated, tho with members of all different backgrounds, it had a meditation theme.

This shows a person sitting (meditating or not, as you like) on a mountainside or hillside, the slope between where we are, and where we might like to be, and becoming still, despite the thunder and lightning crashing all around.

The lightning comes close, wavers around their head, but passes over them and they weather the storm. I made it a few years ago. This time of pandemic is a terrible “storm” we are in now, and we don’t know what may happen to any of us, but we are all trying, each with what we are given, to BE in it, in the best way we can.

So whether you: Meditate (sitting,walking or lying down); Question, or Inquire; Sit in Silence at home or in a Meeting; do Yoga; attend a place of worship; simply walk in appreciation of Nature in all its forms; delve into The Great Mystery; chant; practice compassion ; work with your anxiety, or a great many other possibilities, I hope you can relate to this.