what we have here is a failure to communicate

I am having a decidedly unmotivated morning. It is 40 degrees and nearly sunny, but am I out hiking? No. The most effort I could put into this day was getting myself out of the house and a couple hundred yards up the road to the library. One part of my mind thinks this is a little pathetic. The other part of my mind just shrugs and gets on with life. Some days, being motivated is just overrated.

Actually, I’m not giving myself enough credit here. I did soak up some culture earlier when I perused the pages of Intimate Views, a collection of paintings by Phyllis Rees, a local artist. Her work was quite lovely, and was a refreshing change from the classic images of Mount Desert Island.

Rees’ “intimate views” were colorful studies of leaves scattered across a smooth stretch of Hadlock Brook, or the reflection of spruce trees in Somes Harbor. She painted the movement of water, the play of light and shadow on and beneath the surface, reflections and sunlight, blurred granite stream beds and stained glass ripples – all things that I love to watch, and have tried to capture with my camera. My success is minimal, Rees’ was wonderful.

What I like especially about her work is that her images could be of water and rock and lily pads anywhere, but a small amount of text labels each one as being somewhere here on MDI, a place familiar to me, seen through another person’s eyes.

Rees’ collection of images got me thinking about my collection of images, and the little book I want to put together for myself of the photographs I took around the Island last year. I’ve been struggling to come up with a plan for how I want to do it. I have one of those convenient computer programs that will make the assembly of the book fairly simple. I just need to pick the photographs and decide what it is I have to say about them, or about the Island, or about me, or if I have anything to say at all.

Motivation does have it’s place, and it’s time I got serious about this project. Thanks Phyllis Rees, both for your paintings, and for inspiring me to get busy doing something with my own little artistic visions. Now let’s see if I can’t get something useful done this afternoon!