MIRROR MIRROR . . .

In honor of M. Heart from "Secret Notebooks, Wild Pages" I have posted a "self portrait" that I took last summer on our way to our camping trip in Tahoe. I have long been an advocate of the philosophy that "there are no accidents" in life and when I saw her post a few days ago, it so reminded me of mine. I thought that I would post it so that she/others could see the happy accident---the same philosophy I feel---that comes from everyone that I seem to follow daily via their posts. I LOVE SEEING THE COMMON THREAD that runs through all of our posts and I DO believe that there are no accidents in life. We are drawn to a certain person, a certain philosophy, an attraction to a certain type of art, a life-style, a color, and on and on.

It doesn't matter what our ages are, that we live in different parts of the world or different states...we are all the same inside and we are attracted to similar things. This is what keeps me coming back for more. In fact, I think it is precisely our DIFFERENCES in these areas that bonds and attracts simultaneously. We are drawn to people that we can learn from, don't you think? And, I refuse to believe that I am ever going to be too old to learn! I will go "out" kicking and screaming that I have not learned enough yet, have not seen enough yet, have not done enough yet. I think that there will really NEVER be enough time.

Maybe that is exactly what I love about these blogs: that they seem to capture time for me. They show me a brief glimpse of time in someone Else's life that captures my attention and piques my interest. Richard Schilling's "Land Art" does that for me in a different way entirely. In his art, I see pieces of nature that have been altered and his art is there for whatever amount of time it takes for it to be altered again, whether by human force or by nature itself. Time is postponed, however briefly, in the name of art. Isn't that remarkable?

I can find art in the simplest of places. And in so doing, I find art in all of you. Not just the manifestation of the art that you put down on paper, canvas, wood, stone, or whatever medium you choose to use, but the very art of YOU. Each and every one of you are works of art to me. I look at your blogs and get inspiration. I get emotion. I see color and life and love. And that to me is what art is all about. The fulfillment of an idea that has come from deep inside, from "The Bare Bones" as depicted in Leslie Avon-Miller's blog "Textures, Shapes, and Color" (literally and figuratively). You mirror me. I hope I mirror you.