Exposed

Super low tides lately.   Giving the world a different look and getting me thinking about, oh, I don't know . . . life - life's ebb and flow.  

An ebbing tide exposes whimsical treasures and enduring granite formations.

Looking Out at Norwood Cove

The Causeway

I think I'm in the low tide of my life.  Low tide inspires a broader consideration of life and structure and offers glimpses full of surprise and awe.  I think this is where I am.  I contemplate more, I observe more, and I feel confirmed and astounded at the same time.  

I can see now what's been there all along and I can identify and acknowledge those pieces of my life:  the joy, adventure, celebration, pride, and wonder.  But also the sadness, the challenges, and regret.  Real life.

Robert Rauschenberg

Untitled

1958

This is an opportunity for me to continue to build from the foundation that my family and I have created. The last 20 years of my life, with marriage, children, and jobs, have been overflowing and overloaded, with troughs and crests, turbulent and joyous.  High tide.  We've improvised and jury-rigged some over the years, just because that's how it works sometimes, but we're left with soundness and resilience. 

Paul Gauguin
At the Black Rocks
1889

With the high tide receded, I'm down to just me now.  I've grown - evolved, but I'm only starting to figure out how.  I'm the same, but I'm different.  I'm careful, but I'm assertive.  I'm adventurous, but I'm informed.  I'm idealistic, but I'm pragmatic.  I'm emotional, but I'm reasonable.  (note to family: I'm nagging, I'm annoying, I'm selfish. I am funny.)  I'm all the things I used to be and more.

I am exposed.

Childe Hassam
Incoming Tide
1919

   

I'm exhaling, and I'm happy.  I'm making choices, I'm taking chances, I'm making mistakes, and I'm doing things that I've always wanted to do.  Because I have time and support and encouragement.    

And I'm grateful that I have what has been with me all along - beautiful whimsical treasures, Mary and Addie, and enduring granite formation, John.  

And I have art.

Paul Cezanne
Rocks at L'Estaque
1882

My Best of NYC

Joe's

120th & Broadway

(for my morning coffee)

My Train Stop

Metropolitan Opera House

Lincoln Square

Wafels & Dinges

Dante Park

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Childe Hassam

Celia Thaxter's Garden, Isle of Shoals, Maine

1890

Winslow Homer

Maine Coast

1896

John Singer Sargent

Portrait of Madame X

1883-1884

Riverside Church

Lunch

Henry Moore

Reclining Figure

1965

at Lincoln Center

Hill Country Barbecue Market
Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center

Chopped Barbecue Beef with Cole Slaw

Museum of Modern Art

Henri Matisse

The Red Studio

1911

Paul Cezanne

Pines and Rocks

1897

Pablo Picasso

Girl Before a Mirror

1932

Pablo Picasso

Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon

1907

Jackson Pollock

One:  Number 31, 1950

1950

My Good-bye NYC Dinner

Le Monde

Broadway & 112-113th

(top, clockwise) Heirloom Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella, warmed with Arugula and Balsamic Reduction; la pain et beurre (?); Merguez (N. African lamb sausage) with Mustard Sauce; Pork and Chicken Pate with Cornichons, Toasted Brioche, and Lettuce with Tomato and Vinaigrette: and a glass of chilled Sauvignon Blanc.

Bye New York!

Tidal Pools at Wonderland

Small Moment Art

May 18, 2013, Wonderland

The tide was just right at Wonderland.  

Kind of mid to low and ebbing.  Massive slabs of grey pink granite had been exposed to the sun for several hours, bleached and salt glistening.   Warmth radiated from the stone, moderating the cool spring air and sunlight reflected off stone and water creating a luminous Impressionistic effect.

Isles of Shoals, Broad Cove

Childe Hassam

1911

After taking in the familiar

panoramic view of the Western Way,

the islands, and the 

mountains of MDI,

I found myself drawn to the pools

left by the receding ocean tide

in the granite hollows.

I think they are incredibly intriguing with their tiny 

micro-worlds of marine plants and animals,

each one a small moment in time.

I'm a kid again crouched and imagining and poking

and greeting critters, and savoring

the feel of the pure, cool salt water on my hands.

I've played in these same tide pools with my daughters.  Wonderland and much of the southwestern shore of MDI was their playground.  Crabs and starfish became their pets and barnacles bloodied their toes, and they discovered that if you hum to a hermit crab (or was it a periwinkle) it will dance.  

They believed that.

They are grown up now and live in cities and will always love their home on MDI.

When they come home,

we hike out together to the granite

shore of Wonderland, seeing it as if for the first time, again.

So, yup, I'm thinking about my daughters as I'm poking about in tide pools, my head down, focused in, discovering and imagining and remembering.  

Oh . . . hey John.

Beautiful day.