Photography Blog
Adventure #8
Blue is just like any other kid. He has a natural inclination to explore the world around him. Living in the country is so much fun because there’s so much to hear, see, smell, taste and climb on! And where better to climb and balance and feel like you’re on top of the world? A stone wall… of course!
In upstate New York there are stone walls everywhere. Blue was curious to know why there are so many rocks and stones… and why are there so many walls?
The rocks and stones are a result of two mountain chains in New York state: the Appalachian and the Adirondack Mountains. After the earth was formed but was still in the process of cooling down, bedrock from deep within the earth was thrust up and out into the sky resulting in tall jagged mountains for as far as the eye can see. Many years later enormous sheets of ice called glaciers moved south from Canada. As the glaciers spread over New York State they broke apart the encrusted rock on the earth’s surface. The encrusted rock was left behind when the mountains were made. When the glaciers retreated the broken rocks remained on the surface but gradually got buried under a layer of top soil and deciduous forests. Deciduous trees are green and leafy and shed their leaves in the winter.

A Stone Wall property Line

This rock wall stands at property entrance
People who came to America from Europe in the 1600′s-1700′s knew how to farm the land. They cut down many trees and tilled the soil so vegetables and fruit could grow. They dug up those rocks and moved them to large long piles, stacking them as best they could along the edge of their property, field or meadow. As the ground thawed and the earth was tilled each spring more rocks became exposed along the surface and so the stone piles and rock walls got bigger and higher. When you see a stone wall in the woods, chances are the forest moved back in to reclaim farmland no longer tilled.

Happy ZZZZzzzzz’s Blue!
Not long after the Erie Canal was built in 1830, farms in upstate New York began to decline because factory mills and railroads replaced them. People left to live and work in cities like New York, Albany, Utica, Binghamton, Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse.
Around the time of the Civil War in 1861-65, more elaborate and stable stone walls were built using mortar and cement. Solid stone and cement walls began to line the properties and entrance ways of homes owned by those who could afford it. Quarried, cut granite or cut field stones were used in place of naturally round stones, but not always.
Beginning in the late 1800′s and continuing today, people are reclaiming stone walls. They are reusing the stone to help build bridges and roads or to build new rock walls in public and private settings. Blue loves best that stone walls are now cultural icons in the American landscape. To show his appreciation he will sit, climb or sleep on any he can find whenever we travel upstate in New York. Happy ZZZZZZzzzzz’s Blue!
History of Stone Walls: http://www.stonewall.uconn.edu/primerhist.htm
Jun 17, 2013 | Categories: Photography Blog | Tags: Art for Children's Rooms, Blue-the-chair, Blue-the-chair-photograph, children's book, history of rock walls, Hudson River scenic photography, nature photography, New England rock walls, new york state scenic photography, rock walls in New York, rural landscape photography, traditional landscape photography | Leave A Comment »

Country Road, Garrison, NY
This image was taken last week in the hills around Garrison east of the Hudson. I drove upland looking for a country setting. Wow, did I find one. Right out of the Hudson River School. With crisp afternoon sunlight filtering directly and indirectly, every tree leaf and every other leaf becomes discernible.

Country Road, Garrison, NY
Two HRS painters come to mind: Asher B. Durand and Thomas Cole.
Hudson River School: http://streamlineartvideo.com/titles/koeppel/about-the-hudson-river-school/
Jun 16, 2013 | Categories: Photography Blog | Tags: Asher B. Durand, Hudson River Light Photography, Hudson River School painting, New York state rural photography, NY scenic photography, Thomas Cole, trees in landscape photography | Leave A Comment »

Evening, Beacon, NY

Evening, Nyack, NY
From: The New Sublime: images along the Hudson River corridor. Subtle colors and contrasts appear in the suburban and urban landscape as the sun sets and twilight approaches in towns along the Hudson.
Jun 15, 2013 | Categories: Photography Blog | Tags: American landscape image, American scene photography, Hudson River corridor photo, Hudson River light, suburban landscape image, urban landscape photography | Leave A Comment »

Bearded Purple Irises at Sunset look transparent

Blue encounters Bearded Irises
Adventure #9
Blue never met a flower he didn’t like… and he does like Bearded Irises very much!
They’re called bearded because the darker colored lower petals fall in the shape of a beard and are a bit fuzzy in the center. Butterflies and humming birds love irises too.
Blue sat in front of yellow and purple Bearded Irises that need lots of sunlight to grow tall and hardy. Bearded Irises grow the tallest of all the iris flowers and are very popular in gardens, on rooftops and in flowerpots everywhere. There are eight different varieties or types of Bearded Irises, but close to 300 types of irises can be found around the world… and in lots of different sizes, shapes and colors. They were brought to America from central and southern Europe, but thirty species are native to the U.S. Irises bloom at different times around the country according to temperate zone and can bloom more than once if they’re given special attention. In southern New York state where Blue lives they bloom from mid May into June.

Peace and tranquility in the Hudson River Valley
Life along the Hudson north of Cold Spring opens up bit more and feels more rural and homey. Blue likes to feel homey and found a lovely garden on a public lawn to sit and watch the sunlight’s fading rays across the river behind the historic town of Newburgh. The distant hills behind Newburgh are the Hudson Highlands, smaller mountains within the Catskill Mountain Range. South of Blue is the historic village of Cold Spring. North is the town of Beacon. Blue wants to go to Beacon again very soon because he likes it there a lot.

Sunset over Newburgh
Blue wanted to share a painting called Irises by Vincent Van Gogh, a famous Dutch painter who lived a long time ago.

Vincent van Gogh
Dutch, Saint-Rémy, France, 1889
Oil on canvas
28 x 36 5/8 in.
90.PA.20
Blue also wanted to share four samples of stylized iris flowers, which are also referred to as flower-of-the-lily. They are used to represent different things and symbolized by a three-pronged fleur-de-lis.
The fleur-de-lis designs below represent: a coat of arms from Italy, a coat-of-arms from the Ukraine, the Canadian flag of Quebec Province and blue and yellow patterned material once used to represent the French Monarchy .

Florence, Italy Coat of Arms

Ukrainian Coat of Arms

Flag of Quebec, Canada

French material design pattern
Cornell Extension: http://www.ccenassau.org/hort/fact_sheets/a211_iris_culture_oct00.pdf
Bearded Irises: http://www.irises.org/About_Irises/Cultural%20Information/BeardedClassifications.html
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_%28plant%29
Jun 13, 2013 | Categories: Photography Blog | Tags: Art for Children's Rooms, beared irises, Blue-the-chair, Blue-the-chair-photograph, Hudson River Art, Hudson River Light Photography, Hudson River Scenic photograph, Iris flowers, landscape photography, new york state scenic photography, rural landscape photography, scenic landscape photography, the blue chair, the-chair-Blue, Vincent Van Gogh | Leave A Comment »

New Paltz, NY Farmland

Side Street, Beacon, NY
I love the American landscape, rural, urban, suburban and industrial. I thought these two images, one older, one newer, work well together as a statement about rural New York and rural America.
A series called… The New Sublime is underway…. of course now I’ll have to live up to that challenge…
Jun 10, 2013 | Categories: Photography Blog | Tags: Hudson River Art, new york state scenic photography, rural landscape photography, suburban landscape photography, urban landscape photography, urban street scene photograph | Leave A Comment »

Blue is balancing the universe

Blue in balance with the Universe
I have always sensed that inanimate objects have a spiritual presence, that a connection exists between humans and inanimate objects. A lot of people feel or sense this connection. It begins with dolls and trucks and other children’s toys, but includes other objects as we grow older. I learned recently from my son there is a name for it, anthropomorphy. I then read about anthropomorphism, which is connected to animism: giving human qualities and a human soul to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena. Our ancestors “practiced” animism as a way to connect spiritually to the world around them. They KNEW the world is alive and interconnected… and they knew it was important to take only what they need from it, and to give something back in return.
As an artist I’ve photographed lots of objects in landscape houses, fences, signs, bridges, buildings, mountains, rivers, rocks, etc., things made by nature and by human hands through a need to connect with the world spiritually. But I hadn’t known until recently what it was, or rather that there was a name for it.
Although making art has always been paramount to all else because it’s my natural inclination, I did begin the study of anthropology back in college in the 70′s, which provided the seed of knowledge… how I perceive the world to be and how I connect to it. I didn’t complete that path of knowledge because I shifted my focus to photography, which then morphed into journalistic/editorial work, which then morphed back into photography as art and drawing and painting and a BFA after my son was born… thankfully. Anyway, this spiritual dimension has always been a part of my psychological make-up. It connected me to Blue. Now others who see the world as I do are connecting with Blue.

Our world is alive and and interconnected
Jun 07, 2013 | Categories: Photography Blog | Tags: Blue-the-chair, Leaves-of-Grass-Walt-Whitman, the blue chair, The Wonder Years with Blue, the-chair-Blue | Leave A Comment »