Details Matter

(Before) My first arrangement

(After)The arrangement refined

I received a comment from my last post that the photos of the object arrangements (before and after) " look like the test of seven errors or differences.  Massive change is more profound than the subtle" from fellow artist, Turtel Onli.  While I can see his point and agree that more people would notice massive change rather than subtle shifts,  working with the precision of subtle changes in the details of a room can sometimes be quite profound as it refines our perception, fine tuning the body or felt sense of things.  Heightened discernment and appreciation of the mundane details of life can enrich us, through loving attention (or mindfulness) to our surroundings. Often these parts of life are ignored as we speed along anticipating the high points and reacting to (or creating) the drama of our lives.

I am reminded of the artist, Robert Irwin, who spent an entire year painting 2 lines on a canvas over and over, adjusting the placement by as little as a 1/16 of an inch as he studied how this changed the nature of the composition.  Out of this intense meditation on his painting, he became aware of not only how the distance between the lines altered the overall composition, but also how the lighting and cracks on the wall next to the painting affected his perception of those lines.  His interest grew in the phenomenological experience of visual perception which ultimately led him to abandon painting on canvas and even the studio for a time to work on site-generated installations. 

Black Line Form by Robert Irwin

 Succulent Garden and Waterway of Getty Garden by Robert Irwin

When he took on the design of the Getty Garden in Los Angeles, he studied not only the seasonal growth patterns of flowers, but how the leaves look with the sun in front of them and behind, the shades of the gravel and the sounds of the water on the rocks. As a result the garden is a feast for the senses with aesthetic delights in all directions.  While some visitors may never pay attention to that level of specificity, the overall impact of the site is due in large part to the sum of all these small decisions about placement.

When I teach contemplative photography, my students are often surprised by the magic they encounter in the details of their home or an environment they have seen so often that they normally pass through it without even looking.  Yet, when they have a camera in hand and slow down through meditation, tuning into their sense perceptions, potent images arise of the most mundane things; light on a drying rack, the color of a curb, or the family dog's nose.  Ultimately it isn't that the objects have magically been altered, rather it is due to the quality of attention paid to them.  The world opens itself up to us and provides a rich display constantly, we just have to slow down enough to notice.

  Yellow Triangle by Rebekah Younger

Franz Kafka put it so well when he wrote:

"It is not necessary that you leave the house.  Remain at your table and listen.  Do not even listen, only wait.  Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone.  The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at you feet."