Morning Walk at Lamar Arts Gallery

My friend, Dale Niles, and I have a joint exhibition opening this Friday in Barnesville, Georgia at Lamar Arts Gallery.  Not sure if the HBO crew is still filming there....but when I dropped off the photos the town was covered in signs saying, 'Welcome to Wind Gap'.

The following is my statement for my images....

I didn’t need a Stanford study to tell me that walking boosts creativity. Morning walks part the clouds of my mind. Ideas come easily. Alone is best, no conversation to maintain and steer my thoughts to any specific target. A recent photo series came from morning walks with friends.

“We’re going for a run! The Diva Half Marathon is coming to Peachtree City. Who’s in?” popped up on my Facebook feed.

I was in. I was always in. I love a challenge.

The publisher of a local magazine, a friend, gathered other friends to begin training for the event. Early morning walks around a lake and along wooded cart paths became a habit. To track our progress, a few of us brought along our phones. Since I just completed an exhibit of iPhone only images it was a natural next step to shoot an image from the walk. What began as simple documentation of scenes along the path grew as I completed two half marathons within five months and compiled a large collection of images for a new exhibit.

During this training period our local lake dam revealed structural issues when the lake water level was lowered to allow repairs and to give waterfront homeowners the opportunity to complete any dock work on their personal properties. Typical local government red tape and finger pointing left the lake low and dry around the edges for months. A sub-series presented from the usual Morning Walk images; Where The Water Used To Be. Drawn to the power of nature reclaiming what it once owned, I walked the dry places looking for what was there. I became fascinated watching a field of tall grass grow. Flowers sprouted from seeds washed by earlier rains to the lake. Deer run through the grass flipping their tails. It was hard to leave this and not be in a good mood. It was also hard to not shoot images.

Dogwood on Home Shopping Network

A long time ago parents told their children, "Those berries are only fit for the dogs, leave them alone," marking the producer of the berries as a 'dog tree'.

The branches make fine daggers.  It was called a dagwood tree, later morphing into dogwood.

The leaves were used to make a decoction to wash dogs afflicted with mange.

Dogwood, April 24, 2015

We may never know the true story of how this tree (cornus florida), came to be named American Dogwood.

The Dogwood was introduced to American gardens in 1731.  Thomas Jefferson included it on his list of trees planted at Monticello in 1771.  Jefferson so loved the tree, he shared seeds with friends in France.  The state of Virginia so loved Jefferson and the Dogwood, in 1918 it was named the state tree and state flower.

In spring, the woods are scattered with white, the bracts of the dogwood.  The actual bloom is at the center...the small yellow cluster of flowers. After blooming the juicy green leaves take over the show. This photo was taken at a private garden on Lake Martin in Alabama.  My friends and I stopped to have lunch on a walkway under its canopy.  The almost noonday sun filtered through the leaves offering us an arcadian view and standing out from all its surroundings.

In February I answered a call sent out to artists working with VIDA.  (I have a shop, click HERE.) The call asked American artists to share one piece of work that speaks of the artist's vision for the future.  I immediately thought of this image.  To be outdoors, to protect greenspaces, and to encourage children to get outside are all important. This photo was selected from over one thousand artwork submissions to be part of a special collection offered by VIDA on Home Shopping Network. 

The collection will air on HSN July 6, 9-10pm.  DVR it if you cannot watch.  The stories and inspirations of the artists will be shared with the work.

Item #550-335