Sigh, no fresh studio treats today, kids. Just crusty leftovers, slightly blue, even (which I guess is fine for pictures and some cheeses). If it were dinner I might call it tilt. An old Winnipeger taught me the word. You just tilt the fridge and whatever comes out, well that's dinner. In this case we have studio tilt. I was busy putting finishing touches on studio stuff; making tags, and generally trying to create order from chaos for a couple of upcoming shows. Two birds, no stones.
So we're looking at a somewhat focus challenged shot taken on the same ferry ride as the "Push" photo of a few days ago. You can see the reflection of me in my dorky hat which I have succumbed to wearing for extended sun stays. There's a few things going on here that I like. I am text obsessed and slightly reflection obsessed so it's more about obsession than photography. And quite unintentionally the shot is out of focus. But in the end I think that blurry , fogginess is just a perfect part of the statement. We're talking illusions here, tricks of the mind. What is real? What's reflected back to us? How often does our confusion or fogginess prevent us from seeing the truth? Who knew a 45 minute ferry ride could offer so much Dharma?
I liked the "surface may be" text. Seems very zen. It hints at illusion, don't you think? Surface may be. We don't know for sure. Surface may not be. It begs the question what's real and what's not? Is this world a dream? Do we create our own reality? It's pretty subjective when you get right down to it. What we think, what we expect, what we believe all influence (or should I say create) our reality. If you believe the someone can cast a spell on you and cause your death, this could be your reality. If you expect you are going to have a bad day, what happens to you? Do you set up some kind of energetic domino effect? How powerful are your thoughts? How powerful are our emotions? Do we draw similar energy to us?
I will end with a poetic quote from Dogen: "To what shall I liken this world
Moonlight, reflected
In Dewdrops
Shaken From A Crane's Bill
Love it! You peeking over the camera made my heart smile :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a powerful statement this picture makes! And your questions too! Wonderful to meditate on.
What emerged for me in the questions themselves was a statement: what is real is what's reflected back to us. Now I don't know how true that is, but it emerged here. And then a question followed: Who *is* looking back at us in the reflection?
Wonderful piece - as usual... :) C
I am a firm believer in what you ask:
ReplyDelete"Do we create our own reality?" and "How often does our confusion or fogginess prevent us from seeing the truth?"
It's a daily process to work through all the illusions and understand what's beneath the surface.