Tuesday, October 19, 2010

In Search of Telluris Vultus

In Search of........... the keys, a mate, a friend, a job,
 a car, the other sock, the salt, the salsa in the fridge, a good cup of coffee in Iowa,
 the remote, once found something worth watching, something to wear,  . Most of us have a search going on some where.   I'm searching for more things we search for. You can find anything on Craig's list.  




Everybody's searching for something.









This summer my travels led to Britt, Ontario Canada. I was here for a purpose, to find Telluris Vultus. Earth Faces. I had vision for more reflections, more art. It was also about the adventure in the quest, the discovery on the path. 








After paddling all day in unfamiliar waters, I started searching for a place to camp. I hadn't seen what I had come to Georgian Bay to find yet. Like fishing, patience is key.
The question was still there, "Am I in the right location?"  I had been paddling around in circles I think. I had scouted the area as best as I could and wasn't finding what I was looking for. I knew where I was by map, but that sense of being close to my purpose and not finding was haunting me. It was during this time that I entered into a stillness on the water. I caught the shift in purpose and my focus changed. This seemed like a sanctuary. 


The stillness, the quite, the evening when the light is just right. I paddled so quite I could only hear the small dripping of the water off the paddle as I slowly made my way into a multi canyon area. I saw a raccoon at the waters edge watching me. A mink swam across small channel with a fish in his mouth. I had seen bears earlier that day and wanted to see one in this area. This was rich, light, stillness, reflections, animals. I wound my way through the rocky areas finding the reflections I was searching for.



At last he sun did drop and the sound of a thousand hungry mosquitoes gave me amazing speed in setting up my tent. The sun heated rocks were like a sauna as I lay in the dark under the rain fly. This was a sweat lodge.  I tried to undo the rain fly by a tiny hand hold in the netting. I was bombarded by mosquito bites and realized I might just have to sweat it out that night. It wasn't a restful sleep. 
I reviewed the days photo shots that night to the drone of bugs. I did my work, I focused on my purpose. I was rewarded for my efforts. Putting a price on art has not been an easy task, but through that experience I  found out how to price art by the misery you endure. Hard, hot rocks, mosquitoes, no breeze,  That evening cost me something.



In search of Telluris Vultus    Part 2 Next Week



"Vision is the art of seeing things that are not seen." John Mason, from " You're born an Original don't die a copy!"
Then art must be the result of acting on an inner vision.






"
Artists are magical helpers. Evoking symbols and motifs that connect us to our deeper selves, they can help us along the heroic journey of our own lives.   The artist is meant to put the objects of this world together in such a way that through them you will experience that light, that radiance which is the light of our consciousness and which all things both hide and, when properly looked upon, reveal. The hero journey is one of the universal patterns through which that radiance shows brightly. What I think is that a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There's always the possibility of a fiasco. But there's also the possibility of bliss" Joseph Campbell "Pathways to Bliss"




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